Lecturer is threatened by Islamist students in London
ISLAMIST hardliners made death threats while trying to disrupt a human rights activist’s speech to students, it was claimed yesterday. Campaigner Maryam Namazie had to call security after six men wreaked havoc during her lecture on blasphemy at London’s Goldsmiths College.
The former Muslim, who fled her native Iran, was speaking at an Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society event on Monday.
The men, believed to be affiliated with the university’s Islamic Society (Isoc), allegedly banged the door and shouted over her as she spoke. One switched off the projector after she showed a cartoon of Muhammad alongside Christ. An audience member said an activist threatened him with a ‘gun gesture’.
Miss Namazie, 49, received a death threat on Twitter, reading: ‘Talk about Islam again and I’ll have your head f****** chopped off.’
She said: ‘Isoc “brothers” started coming into the room, repeatedly banging the door, falling on the floor and heckling me … They repeatedly walked back and forth in front of me. They were very intimidating. Everyone else was scared of them and just kept quiet.
‘I had to shout and walk away from the projector just to get my voice heard. They were clearly there to try to silence people.’
Before the talk, ‘Apostasy, blasphemy and free expression in the age of Isis’, Isoc insisted Miss Namazie should not be allowed to speak. They pointed to previous comments by her, including calling the veil a symbol of ‘farRight Islamism’ and the niqab a ‘bin bag’.
The group’s president wrote to the hosts, saying: ‘We feel having her present will be a violation to our safe space … all she will do is incite hatred and bigotry.’
When the lecture went ahead, a number of activists tried to disrupt it. The noise was so bad Miss Namazie called a security guard to remove one of the men, who was followed by others. A number of Muslim women listened to her talk and engaged in debate with her, with one even apologising for the disruption caused by the other students.
Miss Namazie said: ‘My speech was a defence of Muslims and non-Muslims to be able to live
‘Trying to silence
people’
as they choose … the right to criticise and leave Islam without fear … What happened at the event was worrying. This is the end of free speech unless we do something … Mere criticism is now considered to be inciting hatred.’
Goldsmiths Isoc accused the atheist group of ‘bullying, abuse and violence’ and called Miss Namazie a ‘vile Islamophobe’, denying any of its members made death threats. It added: ‘Muslim students who attended were shocked and horrified by statements made by Namazie, and peacefully expressed their dissent to the disrespectful cartoons.’
Miss Namazie is the latest to be targeted by university policies under which people can be ejected from events if they are considered to be ‘invading’ a student’s ‘safe space’. This might include racist, sexist or homophobic insults.
But some union officers take an extreme view on what is deemed ‘offensive’. A number of figures have fallen foul of the policy, including Germaine Greer and David Starkey.