Brian Cox and other prominent academic figures have said they are boycotting the University of Warwick after the Student Union barred a well-known secularist from speaking at an event, a move which many see as an infringement against free speech.
Maryam Namazie (pictured above) had been booked to speak by the Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists group at the Student Union building on 28 October, but the speech was cancelled by the student union.
The union cited “a duty of care to conduct a risk assessment for each speaker who wishes to come to campus” and indicated they thought her words “could incite hatred on campus”.
Iranian-born Namazie told The Independent:
If people like me who fled an Islamist regime can’t speak out about my opposition to the far-right Islamic movement, if I can’t criticise Islam… that leaves very [few] options for me as a dissenter because the only thing I have is my freedom of expression.
The decision has been met with criticism, including from physicist Brian Cox and science writer Ben Goldacre, who said on Saturday they will no longer visit the university to give lectures as a result of the ban.
Students in higher education should expect to be able to cope with having their views challenged, Goldacre said. "We can't allow over-sensitive students to wrap themselves in intellectual cotton wool."
I agree with @bengoldacre - we can't allow over-sensitive students to wrap themselves in intellectual cotton wool https://t.co/onSsKwUQLU
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) September 26, 2015Cox and Goldacre lend high-profile voices to the growing backlash against the perceived rise of "political correctness gone mad" in the academic world.
Their words were supported by other academic figures, such as Data Visualisation Professor Alberto Cairo of the University of Miami, and Inspector Michael Brown, the Mental Health Coordinator at the UK's College of Policing.
+1,000 MT @bengoldacre: I will never talk for Warwick now they've banned Maryam Namazie. http://t.co/3JRDsRLiu3
— Alberto Cairo (@albertocairo) September 26, 2015Last week, US President Barack Obama also said he thought students wouldn't learn anything from silencing voices they disagreed with.
I’ve heard some college campuses where they don’t want to have a guest speaker who is too conservative or they don’t want to read a book if it has language that is offensive to African-Americans or somehow sends a demeaning signal towards women.
I don’t agree that you, when you become students at colleges, have to be coddled and protected from different points of view. I think you should be able to — anybody who comes to speak to you and you disagree with, you should have an argument with ‘em.
The Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists group have appealed against the union’s decision earlier this month.
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