UK: On canceling speaking invitations of secularists in UK universties

26.09.2015

Source: siawi, 26.09.2015

To whom it may concern

[(In support of academic freedom,
On Warwick University Student Union’s decision to bar Maryam Namazie from speaking)]

We, the undersigned,

Express concern regarding the University Student Union’s barring of Maryam Namazie from speaking at Warwick University on October 28, 2015. Ms Namazie had been invited by the Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists’ Society.

Note with equal concern the growing number of similar incidents in UK universities, in which religious groups are granted the right to disseminate their ideas within universities ( and their practices, including when those break both the law of the land and university rules on gender equality) regardless of the potential ‘risks’ of generating incidents, while other groups are discriminated against, as is the case now.

Urge University authorities to ensure that freedom of speech and academic freedom applies to all, and are not being curbed selectively.

Signatories:

Marieme Helie Lucas, Sociology Department, Algiers University, Algeria ( retired faculty member)

Dr Fatou Sow, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, University Paris Diderot, France (retired).

Prof. Nira Yuval-Davis, School of Social Sciences, University of East London, UK

Dr. Neshat Quaiser, Associate Professor Department of Sociology Jamia Millia Islamia, Central University, New Delhi, India

Harsh Kapoor, founder, South Asia Citizens Web (sacw.net)

Dr Anissa Helie, Associate Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, USA.

Ensaf Haidar, President Of Raif Badawi Foundation

Faisal Saeed Al-Mutar, Iraqi founder of the Global Secular Humanist Movement

Prof Lynn Freedman, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, USA

Dipak Dholakia, People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism, India

Prof. Charlotte Bunch, Board of Governors, Distinguished Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. USA

Mukul Mangalik, Associate Professor of History, Ramjas College, University of Delhi, India.

Prakash Upadhyaya, research scholar, University Grants Commission, India

Dilip Simeon, Historian and Writer, Delhi, India