An ardent anti-Islam activist has been banned from speaking at Warwick University after organisers were told she was “highly inflammatory and could incite hatred”.
Maryam Namazie, an Iranian-born campaigner against Shariah law, had been invited to speak to the Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists Society next month. But the student union blocked the event, telling the society that Namazie’s appearance could violate its external speaker policy.
In an email to the society’s president, Benjamin David, a student union official said the decision had been taken “because after researching both her [Namazie] and her organisation, a number of flags have been raised”.
It went on: “We have a duty of care to conduct a risk assessment for each speaker who wishes to come to campus. There a number of articles written both by the speaker and by others about the speaker that indicate that she is highly inflammatory, and could incite hatred on campus.
The student union’s policy says external speakers are “not permitted to encourage, glorify or promote any acts of terrorism” or “spread hatred and intolerance in the community” and “must seek to avoid insulting other faiths or groups”.
Namazie said she hoped to go ahead with the event if Warwick changed its mind. “The student union seems to lack an understanding of the difference between criticising religion, an idea or a far-right political movement on the one hand and attacking and inciting hate against people on the other,” she wrote on her blog. “Inciting hatred is what the Islamists do; I and my organisation challenge them and defend the rights of ex-Muslims, Muslims and others to dissent.”
The student union said that as a charity it was required to conduct risk assessments of any external speakers proposed by its societies. “It is crucial to note, however, that the decision-making process is currently incomplete, and a final decision on this issue will be reached by the organisation’s most senior members of staff in the coming days,” it said in a statement.
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“The initial decision was made in deference to the right of Muslim students not to feel intimidated or discriminated against on their university campus … rather than in the interests of suppressing free speech or freedom of expression.”
Namazie is the spokesperson for “One Law for All”, a group that campaigns against Shariah law, and a member of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and the Worker-Communist party of Iran. She is widely regarded within the Muslim community as an Islamophobe who indiscriminately targets the Muslim community, as well as attacking mainstream normative Islamic views and practices.
On social media, Namazie’s followers and supporters vary from secular liberals, atheists, neocons to far-right Islamophobes.
