This piece by Yossarian is cross-posted from The Spittoon
Yesterday I blogged about developments in relation to the planned Hounslow Muslim Forum event at Lampton School, Hounslow. According to the Hounslow Chronicle, the event is still going ahead tomorrow even though the police have pulled out and Hounslow Muslim Forum has expelled Hizb ut-Tahrir. Common sense had finally triumphed at the Metropolitan Police – and a watered down version of it had done so at Hounslow Muslim Forum too.
This is not the case with Lampton School. It is still planning on giving a platform to Daud Abdullah and Moazzem Begg. For more information about these two men see my original post about this event. Indeed, the fact that the police have refused to go along with this charade could be argued to have made the situation worse. Now there will be no voice to challenge the views of two men who are far from moderate and a state comprehensive is playing host.
Let’s be clear about this. So long as these two men stop short of inciting hatred and/or violence then they should be allowed to espouse them. However, it is an entirely different question whether a school funded by our taxes should be helping these extremists in doing so by providing them with a platform for their views. If they want to talk then they can rent a backroom in a mosque or anywhere – just not in a state school where our taxes will be facilitating the propagation of their views.
We expect this for other non-violent extremists – imagine the furore if Lampton School had agreed to host a BNP rally – and yet, when an Islamist who advocated attacks on the Royal Navy (if they were deployed to Gaza) is invited to speak on their premises, the school is au fait with that idea. Scandalous.
