March 21st, 2007

Kuentzel talk at Leeds U. cancelled; Intimidation definitely not to blame

By Eric Moskowitz

Matthias Kuentzel image via arbeiterfotografie.com

German academic Matthias Kuentzel, who has written extensively about religious and political extremism in Islamic societies and the history of totalitarian politics more generally, was scheduled to give a talk on the nexus between the Nazis and contemporary anti-Semitism in Islam. He had given the talk before, he said, and nothing had happened. His Leeds lecture was cancelled due to security concerns stemming from a barrage of inflamed e-mails objecting to giving him a platform from which to speak. But, the University emphasized, this was not a speech issue: it was a security issue, and only so because they hadn’t been given enough time to plan for it.

Lame.

Whats more, they shouldn’t have had to plan for extensive security anyway. In civil society, academics don’t get threatened for the things they say. Key words, however, being civil society. Maybe it’s wishful thinking these days to expect civility in the face of a lecture the thesis of which a few disagree.

The University statement said,

we [are not] bowing to threats or protests from interest groups. The meeting has been cancelled on safety grounds alone and because - contrary to our rules - no assessment of risk to people or property has been carried out, no stewarding arrangements are in place and we were not given sufficient notice to ensure safety and public order.

The event had been planned by the Leeds German department “weeks in advance”, and yet the university had insufficient prior knowledge. Interesting.

Kuentzel said the obvious:

My impression was that they wanted to avoid the issue in order to keep the situation calm. My feeling is that this is a kind of censorship.

I haven’t heard the lecture or seen a transcript of it, but I know that the friendship and shared goals between Adoplh Hitler and Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem during World War II, are so well-documented as to be uncontroversial, if such a thing can be called uncontroversial.

What is controversial to the fanatics that seem to control certain Muslim communities in Britain, is that anyone would dare speak the obvious: that many Muslim communities face tough problems with anti-Semitism, and that Husseini is largely to blame. It was essentially through him that the “benign” treatment of non-Muslims as dhimmis morphed into Hitler-style hatred of Jews.

Put another notch in the “L” column for freedom of speech.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 10:15 am and is filed under Opinion, Body Impolitic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.