Freedom of Speech in London 2013

This video is from London's School of Oriental And African Studies (SOAS) aka School of Organised Anti-Semitism where a speaker, Mohamed El-Nabawy, had to be ushered off stage by security guards when around 30 demonstrators stormed a lecture theatre. Mr El-Nabawy has ties to the Tamarod group which opposed ex President Mohammed Morsi and played a key role in the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Morsi in June this year.

SOAS and who is accorded the benefit of freedom of speech and who is not...

Providing private tuition to Mutassim Gaddafi, the National Security Advisor to the Gaddafi regime - no problem.

Giving ex-Pakistan dictator General Pervez Musharraf to speak to students despite being accused of complicity in murder, warcrimes and more - no problem.

Inviting al-Qaeda's Anwar al-Awlaki to speak - no problem.

Giving a platform to Palestinian academic Azzam Tamimi who has advocated suicide bombing, has told students he “longs to be a martyr” and that Israel “must come to an end” - no problem.

I could go on and on with the examples of 'no problem'; but some of SOAS's students found their limit this week when as The Standard reports, they 'stormed a university building and demonstrated against David Willets speaking on their campus... a student of politics and persian, said: "We were demonstrating against tuition fees, cuts and changes that are to be made to the education system."'

So allowing supporters of terrorism to speak is fine but a Conservative minister; no way.

It could be that the protester quoted above also protested against one or more of the above named speakers. It could be that there were equally vehement protests against the above four speakers. It could be; but somehow I doubt it.

What money can buy you

The JC has a special report by Martin Bright that reveals that:

'The country’s most prestigious university for the study of the Middle East provided one-to-one English tuition to Mutassim Gaddafi, the son of the Libyan dictator, who acts as his national security adviser. It also hosts the controversial Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi on the editorial board for its Journal of Islamic Studies.

The information from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies is contained in an answer to a Freedom of Information request from Harlow MP Robert Halfon, and Student Rights, an organisation that tackles extremism on campus.

The college confirmed that Mr Gaddafi received private tuition at SOAS for a four-week period in 2006, for which the college received £5,500. The SOAS response also confirms that a distance-learning deal was struck with Al-Fateh University in Libya, just months before the Arab Spring uprisings, in which SOAS received £148,000 for course materials and teaching.

A report from Student Rights, based on the disclosures, shows that SOAS also received donations of £755,000 from the Saudi royal family over the past four years. That money was used to fund the college’s Islamic Studies Centre, and a Journal of Islamic Studies. The editorial board of the journal includes Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has supported suicide bombings and acts as the spiritual inspiration for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone caused outrage when he invited Sheikh al-Qaradawi to London in 2004. He has since been refused entry and is also banned from the United States and Israel. In February he returned to Egypt where he led Friday prayers on Tahrir Square.'

So how do the university defend their association with a supporter of suicide bombings, the supporter of a terrorist organisation (Hamas) and a man with rather less than tolerant attitudes towards homosexuals? For more about Yusuf al-Qaradawi take a read here and here.

'The university has issued a lengthy response to the Student Rights report. On the issue of Sheikh Al-Qaradawi’s membership of the editorial board of a journal hosted by SOAS, it said: “Professor Yusuf al-Qaradawi and some other editorial advisers from the Middle East only advise on the Arabic section of the Journal, and not on the English section. His academic peers and Muslim scholars in the UK and across the globe consider him to be one of the most outstanding scholars of the Quran in the Arabic and Islamic world. No political or other consideration was involved in asking him to be on the board.”

It added that comments attributed to Yusuf al-Qaradawi in the Student Rights report, endorsing suicide bombings and the killing of pregnant women were “not compatible with SOAS’s values, or our views on hate speech, and would not be allowed on campus”.'

Does that seem adequate to you? Are SOAS really sayoing that so long as Yusuf al-Qaradawi doesn't make his vile comments on their campus then they don't care what he says elsewhere? Does that mean that they would invite a KKK representative to sit on a board at SOAS so long as he didn't speak out against blacks on campus?

I won't comment on the part of the article about Saudi money because it's all too predictable as Saudi money seems to buy support, or at least lack of opposition from SOAS. Value for £200,000+ a year and some gold cufflinks.

Once again there is the matter of who is a 'moderate' in Islam:

'The lion’s share of the funding went to the Islamic Studies Centre at SOAS, which is headed by Professor Mohammed Abdel Haleem, who also edits the Journal of Islamic Studies. Professor Haleem is widely regarded as a moderate and received an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2008.

