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UK universities to ban feminists and conservatives to avoid offending Muslims

Oct 30, 2015 7:33 am By Robert Spencer

It is clear who the new ruling political class in Britain is. First the Cameron government banned foreign counter-jihadists from entering the country. Now they are silencing domestic voices of dissent. British authorities seem determined to stifle legitimate debate about their immigration policies and stance toward the jihad threat, and to keep their country on the path to chaos and civil war.

sharia-future UK

“Greer ban at university ‘is to seem fair to Muslims’: Vince Cable warns feminists and right-wingers will be censored to prove institutions are not ‘anti-Islamic,'” by Eleanor Harding, Daily Mail, October 28, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

Universities will ban feminists, Right-wing politicians and other controversial speakers to appear fair on Muslims, Vince Cable has warned.

The ex-business secretary said the Prevent strategy would make institutions feel compelled to censor all ‘extreme’ views to prove that they are not ‘anti-Islamic’.

Under the Government’s counter-terror drive, universities have a duty to monitor students for signs of ‘non-violent extremism’ and block hate preachers.

But yesterday Sir Vince said institutions would feel obliged to ‘demonstrate impartiality’ and ban ‘non-Muslim speakers whose reputation is also controversial for different reasons’.

He said some speakers were already being given hostile receptions on campuses, including Ukip leader Nigel Farage who cancelled an appearance at Cambridge after protests.

A petition was also set up to stop feminist Germaine Greer speaking at Cardiff because her views could allegedly offend ‘trans’ people.

Sir Vince said: ‘Once we get into the way of thinking that the best way to deal with extreme views is to suppress them, we get into very dangerous territory indeed.

‘And unfortunately I think that is the way the government is trying to lead.

‘If the government is successful in getting through legislation which in turn leads to guidance to universities, I suspect what will happen is this.

‘The legislation and the guidance will be vague, and universities being naturally risk adverse institutions will err on the side of caution and try to stop controversial speakers.

‘They will then be accused of being anti-Islamic and so they will try to stop other speakers of other persuasions.’

He added that censoring any one group of people could result in the same consequences for wider society.

‘The danger is that we say “Ok well we’ve banned that lot, therefore we will ban this lot”,’ he said.

‘You get on to this downward spiral where any form of radical dissent is actively discouraged or not allowed.’

The Lib Dem, who was responsible for higher education during his stint in the cabinet, claimed planned new powers would leave universities so risk averse they would allow only a ‘bland exchange’ of ‘politically correct’ views.

In a speech to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Sir Vince said he had blocked attempts to impose restrictions on so-called extremists during his time in government.

He added: ‘Instead of intellectual challenge there will be a bland exchange of views which are inoffensive and politically correct.

‘This will not stop terrorism or terrorist recruitment and may even make the problem worse by driving underground those who are regarded as extreme but are currently non-violent.’

Sir Vince, who suggested religious sectarianism in the West of Scotland was a form of ‘nonviolent extremism’, warned that prevention measures ‘can easily degenerate into surveillance’.

He added: ‘Common sense suggests that anything which encourages secretive, suspicious behaviour is more likely to help terrorism than hinder it.’

David Cameron earlier this month vowed to ‘aggressively’ pursue and disrupt extremists trying to spread the ‘poisonous ideology’ of radical Islamism.

Mr Cable criticised the government’s proposed Extremism Disruption Orders, so-called Asbos for hate preachers, claiming it could make them seem ‘martyrs’ and would prove ‘counter-productive’.

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Filed Under: academia, Featured, free speech, United Kingdom, Useful idiots Tagged With: Vince Cable


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Comments

  1. Sile Draper says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 8:18 am

    Segregation in education is next!

    • Jay Boo says

      Oct 30, 2015 at 9:54 am

      Why not ban all Muslims from the UK — for fear of offending common human decency?

      • Katnis says

        Oct 30, 2015 at 8:07 pm

        Ha!

      • Gannan says

        Oct 31, 2015 at 3:06 pm

        Congratulations, Britain, or England, or UK whatever you go by anymore… You have buttered your toast, and now you are going to get it shoved down your throat… corner-wise. Cameron is a total loser, wimp, and a few other related insults.

      • Jean Terry says

        Oct 31, 2015 at 4:23 pm

        they should have banned all Muslims long ago. Look at the grief it has brought them. Not only that, I don’t get why they don’t see how political correctness gone wild has only caused more Muslim ingratitude and hate.

        • tgk says

          Nov 7, 2015 at 5:16 pm

          Political correctness? No balls, no balls. Where have all the balls in the UK and the Western world gone?

