{"id":2378,"date":"2013-03-11T13:12:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-11T17:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/nocrossnocrescent\/?p=2378"},"modified":"2013-03-11T15:48:34","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T19:48:34","slug":"islamic-group-barred-from-hosting-events-at-university-college-london-after-gender-segregration-and-lawrence-krauss-walkout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/nocrossnocrescent\/2013\/03\/11\/islamic-group-barred-from-hosting-events-at-university-college-london-after-gender-segregration-and-lawrence-krauss-walkout\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATED-Islamic group banned from hosting events at University College London after gender segregration and Lawrence Krauss walkout"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am speechless<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An organisation known as the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) booked a room at UCL for a debate on Saturday evening (9 March). UCL was notified during Friday by some individuals planning to attend the event that the organisers intended to segregate the audience by gender.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And of course, when you hear Islamists are going to enforce\u00a0Sharia, you better believe they will. Even if they deny that.<\/a><\/p>\n

A few days ago, I had received a tip-off from somebody who had made an inquiry about tickets: \u2018We contacted the organizers today and learnt that “as for seating, it is according to when the ticket was booked and gender\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cGender\u201d? Seating at a public event in UCL organized by gender<\/em>?<\/p>\n

I passed this on to Lawrence, with the suggestion that he might consider withdrawing from the whole affair. He immediately asked the organizers, who assured him that the audience would not<\/em>be segregated by sex, and Lawrence agreed to go ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Which, of course, is what happened.<\/p>\n

When he got to the meeting he discovered that actually the seating in the auditorium was indeed segregated by sex. There was a men\u2019s section, a women\u2019s section, and a \u201ccouples\u201d section. Did the \u201ccouples\u201d have to produce a marriage certificate, one can\u2019t help wondering? And, while wondering such things, what would have been the reaction of the audience if they had been segregated, as in apartheid South Africa, into a black section, a white section and a \u201ccoloureds\u201d section?<\/p>\n

When Lawrence realised that he had been duped, he immediately secured permission from the organizers to announce that \u2013 contrary to previous instructions \u2013 people could sit wherever they wanted. Three young men, described by Lawrence as nice gentle guys, then got up and moved to the women\u2019s section in the back. \u201cIn the back\u201d, by the way, may resonate with those who remember Rosa Parks in Alabama in 1955. Security guards then tried to eject the three young men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this is\u00a0what happened next<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Screen shot from Dana Sondergaard’s video recording<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Although Krauss later went back, the UCL later found out about what happened, and they weren’t happy.<\/div>\n
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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\u2019s original intentions for a segregated audience we have concluded that their interests are contrary to UCL\u2019s ethos and that we should not allow any further events involving them to take place on UCL premises.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
A word of advice: Islamists are not to be trusted to keep their word.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
UPDATE<\/div>\n
I maybe helpful to have some context about this particular Islamist group. You can take a look at their history here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

And here is one of their members explaining why domestic abuse is justifiable.
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