However, he is also a trustee of the Saudi-funded King Fahad Academy in East London, which was discovered to have used textbooks describing Christians as “pigs” and Jews as “apes”.

Fellow trustees include the Saudi ambassador, Prince Mohammed al-Saud, and several other members of the Saudi diplomatic mission. In 2007, the school’s principal, Dr Sumaya Alyusuf admitted on the BBC’s Newsnight programme that the textbooks were used, but said the passages concerned had been misinterprested. At the time, Jewish MP Louise Ellman said the school was part of a concerted initiative by the Saudi government to instill extremism in the UK Muslim population.'

I am not sure how those passages could be 'misinterpreted', perhaps someone could explain to this 'ape'!

The article concludes thus:

'The revelations will be deeply embarrassing to SOAS, which has worked hard to allay its image as a centre of Islamist activism.

SOAS fiercely denied that the Saudi donations compromised academic freedom or bought influence. Its spokesman insisted: “SOAS goes to great lengths to ensure that academic and editorial decisions are made with integrity. We do not permit donors or funders to influence academic work (research content or teaching) or the selection of academic staff, scholarships or any other students.”'

I like that wording 'SOAS, which has worked hard to allay its image as a centre of Islamist activism.'. Not 'SOAS, which has worked hard to not be a centre of Islamist activism' just allaying the image not the fact. As for the rest, judge for yourselves.

Hating Israel and Jews on the streets of London

Israelly Cool alerts me to a horrific piece of news, I quote from the StandWithUs press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 21, 2011

STANDWITHUS CONDEMNS ANTI-JEWISH HATE SPEECH AND VIOLENT ATTACK AT SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
 
SOAS SHOULD UPHOLD FREE SPEECH AND BAR INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE AND ANTI-SEMITISM MARCH 20

A small number of pro-Israel protestors, including supporters of StandWithUs, participated in a peaceful protest against the “Celebrate Palestine Festival” event held at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS] on March 20th. The event included calls for boycotting Israel and libeling it as an “Apartheid” country.

The pro-Israel protesters were standing at the university, with signs behind them pointing out that Israel is the opposite of an ‘apartheid’ country and calling for a peaceful two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. They peacefully discussed these issues with attendees, only once approached by people. The police had given them permission to be there.

Anti-Israel activists then engaged them in conversation. One man verbally assaulted them with anti-Semitic slurs, saying, “the best thing that Jews have ever done was to go into the gas chambers.  It was the best thing to happen to Germany to have been cleaned of Jews.  The same thing needs to happen in the Middle East.”  Another anti-Israel activist then punched and bit a Jewish member of the group, who was hospitalized.  This was an unprovoked attack.  His attacker was later arrested by police.

StandWithUs unequivocally condemns the disgusting act of violence against peaceful Israel supporters on the SOAS campus. The attacker evidently was spurred on by the hate-filled, one-sided event taking place at SOAS.

“I am totally shaken and distressed by what happened. One of the most disturbing things is that the people involved, fearing negative publicity…started accusing us shouting, “how dare you come here? It’s a Celebrate Palestine event, you knew what would happen. You asked for it.’ I didn’t think I would ever get to a stage in which I would feel like a Jew in Nazi Germany, and I don’t say it lightly,” reported StandWithUs-UK Coordinator Gili Brenner who was one of the pro-Israel demonstrators.

“It is unacceptable that violent rhetoric by Palestinian supporters spills over into violent actions. We expect the university to condemn this attack and those who incited it. Universities must have a policy of zero tolerance policy for hate speech and anti-Semitism. They should carefully monitor incendiary events like ‘Celebrate Palestine’ to ensure that hate speech, violence, and suppression of free speech do not occur,” said Michael Dickson, StandWithUs-Israel Director who was in London during the incident.

“Unfortunately, the kind of blatant anti-Semitism, bigotry, and incitement to hatred that occurred at SOAS  lurk at the bottom of far too many anti-Israel events on campuses. They frequently become a toxic brew that can lead to physical violence as they did in this case.  They also prevent any serious discussion of the issues, and often lead to intimidation and the suppression of free speech, as they did in London,” said Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs.

“It is unthinkable that in the UK people can be prevented from peacefully demonstrating and expressing their opposition to incitement, hatred and blatant anti-semitism which, given the outrageous comments about Jews this undoubtedly was. It is important that the right to challenge anti-Israel events be protected, and Israel’s supporters must not be intimidated or silenced by the mindless violence that occurred on Sunday,” commented Joy Wolfe, UK Chairman of StandWithUs.

