Warwick welcomes Maryam to speak
A win!
Warwick says procedures weren’t followed, and apologizes, and says hell yes Maryam can speak.
In the last few days we have all seen much debate, and considerable concern, expressed about an application to Warwick Students’ Union made by the Warwick Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society, that an SU society host the campaigner and blogger Maryam Namazie as an external speaker.
Warwick SU has a process for assessing any potential risks or legal issues associated with any external speaker, and it is now very clear to us that in this case that process has not been followed. Speaker invitations that may involve such issues are routinely considered by the SU President, who will also take advice from senior SU staff. This did not happen on this occasion. Neither the SU President, nor senior SU staff, were consulted as they should have been. This is a significant error for which there can be no excuse. There is a great deal that we now must put right, and these are the first steps that we are putting into place:
1) The proper process has now been followed, as it should have been in the first place. The application by the Warwick Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society for Warwick Students’ Union to host Maryam Namazie as an external speaker has now been considered and approved.
2) The SU is now seeking to meet promptly with the leadership of the Warwick Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society to make the necessary arrangements for the event to take place in the format they have requested.
3) Warwick SU will issue an unequivocal apology to Maryam Namazie for this egregious and highly regrettable error.
And they’ll look at what went wrong and fix it.
Making a fuss worked this time!
It’s possible that the fuss wasn’t necessary, but nothing had happened until the fuss got going, so it’s possible that nothing would have gone on happening without a fuss.
Anyway – a win!
:-)
Just because I’m in awe of her courage: Classic (inflammatory!) Maryam Namazie moment, incl. standing ovation by Dawkins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgMaaL9UgoU
Wow! I expected a notpology at best — this clear response blows me away.
Meanwhile the petition is at 4800+ and growing.
Shit, that’s a great apology & mea culpa in itself. And it also contains the promise of another apology.
Good on Warwick!
Excellent!!!
Hmm what about the person who wrote that stupid weasley letter to Warwick ASH? That person embarrasses the university, at the least, and caused a big international fuss. That makes the university look like big doody heads. Not a good look for anyone.
I confess to being pleasantly surprised. Maybe I’m just a pessimist, but if I’d been asked to bet on the outcome, I’m not sure I’d have predicted it would go this way.
May it be a bellwether. May it herald that people are starting to get this. May not one more apostate be compelled to ‘accept their lot’ in stifled silence, nor smeared and sidelined as a bigot, merely for calling a ‘prophet’ on his bullshit, or pious, preening warlords on their intimidation and violence.
We’re still stuck with the fact that the SU’s default position has been to promote anti-Semitic conspiracy-mongers, and to reflexively grovel at the feet of Islamists.
Hard to make policies that can actually counter such deeply wrong-headed thinking.
I am very happy and relieved. It shows that sometimes reason wins.
I think Ophelia deserves a lot of credit for having stood unequivocally on Maryam’s side, unlike some bloggers who should know better. Well done.
Yes, well done, Ophelia – and well done to everyone who joined in and made a fuss. Those thousands of signatures didn’t write themselves!
And congratulations to the people at the SU who stood up and said – hang on, this is wrong, this isn’t the way we do things or should be doing things.