In December I raised alarm that racism against Muslims was being deprioritised and treated as less important than other forms of racism in NUS. See here.

Many students' unions and some NEC members joined me in objecting to the decision of NUS steering committee, which governs NUS Conference – to exclude discussion on Islamophobia from the 'Student Rights and Welfare Zone' despite including all other text on issues of racism in this debate. The Student Rights and Welfare Zone contains motions opposing the fascist BNP, racist attacks and murders, anti-Semitism and attacks on asylum rights.

According to the published revised motions document and correspondence sent to students' unions, a majority of those attending the recent meeting of NUS steering committee upheld the original decision to exclude racism against Muslims from the Student Rights and Welfare debate. Most of the text remains excluded while some of the motions originally excluded have been moved to the 'Society and Citizenship' debate – which has consistently come lower down in the priority ballot than Student Rights and Welfare.

I have once again raised my objections to this treatment of anti-Muslim racism –Islamophobia – as a second class form of racism. I believe that opposing all forms of racism should be a priority.

I have been assured that this will now be changed, that the motions will all be included under Student Rights and Welfare and that an 'addendum' to the motions document will be published by Friday.

This means that any colleges wishing to submit text opposing racism including Islamophobia should do so in the Student Rights and Welfare Zone.

If it does not prove to be the case that an addendum is sent out then I will be calling an emergency NEC to ensure that NUS takes a strong stance against this decision by the majority of steering committee.

I am also calling for the deadline for submission of amendments to be extended.

With just two weeks to go before the amendments deadline much of the text on Islamophobia is yet to be published! Even if the addendum is published on Friday, in many students' unions the necessary meeting dates and deadlines will already have passed.

It is not acceptable for Black, Jewish or Muslim students to be discriminated against in this way by an NUS body.

All of the motions relating to Islamophobia should be included in their entirety in the Student Rights and Welfare debate and the deadline for submission of amendments extended on account of this mess.

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