 Yes you did read that correctly  'Another anti-Israel activist then punched and bit a Jewish member of the group, who was hospitalized'. This attacker was arrested I hope that they throw the book at him but no doubt he will be excused because he was provoked by having to seee Jews at a SOAS event.

This story does link with the news of the recent murder of five members of the Fogel family in Israel:
'Meanwhile, this should also indicate to you what kind of people these “anti-Israel” protesters are:

When someone erected a placard with photos of the massacred Fogel family it was immediately surrounded and covered up by a Palestinian flag. Anti-Israel protesters were parroting the line from Palestinian Authority affiliated news agencies that the massacre at Itamar was committed by a Thai worker.

Notice the “man” on the right, smiling as he hides the photo of a murdered family.
If you still feel that these protesters are solely motivated by a genuine feeling that Palestinians have been unfairly treated by Israel, I doubt even a bite on your cheek would wake you from your stupor.'

Two further points; first if a pro-Israeli protester had attacked a pro-Palestinian protester at a London University then somehow I think the BBC would have covered the story but as this is a **** bit Jew story, not a word from tat organisation. Second I have blogged about SOAS before, take a look, and do wonder about an 'educational' establishment that has taken money from Saudi Arabia and the even more unpleasant Iranian regime. I wonder how the Point of No Return will be received at SOAS this week and whether the anti-Israeli faction will be able to keep their mouths shut or whether Jewish face will be on the menu again?

The Forgotten Refugees

I know that I have blogged about this subject before, most recently here and here but until I can get back to proper blogging here's some video to get you thinking. Do please pass it onto any BBC propagandists that you know.

The video is The David Project's 'The Forgotten Refugees'

Part 1 sets out some background and explains what Islam means by a dhimmi in principle and in practice. Also the incidence of anti-Semitic hatred before 1967 and indeed 1948. The tales of Jews in Iraq strike many chords with me. However what I find very interesting is that the linkage between the Mufti and Hitler is repeated. This set me thinking as many of those on the left who even now attack the Daily Mail for having supported Hitler in the 1930s & therefore as being beyond the pale are quite happy to support the Palestinians whose leaders are the followers of people who fought alongside Hitler....

'A film about the mass exodus of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa in the 20th century

Produced by The David Project for Jewish Leadership and Isra TV, The Forgotten Refugees explores the history, culture, and forced exodus of Middle Eastern and North African Jewish communities in the second half of the 20th century. Using extensive testimony of refugees from Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, and Morocco the film recounts the stories - of joy and suffering - that nearly one million individuals have carried with them for so long. The film weaves personal stories with dramatic archival footage of rescue missions, historic images of exodus and resettlement, and analyses by contemporary scholars to tell the story of how and why the Jewish population in the Middle East and North Africa declined from one million in 1945 to several thousand today.

The Forgotten Refugees has helped raise awareness about this important period of Jewish and world history; an issue which has been tragically ignored in the media, world politics, and educational programs. On June 19, 2007, a fifteen minute version of The Forgotten Refugees was shown before the United States Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which convened for a special hearing on the mass violations of human rights of Jews under Islamic regimes in Arab Countries throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf Region.

On March 31, 2008, the first-ever Resolution recognizing the rights of The Forgotten Refugees was adopted by the United States House of Representatives. The Resolution asks the President to ensure that when the issue of Middle East refugees is discussed in international forums, U.S. representatives will ensure that any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees is matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees.

The Forgotten Refugees has been screened at over twenty international film festivals, a dozen of television stations and numerous synagogues, churches and campuses. The Forgotten Refugees won the award for Best Documentary at the 2007 Marbella International Film Festival and the Best Feature Documentary Award at the 2006 Warsaw Jewish Film Festival.'

Part 2 explains why 'Jews are the dogs of the Arabs' and tells some horrific tales of anti-Jewish pogroms in Libya. Compare the tented camps that the Jewish refugees to Israel built & moved out of to the the refugee camps that the Palestinians still live in because their Arab brethren would rather they suffered so as to be a stick with which to beat Israel. Look also at the figures for how many Jews lived in Iraq in 1944 compared with 2004 (144,000 to 14), Egypt (80,000 to 40), Algeria (140,000 to 80) and Yemen (55,000 to 100). As well as the so called Jew friendly North African countries which certain British Jews think are trendy to visit: Morocco 285,000 to 5,000, Tunisia 105,000 to 1,500 and on and on and on.



