Anger at homophobic preacher’s welcome at London university
November 24th, 2009
Students at a London university are protesting the planned visit of an extremist Islamist preacher who encourages violence against gay people.
Abu Usamah has been invited to address the Islamic Society at University College London on 30 November 2009.
Usamah’s extremist views were exposed on a Channel Four documentary in 2007.
Abu Usamah’s views on homosexuality, as recorded on the documentary ‘Undercover Mosque’: “Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man …and throw him off the mountain… if I was to turn around and I was to call homosexuals perverted, dirty filthy dogs that should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech isn’t it?”
On girls who refuse to wear the hijab: “She should start hijab from the age of seven, by the age of ten it becomes an obligation on us to force her to wear hijab and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her.”
On women: “Allah has created the woman, even if she has a PhD, deficient. Her intellect is incomplete. Deficient. She may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional. It takes two witnesses of a woman to equal the one witness of the man.”
On Muslims who leave the faith: “Kill him in the Islamic state… if the Imam wants to crucify him, he should crucify him. The person is put up on the wood and he’s left there to bleed to death for three days.”
On 4 November Usamah was given a similar platform by City University.
“Providing publicity for extremists who preach hate risks not just freedom of speech, but all human rights, democracy and ultimately, the well-being of students at City University,” said a spokesperson for the City University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Society.
“We strongly oppose the decision to invite extremist Abu Usamah to speak at one of the largest lecture theatres at City University. Inviting such a controversial extremist who has previously expressed offensive views about homosexuals, women and non-Muslims to our university campus is morally and ethically wrong.
“Events such as this, led by a speaker who shares generally immoral views including homophobia, is likely to lead to an already increasing rise in hate crime in London.”
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell believes that the university Vice Chancellor should resign over the issue. “The university would never allow a lecture by a white supremacist who used racist abuse and advocated the murder of black people. Why the double standards?” said Tatchell.
“The Vice Chancellor of City University London, Julius Weinberg, should resign. He has ignored student’s complaints after the Islamic Society organised an on-campus meeting addressed by Abu Usamah.
“It is utterly disgraceful that the student’s union has defended the hosting of this hate preacher, and that the Vice Chancellor has not responded to protests from students. This violates the equal opportunities policies of the university and the student’s union.”
This is severely disappointing. We’ve already seen a 2% increase in hate crimes against minorities and gays in the US and I firmly believe this is a world wide increase. Free speech is free speech, but I think we have a moral responsibility to curtail who gets to hear the hate in a public university setting. It’s all about context so they can very well claim it to be a learning lesson, but on the surface we all know that hatred has a reach and every little bit adds fuel to an already burning fire.
knowledge ∼ November 24th, 2009 4:48 pmThe dude is an equal opportunity scum bag from a PC perspective while following what he believes to be the teachings of his religion. However, it is not up to us to silence our opposition but rather to interpret what they say. The focus should lie on learning that not everyone is PC and no one is required to be. If university students hear this man and fall at his feet then London has bigger problems then one speech will ever create.
galefan2004 ∼ November 25th, 2009 1:51 pm