A prominent human rights campaigner who was heckled during a lecture on blasphemy at Goldsmiths University has said universities should be “unsafe places” where ideas and beliefs are openly challenged.
Maryam Namazie’s comments follow concerns that universities are becoming too ‘sanitised’ and they follow a rise of bans on campus of those not considered politically correct from atheists to banning sombreros and excluding newspaper reporters.
Ms Namazie, who was initially banned from speaking at Warwick University but ended up speaking on campus, was giving a talk on Monday following an invitation from the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society (ASH).
Members of the Islamic Society had expressed their opposition to her talk entitled “Apostasy, blasphemy and free expression in the age of ISIS [Isil]” - arguing Ms Namazie should not be allowed to speak given her “bigoted views”.
The night before her talk the Islamist Society wrote to ASH to express their concerns regarding Ms Namazie’s talk
They said: “As an Islamic society, we feel extremely uncomfortable by the fact that you have invited Maryam Namazie. As you very well probably know, she is renowned for being Islamophobic, and very controversial.
“Just a few examples of her Islamophobic statements, she labelled the niqab, a religious symbol for Muslim women, ‘a flag for far-right Islamism’.
“Also, she went onto tweet, they are ‘body bags’ for women. That is just 2 examples of how mindless she is, and presents her lack of understanding and knowledge about Islam. I could go on for a while if you would like further examples.”
However, she went ahead with the talk but “brothers” of the university’s Islamic Society started coming into the auditorium and repeatedly banged the door, heckled he and shouted at her.
Ms Namazie, who fled her native Iran’s repressive government and now is a fierce campaigner against Islamic extremism, said: “They shut my projector, shouted over me, threw themselves on the floor. They created a climate of fear and intimidation. I spoke as loud as I could.
“Security had to come in to allow me to carry speaking and the same person who shut my projector came back into the room again. I shouted ‘you have to get out’ and security finally escorted him out.”
She said it was worrying that student unions were campaigning to keep universities as “safe places” and that more debate that challenges views should take place on campus.
She added: “Safe places can be a good thing for women who face violence but a university cannot be a safe place. It needs to be an unsafe place where people learn to question ideas that they have taken for granted.
“If we cannot have free and open debates at universities, then where else can we have them?”
Goldsmiths Islamic Society has previously hosted a number of radical speakers including Moazzam Begg of Cage, the charity which described ISIS terrorist ‘Jihadi John’ as a ‘beautiful, kind man’.
Another recent Goldsmiths speaker was Hamza Tzortzis, who says that non-Muslims ‘should be killed’ if they ever fight against Muslims and once proclaimed: ‘We as Muslims reject the idea of freedom of speech.’
The university’s student union previously ran into controversy when its diversity officer, Bahar Mustafa, banned white male students from a meeting and tweeted '#killallwhitemen’.
Last week a second Goldsmith University student officer accused of bullying and harassing the union president quit his post. Alex Etches, campaigns and activities officer, stepped down amid allegations that he created a “hostile” working environment.
A spokesman for Goldsmiths University said: "[The university] supports freedom of speech.
“The university follows a set of regulations to help ensure that freedom of speech within the law is secured for members, students and employees of the university and for visiting speakers.”