The National Union of Students has condemned a group that monitors extremist speakers on campus as an ¡°insidious¡± organisation whose work has led to ¡°witch hunts¡± against Muslims.

But Student Rights, which published a report in May 2013 that suggested a quarter of university Islamic society events it monitored had enforced gender segregation, has hit back and said the NUS condemnation has been pushed by a group which itself has links to Islamic extremists.

The NUS National Executive Committee passed the motion condemning the organisation on Tuesday.?

In a statement, Aaron Kiely, the NUS black students officer, said: ¡°The unanimous condemnation of Student Rights by the NUS National Executive Council is a big step forward in the fight against this insidious organisation that has led witch hunts of the Muslim community.

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¡°Student Rights are not a legitimate organisation, [they have] a total lack of transparency, and have been the source of many sensationalist stories demonising Muslims.¡±

Student Rights¡¯ report on gender segregation last year hit the headlines, and prompted a major political row after Universities UK released guidance in November that suggested that universities would legally have to allow gender segregation if a religious speaker demanded it.

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A group called Real Student Rights is coordinating a campaign against Student Rights and has already secured motions against the group by several university student unions.

On its , Student Rights said that the condemnation showed that the NUS was ¡°failing utterly to challenge extremism and hate-speakers¡±.

It alleged Real Student Rights had links to extremist speakers, including that the group had previously asked for support from Hamza Tzortzis, a speaker at the Islamic Education and Research Academy, which was banned from University College London for allegedly trying to segregate a debate by gender.

Given these links ¡°their motivation for attacking an organisation dedicated to keeping the kind of extremism and bigotry they look to promote off campus is obvious¡±, Student Rights said.

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¡°The NUS should be taken to task for having failed to perform even perfunctory background checks on the ¡®Real Students Rights¡¯ activists making their lurid claims,¡± the statement said.

Responding, Hilary Aked, a supporter of Real Student Rights and doctoral student at the University of Bath, said: ¡°Student Rights¡¯ response is predictably characterised by highly tenuous, immature mud-flinging and meaningless ¡®extremism¡¯ smears.¡±

david.matthews@tsleducation.com