Ateister truet til taushet

Hans Rustad

Da en ate­is­tisk for­ening skulle holde møte på et col­lege i Lon­don, om sha­ria og men­neske­ret­tig­he­ter, duk­ket en mann opp som gikk foran pub­li­kum, sa han hadde fil­met alle og hvis det ble sagt ett for­nær­mede ord mot pro­fe­ten, skulle han sørge for at de måtte stå til ansvar. Han sa han visste hvem alle var og hvor de bodde. Ute i foa­jeen fil­met han stu­den­ter og sa han ville drepe dem og deres fami­lier. Han var ikke alene. Uten­for sto en gruppe menn og ven­tet på ham.

Hen­del­sen var eks­tremt ube­ha­ge­lig, for­tel­ler leder av sty­ret, Anne Maire Waters. Møtet ble avlyst.

A talk on sha­ria and human rights by NSS Coun­cil Mem­ber Anne Marie Waters’ at Queen Mary Col­lege, Lon­don was can­cel­led at the last moment because of an Isla­mist who made serious threats against eve­ryone there.
The talk was due to take place on 16 January but before it star­ted, a man ente­red the lecture thea­tre, stood at the front with a camera and fil­med the audience. He then said that he knew who eve­ryone was, where they lived and if he heard any­thing nega­tive about the Prop­het, he would track them down.
The man also fil­med stu­dents in the foyer and threate­ned to mur­der them and their fami­lies. On lea­ving the buil­ding, he joined a large group of men, appa­rently there to sup­port him. Stu­dents were told by security to stay in the lecture thea­tre for their own safety.

Jen­ni­fer Hardy, Pre­si­dent of Queen Mary Atheism Society, who orga­nised the event said: “This event was sup­po­sed to be an opport­u­nity for people of dif­fe­rent reli­gions and per­s­pec­ti­ves to debate, at a uni­ver­sity that is sup­po­sed to be a bea­con of free speech and debate.
“Only two com­pla­ints had been made to the Union prior to the event, and the majority of the Mus­lim stu­dents at the event were incre­di­bly sup­portive of it going ahead. These threats were an aggres­sive assault on free­dom of speech and the fact that they led to the can­cel­la­tion of our talk was severely dis­ap­poin­ting for all of the reli­gious and non-religious stu­dents in the room who wan­ted to engage in debate.”

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2012/01/islamist-stops-university-debate-with-threats-of-violence

The police were con­tacted about the inci­dent.
You can read Anne Marie Waters’ account of the event here.


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