A leading London university has banned an Islamic organisation from holding events on its campus after it told women to sit separately from men and couples at a debate there.
Audience members at the public debate at University College London (UCL) were told to enter the chamber through either the men's or women's entrances.
Event organisers iERA (Islamic Education and Research Academy) then asked women to sit at the back, while men and couples were allowed to sit at the front.
Scroll down for video:
UCL said today that the Islamic Education and Research Academy were no longer allowed to hold events there
The audience was there for a public debate on the subject 'Islam Or Atheism: Which Makes More Sense?'.
It was organised by north London-based iERA, and the speakers were atheist American scientist Lawrence Krauss and Greek Islamic convert, Hamza Andreas Tzortzis.
When Professor Krauss realised the audience was being segregated before the debate started, he packed his bag and said he was leaving.
To boos and jeers from the audience, he told an organiser: 'Either you quit the segregation or I'm not interested'.
Prof. Krauss then walked out, only returning when he had been persuaded by staff that they would abandon attempts to sit the audience according to gender.
American student Dana Sondergaard wrote on her Facebook page: 'Tonight I attended a debate at UCL on Islam and Atheism.
Theoretical physicist and professor of physics Lawrence Krauss threatned to leave if people were segregated
Hamza Andreas Tzortzis, of hardline Islamic group iERA, was the other speaker at the debate at UCL
'After having been told the event would NOT be gender segregated, we arrived and were told that women were to sit in the back of the auditorium, while men and couples could file into the front.
'After watching three people be kicked out of the auditorium for not following this seating plan, Dr Krauss bravely defended his beliefs of gender equality and informed event staff that he would not participate unless they removed the segregated seating.'
'In normal Islamic events people will naturally often separate themselves, men with men and women with women'
- Saleem Chagtai, iERA spokesman
Miss Sondergaard added: 'Needless to say, the staff got their s*** together pretty quickly and the event (thankfully) continued.
'Props to Dr Krauss for standing up for his beliefs, especially in such a biased environment!'
Today iERA's spokesman Saleem Chagtai told MailOnline: 'In all normal Islamic events people will naturally often separate themselves: men with men and women with women.
'It is de rigueur, in a way that is not too dissimilar to practices in Orthodox Jewish communities.
'The issue that UCL had is that it it can't be enforced. But because of the limited space of the auditorium, there were a number of ladies who used their free will and didn't want to sit with the opposite sex, so we needed to cater for that.'
He said iERA had been told by UCL that segregation was against their ethos, and had intended 'to stick to what they said in letter and spirit'.
Mr Chagtai said his organisation was now conducting an internal investigation into what happened on the day.
He added: 'We need to take their criticism like this very seriously.
We feel it's the honourable thing to do to see if there was anybody that influenced segregation on the day from our staff.'
A page from iERA's website has photographs of its male speakers but none for the female speakers
Atheist writer Richard Dawkins called the segregation 'sexual apartheid' and called it a 'disgraceful epsiode'.
Writing on his blog, he said: 'University College, London is celebrated as an early haven of enlightened free thinking, the first university college in England to have a secular foundation, and the first to admit men and women on equal terms. Heads should roll.
'Isn’t it really about time we decent, nice, liberal people stopped being so pusillanimously terrified of being thought “Islamophobic” and stood up for decent, nice, liberal values?'
UCL's press office issued a statement saying iERA would never again be allowed to hold events on the university's campuses.
It said: 'We do not allow enforced segregation on any grounds [but]... it now appears that, despite our clear instructions, attempts were made to enforce segregation at the meeting.
'We are still investigating what actually happened at the meeting but, given IERA’s original intentions for a segregated audience we have concluded that their interests are contrary to UCL’s ethos and that we should not allow any further events involving them to take place on UCL premises.'
VIDEO: Watch Professor Krauss storm out of the debate over seating segregation:
No comments:
Post a Comment