Wednesday 27 February 2013

Activism Works: Reading University Disinvites Cleric.

The Imam of Green Lane Mosque in Birmingham,  Abu Usamah at-Thahabi, was due to speak at Reading University tomorrow as part of Islamic Awareness Week. However, his invitation had to be withdrawn today under circumstances related by the Reading Chronicle (hat-tip to EastAnglianDivision):

Protest threats force Islamic preacher to drop university date

AN INVITATION to Islamic preacher Abu Usamah at-Thahabi to speak at Reading University tomorrow night was withdrawn tonight after threats of violent protest from extremist groups.

The preacher was due to address the university's Muslim Society at the Palmer Building - one of a series of talks designed to raise awareness of Islam as a faith as part of its Discover Islam Week.

But members of a campaign group calling itself Student Rights, claiming that Abu Usamah is ant-gay [sic], issued a call for demonstrators to assemble outside the venue 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the event.

Tonight University spokesman Alex Brannen issued a statement saying that the event had been cancelled because the "safety of students, members, staff and visitors is of paramount importance".

The full statement read: " Reading University Muslim Society, Reading University Students Union (RUSU) and the University of Reading are in agreement that the laudable aims of the Muslim Society's Discover Islam Week are undermined by the increasing threat of violent protest from extremist groups outside the University community.

"A careful assessment of the threat to the events on Wednesday and Thursday evening have led all three organisations to reluctantly agree to the cancellation of these talks.

"Our priority is to the safety of all those who had planned to attend or to peacefully protest outside the talk and we are very disappointed that we have had to take this course of action. However, the safety of our students, members, staff and visitors is of paramount importance.

"Both the University and RUSU are committed to supporting the Muslim Society in its aims of raising awareness of Islam and building mutual understanding. We are delighted that other events in the week's programme will be going ahead as planned.

"As part of the review of these events, the University has agreed to work with RUSU to ensure its policies reflect the need to protect the principles of freedom of speech in balance with the rights of all constituent parts of the student community.

"The University is committed to upholding both the right to free speech and the right to lawful protest within an environment that guarantees the safety of all users of our campuses."

Let us have a look at a few things this personage has vouchsafed to his public in the past to see just how 'laudable' the aims of the Reading University Muslim Society can be in their efforts to 'build mutual understanding' shall we?

No one loves the kuffar. No one loves the kuffar, not a single person here from the muslims loves the kuffar, whether those kuffar are from the UK or from the US. We love the people of Islam and we hate the people of kufr. We hate the kuffar.

I don't believe them as they are kuffar, and lying is part of their religion. These kuffar, they do whatever they want to do.

If you leave off the prayer out of negligence, then you are a kaffir. If he dies like that you have to bury him with the kuffar. You can't marry him.

So much for building mutual understanding, your typical Islamic hatred & supremacism as we've come to expect. But we can take heart from the fact that people out there are active & aware & have made their presence known in Reading, at least. It is, this time, the press that is out of step referring to the protesters as extremists.

People are waking up, speaking up & showing up those who would presume to lecture the rest of us.

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