No need to crawl
More on the University of Sheffield Atheist Secular & Humanist Society, and that post on their Facebook page.
We are in no way abandoning Maryam Namazie. This year the society has shifted it’s focus from hard line atheism as it tends to stagnate numbers and decrease membership, to focus on humanism, which has had the opposite effect. We had a slow start in this and managed after a lot of hard work to be invited to events ran by the CU and Isoc. These are important because we feel that better relations mean they will feel more comfortable joining events that we host, making the society more diverse and the atmosphere more comfortable. We would be terrified of hosting Maryam and having her expirience what happened at Goldsmith’s after the society had enjoyed some success with Isoc, and having invited her feeling confident that the atmosphere would be a welcome one from all in attendance not just SASH members.
We would be delighted to host her at the University if this is something that is unlikely to happen. We really really don’t want her to feel undervalued or in some way unwelcome. The only thing unwelcome is the treatment she has expirienced at Goldsmith’s.
Yes but the right way to deal with that is not to refuse to invite her to speak. That just gives the Goldsmiths Isoc what it wanted: to shut her up.
Also…what exactly is the source of the terror in
We would be terrified of hosting Maryam and having her expirience what happened at Goldsmith’s after the society had enjoyed some success with Isoc, and having invited her feeling confident that the atmosphere would be a welcome one from all in attendance not just SASH members.
Is it terror of yet more bullying of Maryam? Or is it terror that Isoc will be mad at them, and all their efforts to make friends with Isoc will be for naught? It looks as if it’s the latter – and that’s pathetic.
Why do they want to be friends with Isoc in the first place? Islamists and atheists / humanists are not natural friends. Why is this ASH group trying so hard to be not an ASH group?
Maryam responded to that silly post.
The issue is not about an invitation to me. The point is that you are saying you cannot invite me to your uni at the suggestion of a student because of what happened at Goldsmiths University Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society. What happened? The ISOC there tried to cancel my talk, came and intimidated and even threatened the audience and I am to blame? You forgot to issue a statement of solidarity with the ISOC like the Goldsmiths Feminist and LGBTQ+ societies. Are you saying if I come, your ISOC might have to behave badly? And if so, why am I to blame for it. The politics of cowards. Always siding with Islamist narrative at the expense of dissenters.
She got a reply as silly as the post was:
We are simply saying that we do not know what will happen. There have been some incidents that suggest there are some members who may react in a negative way. They also may not. In order to find out, we wanted to improve relations between the Islamic Society to create a conversation that allows for us to ask whether issues may occur.
We in no way condone that behaviour and are obviously actively trying to prevent it from happening to you again at this university.
Rather as if Jews had tried to “improve relations” with the Nazis to create a conversation that allowed for them to ask whether the Nazis were planning to murder them all. Isoc is an Islamist organization, so of course it’s not going to be friendly to Maryam’s views. There’s no need to crawl to them to find that out, and crawling to them won’t make them any more likely to be reasonable about anything.
Sheffield might pause to consider which bridges it wants to burn to ASH.
From the IHEU Amsterdam Declaration:
So how would it *not* be consistent with a focus on humanism to have Maryam Namazie speak about her personal experiences and actions, which are clearly in opposition to attempts of “dogmatic religion” to “impose their world views”? Or are they perhaps taking the view that because of her heritage, Maryam does not represent “all of humanity”, and, for the sake of peace with ISOC, they are willing to cede the principle of religious control for those from Islamic countries (at home or in diaspora).
@2 it’s simpler than that: the society is more interested in being friendly to religious groups – CU and ISOC – than in supporting atheism or secularism. That’s their own statement.
Islamist rant endlessly against the U.S. and Israel. That defines them as ‘progressive’ so far as these idiots are concerned. Mere considerations of fact, morality, history etc. cannot be permitted to interfere with stone-faced righteousness.
@SAWells #3
They measure their success on the basis of being deemed acceptable by CU and Isoc. But they *said* that they were focusing on humanism. Of course they are under no obligation to use IHEU’s definition, but it is worth pointing out the inconsistency. (I think what they are doing would better be termed “accommodationism”, since the goal appears to be to get along with other groups.)