  2. Baucent says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 8:28 am

    He added: ‘Instead of intellectual challenge there will be a bland exchange of views which are inoffensive and politically correct”.

    The political elites have decided that the only way to maintain the illusion of community cohesian is to crack down on the nay sayers to Islam and multicultural sceptics. And that can only be achieved with diminished freedom of speech and arrest and detention of those who rock the boat. Note the way Tommy Robinson has been persecuted. Britain will end up as a Police state, and it will be all to protect an invasive religion.

  3. ich says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 8:35 am

    its upto the LBGT community to make a lot of noise

    i cant see feminists accepting islam muting their cackles

    • Jay says

      Nov 1, 2015 at 10:02 am

      Feminists won’t say a word. All of the Devils servants are working together, even when they appear to be in conflict.

  4. Guy Jones says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 8:45 am

    Why worry about Islam’s totalitarian and fascistic ethos being foisted upon Britain by Muslim immigrants? The Brits are, apparently, more than happy to be good, compliant, servile Dhimmis to their Muslim betters, completely of their own volition! At this rate, Britain will become a caliphate in short order, joining the rest of Europe under the Islamic banner.

    • James Murray says

      Nov 6, 2015 at 1:58 pm

      Nonsense. The UK is 96% NON Muslim, 92% white. Muslims, for all the PC kowtowing and noise/hype, have no major social, economic or political power. They arent even by far the largest ethnic group. Three parts of the UK (and great chunks of England) have little or no Muslim population, or even other ethnic. Scotland, Wales and NI all have less than 1% Muslims and about 1-2% other ethnics.

      We have our problems, but whilst the Muslim issue needs badty addressing, the UK is far from a dhimmi state or conquered. UKIP is the fastest rising party here, support for an EU exit is rising and anger at immigration and the refugee crisis is widespread.

      Dont write us off quite yet.

  5. RonaldB says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 8:57 am

    This is a rather confusing article, and probably doesn’t contain enough information to get involved one way or another.

    Vince Cable, a former cabinet official who considers the display of religious fervor such as fundamentalist evangelicals, to be “nonviolent extremism”, is worried that the government will stifle free discussion in their stampede to exclude jihad terrorism.

    He mentions the petition (only a petition, with no action taken on it) against the appearance of Germaine Greer at Cardiff university.

    Germaine Greer has defended female genital mutilation as a cultural phenomenon to be respected:
    http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/02/12/radical-leftist-feminazi-germaine-greer-comes-out-in-support-of-female-genital-mutilation-in-the-muslim-world/

    My own feeling is that it is very productive for Americans to stay out of internal British politics. Ultimately, the British (or English) will have to either take charge of their own fate, or go down the tubes with the rest of Western Europe.

    • Angemon says

      Oct 30, 2015 at 9:24 am

      RonaldB posted:

      “He mentions the petition (only a petition, with no action taken on it) against the appearance of Germaine Greer at Cardiff university.

      Germaine Greer has defended female genital mutilation as a cultural phenomenon to be respected:
      http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/02/12/radical-leftist-feminazi-germaine-greer-comes-out-in-support-of-female-genital-mutilation-in-the-muslim-world/
      ”

      The petition to ban her is because of her views on transsexuals:

      http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/23/students-dont-want-dangerous-germaine-greer-speak-cardiff-university_n_8367254.html

      Whatever she achieved during her half-a-century long career as a feminist means nothing when weighted against her alleged “transphobia”. She dares to have a different opinion, she has the gall to go against the narrative, so her former allies decided it’s time to, erm, “burn the witch”:

  6. Infidela says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 9:04 am

    Britain is an Islamic state.

    • James Murray says

      Nov 6, 2015 at 1:56 pm

      Nonsense. The UK is 96% NON Muslim, 92% white. Muslims, for all the PC kowtowing and noise/hype, have no major social, economic or political power. They arent even by far the largest ethnic group. Three parts of the UK (and great chunks of England) have little or no Muslim population, or even other ethnic. Scotland, Wales and NI all have less than 1% Muslims and about 1-2% other ethnics.

  7. Angemon says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 9:28 am

    A petition was also set up to stop feminist Germaine Greer speaking at Cardiff because her views could allegedly offend ‘trans’ people.

    What was Germaine Greer’s sin? She doesn’t consider transsexual to be real women but ghastly parodies. Thus, whatever she achieved in her long career as a feminist is deemed null and void and she suddenly becomes part of the problem. Can we get Miss Laurie Penny’s opinion on this?

    • Paul says

      Oct 30, 2015 at 9:56 am

      Her sin is not to have the ‘correct’ opinion. Logic and facts are
      irrelevant and an immunity to evidence is helpful too.
      Any dissenting voices will be silenced. And some may wonder
      why universities are ideal for islamists. Them and ‘progressive’
      left-wing students are made for each other.