It seems that the Jews who lived in Arab countries, many of whom were expelled from their homes, losing all their property and much of their possessions made a new life in Israel and so are forgotten by the world whilst the Palestinians who left their homes so the Arab armies of 1948 could destroy the newly reborn Israel still live in refugee camps and occupy so much of the attention of the world's media and trans-national organisations.


I have compared the way that Palestinian refugees are treated with those of other conflicts before but here is an extract from a speech that I think covers much of the same ground in an interesting manner:

'At the end of World War II, there were 50 million refugees. Today, all the refugee problems dating from before the 1950s have been solved. All, except one — the problem of the Palestinians.

Why did this problem not get solved? The reason is simple: Because the Arab countries did not allow it to get solved. And because Islam does not allow it to get solved.

In May 1948, the number of Jews in the Arab countries was estimated to be close to 1 million. Today, fewer than 8,000 Jews are left in the entire Arab world. In 1948, the Arab countries forced the Jews out and confiscated their properties. More Jews fled the Arab countries than Arabs fled Israel. Where are the Jewish refugee camps? There are none.

So, why are there refugee camps for Palestinians in areas surrounding Israel? Because the Palestinians were not welcomed in the neighboring Arab countries. There was no Arab solidarity; the refugees were forced into camps and slums, where many of their descendants still linger today.



Instead of blaming the inhospitable Arab regimes, many blame Israel.

Neisse rivers, the Hungarians who fled Transsylvania, the Greeks who were ejected from the Aegean coast of Anatolia, the Hindus who fled the Punjab.

With each generation, the resentment of these refugees and their descendants slowly fades away. Time heals all wounds. Acceptance of the new situation is the norm.

Islam, however, conditions Muslims to hate Jews. It is a religious duty to do so. Israel must be destroyed because it is the homeland of the Jews.

Influential Islamic scholars, such as Muhammad Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo, the most prestigious center of Muslim learning, call Jews “enemies of Allah.” Tantawi, who died last March (this speech was given in December 2010), was generally considered a moderate by the Western media and policy makers. But how did this “moderate” address a delegation of Palestinian Muslims who visited him in 2002?

He urged them to intensify suicide attacks against Israelis, stating that every so-called “martyrdom operation” against — I quote — “any Israeli, including children, women, and teenagers, is a legitimate act according to [Islamic] religious law, and an Islamic commandment, until the people of Palestine regain their land.” — end of quote.

Nizar Qabbani, one of the most revered poets in the Arab world, praised the madness of those who are blinded by an ideology of hatred. In his poem Ode to the Intifada, he wrote: “O mad people of Gaza, A thousand greetings to the mad. The age of political reason has long departed. So teach us madness.”

That is the nature of the Islamic enemies confronting the Jews — sheer madness.

Israel, on the other hand, is a beacon of light; it is like a Hanukkah menorah whose lights have been kindled in a region that until 1948 was engulfed by darkness.

Friends, Israel is not to blame for the situation in the Middle East. The problem is Islam’s rejection of Israel’s right to exist. Only last month (November 2010), Fatah concluded its convention in Ramallah by declaring its blatant refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.'

The speech was given by Geert Wilders in Tel Aviv in December 2010 - thanks to Gates of Vienna for the spot.


Next week London's School of Oriental and African Studies will be showing the above film, Point of No Return has details of this, I predict problems as SOAS students seem to be almost as anti-Israel as those at the LSE. Oy Va Goy also has some interesting  thoughts on this matter.

What is going on in some of London's Universities?

Harry's Place has two very interesting pieces up this week. This piece relates how:

"University College London Union has defied calls to cancel a provocative talk organised by the Ahlul Bayt Islamic Society, stoking up anger from students and the Iranian ex-patriot community who accuse the University of fermenting Islamic extremism and implicitly condoning the brutal actions of the regime in Iran.

Entitled, 1979 – The Revolution that Shook the World, the event takes place on the 11th of February, coinciding with expected protests and possible fatalities in Iran on the penultimate day of the 11 Days of Dawn, which mark the return of Ayatollah Khomeini and the 1979 revolution.

Attending, the guest speakers include Islamic convert Yvonne Ridley from the controversial Iranian state-owned 24-hour broadcaster Press TV, which is currently under an Ofcom investigation for breaching the code of conduct.

