If those facts are an insult to Islam
Another post by Benjamin David of Warwick ASH, this one with screenshots of his exchanges with the Student Union, to corroborate that they said what he said they did.
Here’s his reply to their message saying Sorry, nope.
I look forward to hearing from them too.
If they’re scared of extremists causing violence in response to Maryam Namazie, well that’s understandable. They should just say so. (A little bit cowardly, but, hell, I’m not putting my hand up to be a security guard at the venue.) But pretending that that she encourages hatred or violence is absurd. She doesn’t ‘incite’ hatred. Her existence might ‘provoke’ hatred – in the same way skin colour might provoke the KKK.
Where is the University administration in all this? Can they overturn the decision of the SU? Whilst the decision of the SU is appalling, i am surprised it has so much power over the decisions of university societies. Can a British commenter explain how this works to us non Brits?
Hi Brett. The Student’s Union is an entirely separate body to the University of Warwick (or any other university) and the latter has no control over it. The Student society, in this case, is under the jurisdiction of the Union, not the University.
#2 – it depends. There will be local factors such as whether the SU run their own building, what the relationship is between the SU and the University, and so on. There is legislation dating from the Thatcher era which theoretically requires universities to uphold free speech (the context was that right-wing speakers were being no-platformed). However, there is also legislation that requires universities to uphold safety, equality etc. University administrators, depending on local factors and the judgement of the individuals, might intervene in more or less subtle ways either to prevent an event or to make sure it goes ahead.
I just went to have a look at the Warwick SU to see if I could see how they are governed, and found this statement:
https://www.warwicksu.com/news/article/warwicksu/Warwick-SU-statement-on-Maryam-Namazie-speaker-request/
… which says that a final decision has not been taken.
That could indicate either that a final decision has indeed not been taken, or that they are finding a way out of the hole they dug themselves (the University itself might have called them in and had a word and suggested an elegant escape route).
Many speakers critical of Islam, no matter how reasoned and justified those criticism are, are now being subjected to these kinds of tactics. To threaten violence simply because you disagree with someone’s views and opinions will eventually result in the death of free speech and free thought. That university after university in both Europe and America capitulate for fear of causing offense is a pretty distressing state of affairs.
The institution denies their own cowardice by blaming the potential victim. This seems to be the option of choice for pseudo-progressive dhimmis and anti-Semites.
Orwell reported on a British pacifist in 1939 who declared: ‘how could we have let the Poles bring it to this?’
For those looking forward to the reply, I have been to the future! Get ready to be disappointed, it will just be boilerplate waffle alog the lines that saying nasty things about Islam is incitement, with nary a mention of the factual nature of said nasty things.
Oh, I’m not optimistic about the reply.
I worked at Warwick as a researcher for several years. I wouldn’t expect anything good out of the administration there, either the uni itself or the SU.