    • Paul says

      Oct 30, 2015 at 10:04 am

      Ah yes, the pro-islamist race obsessed racist and ‘feminist’,
      Ms Laurie Penny. In case you haven’t seen it, here she
      is biting off more than she could chew with David Starkey :

  8. Babs says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 10:03 am

    Which particular universities? Those who accept a lot of Muslim funding and/or have a lot of Muslim students?

    I can well believe it, but until I know which, I shan’t be able to act, shall I?

  9. Peter says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 11:37 am

    Boycott Britain!

    • James Murray says

      Nov 6, 2015 at 1:52 pm

      No. Britain is still a great country, still a great people. We WILL surmount our problems, we have faced much worse.

  10. Kenny Ball says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 11:53 am

    It would seem that PM Cameron is trying to push Right Wing thinking people to a state of Revolution. Perhaps this is what he wants. He could avoid being blamed for the results and be rid of, not a few Immigrants.

  11. ballotcode says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    It was just a matter of time. Mohamedans enjoyed political cover from the liberal left for quite a while.
    Now, when Mohamedans start throwing code pink off of roofs, things should change.
    And the gay community thought Christians were intolerant?
    We may not agree with them, but we do not want to kill them.

  12. 762x51FMJ says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) was an influencial German philosopher, known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity.

    “Temples and churches, pagodas and mosques, in all countries and ages, in their splendor and spaciousness, testify to man’s need for metaphysics, a need strong and ineradicable, which follows close on the physical. … Sometimes it lets inself be satisfied with clumsy fables and fairy-tales. If only they are imprinted early enough, they are for man adequate explanations of his existence and supports for his morality. Consider the Koran, for example; this wretched book was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical need of countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody wars and the most extensive conquests. In this book we find the saddest and poorest form of theism. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value.”

    • parousia says

      Oct 30, 2015 at 3:07 pm

      Please from where do you quote?

      I’d like to know so I can defend it if called upon.

      Please take the pain to provide the source. This is a pearl of great value.

      Thanks

      • PRCS says

        Oct 30, 2015 at 8:00 pm

        http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2013/04/schopenhauer-on-islam-the-saddest-and-poorest-form-of-theism.html

        “Schopenhauer on Islam, “The Saddest and Poorest Form of Theism”

        Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, tr. E. F. J. Payne, vol. II (Dover, 1966), p. 162. This is from Chapter XVII, “On Man’s Need for Metaphysics” (emphases added and a paragraph break):

        “Temples and churches…

        Consider the Koran

        I have not been able to discover in it one single idea of value. Such things show that the capacity for metaphysics does not go hand in hand with the need for it . . . .“

    • Guy Jones says

      Oct 30, 2015 at 5:26 pm

      Fantastic and illuminating excerpt; thank you for sharing it. And, the ideology of “Submission’s” vile and inherently supremacist/hateful character has not changed one iota since Schopenhauer’s time. His observations are as valid today as when he voiced them.

  13. Liam1304 says

    Oct 30, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    So it is hate speech for a Muslim speaker to advocate violence & subjugation based on Islamic scripture, tradition and history.

    It is also hate speech for a non-muslim to point out that Islamic violence & subjugation are based on Islamic scriture, tradition and history.

    Got it.

  14. jayell says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 2:45 am

    UK secondary schools were generally segregated until around the late 1960’s – early 1970’s when the ‘equality’ band wagon got rolling and ‘comprehensive’ schools were created from the older ‘grammar’,’technical’ & ‘secondary modern’ schools. Interesting to note that quite a few of the older segregated schools (especially girls’ schools) survived as a result of increasing ‘asian’ and feminist bigotry, and feminism has come to dominate UK education to the appalling disadvantage of British boys. Co-education at secondary level seems to be going out of.fashion ad older ideas are being viewed more favourably.
    .

  15. Richard says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 4:47 am

    Whatever happened to the academic principle behind presenting a thesis for critical enquiry by one’s peers ? Surely this is what universities are meant to do ?

  16. gordon miller says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 9:18 am

    It sure looks like the UK is finished as a decent country. France was finished awhile back.
    Would any American even want to visit these countries anymore? Not me.

    • James Murray says

      Nov 6, 2015 at 1:50 pm

      Britain is till a fine country to visit and live in. We have our problems, but whilst the Muslim issue needs badty addressing, the UK is far from a dhimmi state or conquered. UKIP is the fastest rising party here, support for an EU exit is rising and anger at immigration and the refugee crisis is widespread.

