The NUS elected its first black female Muslim president and some people think she's antisemitic and soft on ISIS

NUS

Malia Bouattia

The National Union of Students made history on Wednesday by electing Malia Bouattia as its first black female Muslim president. The former University of Birmingham student - who served for two years as the union's black students' officer - defeated incumbent Megan Dunn to become the new head of the organisation which campaigns for students in the UK.

However, as major as Bouattia's achievement was, her campaign was tainted by accusations of antisemitism over comments in an article she co-authored in 2011 which described her former university as a "zionist outpost." The article was published on The London School of Emancipation website. In it, Bouattia and co-author Daniel Lindle said: 

The University of Birmingham is something of a Zionist outpost in British Higher Education. It also has the largest JSoc (Jewish Society) in the country whose leadership is dominated by Zionist activists.

Separately, she made a speech that talked about "mainstream Zionist-led media outlets," a phrase of the type often repeated by antisemitic conspiracy theorists who believe - falsely - that the media is controlled by the Jews.  

Last week, 56 heads of Jewish university societies penned an open letter to Bouattia, requesting her to clarify her position on antisemitism, including claims made in the article. The letter accused the new NUS president of promoting the "politics of division," and asked: "Why do you see a large Jewish Society as a problem?"

Bouattia published a lengthy response on her Twitter account last week. In the statement, she said: "I do not now, nor did I five years ago when I contributed to the article cited in your letter see a large Jewish Society on campus as a problem. I celebrate the ability of people and students of all backgrounds to get together and express their backgrounds and faith openly and positively, and will continue to do so.

She added: "I want to be clear that for me to take issue with Zionist politics, is not me taking issue with being Jewish. In fact, Zionist politics are held by people from a variety of different backgrounds and faiths as are anti-Zionist politics."

Bouattia also belonged to a group of NUS members which rejected a motion to condemn Islamic State in 2014 because it believed the language of the proposal exacerbated the issue of Islamophobia, according to The Independent. The motion called on British students "to condemn the IS and support Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention." Bouattia reportedly said, "We recognise that condemnation of Isis appears to have become a justification for war and blatant islamophobia. This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend."

Daniel Cooper, the union member who initiated the motion, said in a report that it had been rejected for "astonishing and bewildering reasons," and said identity politics was "strangling" student politics. The failure of the NUS to pass the motion was widely reported by national media - including The Sun, which headlined its story "Looniversity."

In December, Bouattia wrote a blog post opposing the government's "PREVENT" campaign, which imposes a legal duty on educational institutions to report suspected terrorist activity. She believes it has resulted in an ideological witch hunt against students who become suspected terrorists "on the weakest of grounds." 

Four of Oxford's six NUS delegates have called for the university to cut all ties with the union after the election of Bouattia, according to student newspaper The Cherwell. Their intention was announced on Facebook on Thursday and has been liked over 400 times.

The status read: "Today, we no longer believe that Oxford's membership of the NUS can be justified. The point of a union for students is to deliver real representation for all students, and what has occurred this conference shows that this is no longer a priority for those who hold power in the NUS."

Students at leading universities across the country including Cambridge, Edinburgh and Durham are considering disaffiliation plans of their own, according to The Telegraph. 

Bouattia told the Guardian on Wednesday that she hoped to overcome her critics in the first few weeks of her presidency. She said: "I am always focused now on how to move forward, to mobilise students. One of the most important steps is to meet with everyone, to talk about these concerns, to heal the divisions and take on the issues, to build a strong and transformative union."