More controversially still, the event has earmarked a seat for Dr Mohammad Marandi from Tehran University. Marandi has stated his support for the execution of protesters, and recently condoned the execution of Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour who was aged as young as 19, saying on Al Jazeera “there isn’t much sympathy for these two people.”

...

Revelations of this latest controversy come hot on the heels of damaging allegations that UCL is rife with Islamic extremism, following the failed terrorist bombing on Christmas Day by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who studied at UCL and was the president of the Islamic Society in 2006-2007, the second Islamic society at UCL alongside Ahlul Bayt.

An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph in January disclosed the number of radical Islamic preachers who’ve attended talks held in the Darwin Lecture theatre, which ironically include “Muslim radicals who have challenged the theory of evolution”.

Of the keynote speakers invited, one had “suggested that homosexuals and opponents of Islam should be killed”, reports The Telegraph. Abu Usamah, a preacher at Birmingham’s Green Lane mosque had been filmed in a 2007 Channel Four documentary, where he praised Osama bin Laden and said: “If I were to call homosexuals perverted, dirty, filthy dogs who should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech, isn’t it?”"

And this piece relates how:

"earlier this week ... two SOAS academics were pictured receiving awards from President Ahmadinejad. SOAS is one of those universities that have also previously accepted cash from the Iranian government...

One of those academics who met Ahmadinejad recently was Mohammad Abdel Haleem, King Fahd Professor of Islamic Studies at the Department of the Languages and Cultures of Near and Middle East, and Director of the Centre of Islamic Studies at SOAS. This Centre was set up following a £1m donation from the Saudi government, specifically from King Fahd himself.

Haleem’s appointment at SOAS in June 1995 was a controversial one, coming in the context of thirty SOAS employees protesting the £1m donation that the university had received from King Fahd. One academic said at the time that ‘Saudi Arabia is known to have a certain agenda on Islam and there could be implications about accepting money from such a source’. However, according to Arabic newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, the academics were also angry that Haleem – who had been a lecturer at SOAS for several years – had been appointed to a professorship at the Centre without the post being advertised inside or outside the university. The reaction to the donations within SOAS led to the establishment of a working party in order to ‘codify the principles on working with sponsors’.

Haleem’s links to King Fahd go even further – he is also one of seven trustees at the Saudi-run King Fahd Academy, which offers primary and secondary school education and operates ‘under the support and supervision of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in London’. This academy got itself into a spot of bother in 2007 after admitting that it used textbooks that called Jews ‘apes’ and Christians ‘pigs’. Perhaps he was unaware of the content of the textbooks – yet his willingness to accept patronage from Ahmadinejad is undoubtedly a black mark on his record.

Equally culpable are those universities who accept donations from such regimes in the first place, of which SOAS is a clear example. In correspondence with them last year, SOAS told me that their donation from Iran came with ‘no strings attached’ and that ‘The donations from Iran and Saudi Arabia have had no detrimental impact on the University’. Yet this week, Durham University – who have recently accepted cash from Iran themselves – admitted that they have ‘taken steps…to sever all financial ties with…any representatives of the Iranian regime’, as ‘Iranian money comes with strings attached’.

SOAS has obviously managed to retain a better working relationship with the Islamic Republic than Durham. It will be interesting to see how the other British universities that Iran tells us it has been in negotiations with – specifically to fund Islamic studies programmes – gets on."

All is obviously well at SOAS and UCL and there is absolutely no way that Saudi Arabia or Iran could possibly be influencing policy at these two institutes of learning.

How evil; deporting illegal migrant workers.

LabourList report that:

"Students at SOAS have occupied the university in protest at the treatment of their cleaners. SOAS contracted their cleaning out to the private company ISS. Early on Friday 12th June ISS called a meeting ostensibly on sick pay. ISS and the SOAS management were hiding forty camouflage-clad Immigration and Border Police, who went on to arrest nine cleaners, four of whom have already been deported, one of whom was heavily pregnant. They were not allowed any legal or trade union representation."

So SOAS students are occupying their university in support for illegal economic migrants. I wonder if Johnny Darlington is involved.

Students; don't you just love them? Not all of those from SOAS, no. Here is a report on the anti-Israel sentiments openly expresses at SOAS -

"an article published in SOAS Spirit, the glossy student magazine. The article, "When Only Violence Will Do," scoffs at the concept of "innocent" Israeli victims, describes the whole of Israel as a Jewish colony that should be dismantled and calls for all Zionists to be "exposed.""