      Dont write us off quite yet. If you vsit I am sure you will find much of the UK you still admire.

      • Jean Terry says

        Nov 15, 2015 at 11:01 pm

        I’m glad to hear that James Murray. I was there many years ago and have a particular attachment to England as that is where my ancestors come from. Don’t let those Muslims take over. They do have a much higher birth rate than others I think.

  17. Kepha says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 9:23 am

    As a Christian conservative, I find modern feminism disgusting, but this ban in the UK is even more so.

    It seems that the liberal project, which claims it questions all authority on the basis of reason, has degenerated into groveling before the peevish and violent. Shame on British universities. I see they’re as feckless and invertebrate as their American cousins.

    However, it is so ironic that the arrogant Western Kids of ’68, who outdid themselves in establishing blasphemy against the religions their parents and grandparents, are now bending over backwards to accommodate and accept Islam–a religion which enslaves blacks, stones homosexuals, and oppresses women on every level; thus sticking it to every client group of the Western Left. Nothing else shows that the Left is fundamentally cowardly, self-destructive, and ultimately nihilistic.

    • mortimer says

      Oct 31, 2015 at 11:19 am

      Kepha wrote: “the liberal project…has degenerated into groveling before the peevish and violent”.

      The Left has adopted the Muslims as an example of Descartes’ ‘noble savages’. The Left has adopted the strategy of Berthold Brecht which is to ENTIRELY REPLACE EUROPEANS WHO LOVE FREEDOM WITH ‘OTHERS’ who are OPPOSED TO FREEDOM.

      Bertholdt Brecht:

      “I have learned that the government believes THE PEOPLE ‘has betrayed the confidence of the regime’ and ‘should work to regain the confidence of the authorities’. In that case, would it not be simpler for the government to DISSOLVE THE PEOPLE and ELECTanother one?”

  18. mortimer says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 11:04 am

    Sir Vince Cable is correct: “Once we get into the way of thinking that the best way to deal with extreme views is to suppress them, we get into very dangerous territory indeed.”

    Rather than encourage open debate on ideas, the British government is turning its back on free expression in a cynical betrayal of principles…a betrayal of FACT-BASED REASONING.

    The government’s job is not determining what is true…that is the job of independent, CONSCIENTIOUS researchers and academics…that is, academics and researchers who have not SOLD OUT to Saudi Arabian money…I am thinking of John Esposito.

    THE TRUTH, INDEPENDENT RESEARCH, SCHOLARSHIP are not “extreme”. They are the basis of our Western way of life and progress.

    Suppressing FACT-BASED REASONING is antithetical to Western civilization.

    • Touga says

      Nov 7, 2015 at 5:49 pm

      Will “Fact-based Reasoning” have the courage to stand to up to be counted and to prove to the world that its foundation is deeper than the money that supports it?

  19. Jean Terry says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 4:25 pm

    The British government has gone mad. Can’t the see the current evidence how being politically correct to the extreme has caused even more hate and discontent? Why can’t everyone say what they think?

    Their government is crazy and how can the British people (the real British people) put up with it?

    • James Murray says

      Nov 6, 2015 at 1:48 pm

      We arent, UKIP is the fastest rising party here, support for an EU exit is rising and anger at imigration and the refugee crisis is widespread. Dont write us off quite yet.

  20. joe fredericks says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 6:05 pm

    Everyone that is British in the UK sign this:
    E Petition
    Stop allowing immigrants into the UK.

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106477

    • Raja says

      Nov 1, 2015 at 7:02 am

      Joe,

      As a non Brit I cannot help but keep watching your comments. Surely someone can link the comments on this site to social media that would have cascading effect across the world.

      Much of the non Muslim world is already hating Islam.

  21. UAI says

    Oct 31, 2015 at 6:55 pm

    So Vince says that shutting up the hate preachers won’t work, well letting them speak hasn’t worked either.

    Islamic extremism is on the rise whatever you do. We have to recognise Islam as a special problem.

    A psychological and political ideology designed to overthrow everything in its path that is Haram (forbidden).

    It seems to me like an attempt to shut down all that is free and beautiful in the world and I fear for Europe’s future.

    With politicians like Vince still blind to what is obvious to others.

    Civil war is coming.

  22. dan from ohio says

    Nov 1, 2015 at 4:11 pm

    the people who aren’t sheep should ban those who run the colleges and throw them to the curb for selling out their country

  23. Mark says

    Dec 4, 2015 at 8:38 am

    I wonder how long before muslims organize a coup? With this level of fear in the UK they’d only need an handful of Jihadi’s to march into parliament with box cutters to be successful.

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