Our National Union of Students in the 2015 National Conference regrettably voted to affiliate to the jihadist-rights group CAGE, an organisation that has advocated for radical Islamist cleric Abu Hamza as well as Mohammed Emwazi, otherwise known as Jihadi John.

CAGE is led by Moazzam Begg and Asim Qureshi. Begg has had links with Islamist extremists for over 20 years and Qureshi has refused to condemn the stoning of adulteresses as has spoken at Hizb ut-Tahir rallies, an organisation that aims to establish a worldwide Caliphate.

NUS is hosting a talk series in Student Unions delivered by Begg. This comes almost a year after it refused to condemn ISIS because they believe it would lead to a rise in Islamophobia, which shamefully implicates Muslim students into having sympathies with them.

We believe it is wrong that our NUS which has a proud history of standing up for our liberal values and student rights has affiliated with this regressive, extremist group.

We demand that our NUS disaffiliates with this group immediately and we demand that it cuts off ties with Begg and Qureshi and NUS can continue doing the excellent work is does to tackle extremism on our campuses. Although, because it is a non-violent organisation, we do not believe it should be banned from our campuses, but rather should be challenged through a student discourse.

We demand the NUS amends its manifesto to remove CAGE as a human rights partner.