A panel discussion addressing the integration of Muslims in Europe, scheduled to
be held at the London School of Economics on Monday, was canceled after the
school said it could not provide adequate security for planned student
protests.
A group of mainly German LSE students and academics opposed the
decision by the school’s German Society to invite two sharp critics of political
Islam and Germany’s integration policies: Thilo Sarrazin, a former member of the
executive board of the Deutsche Bundesbank and a former head of finance for the
State of Berlin, and Henryk M. Broder, a well-known German-Jewish
journalist.
The protesters circulated a petition headlined “Integration
instead of clash of the cultures.”
A spokesman for the university told
The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that as it could not guarantee protests being
peaceful and that extra security would be needed to stop largescale disruption,
hence the event was moved off campus.
The German Society, one of the
largest and most active such groups at LSE and one of the largest German student
groups outside Germany, hosted the event, “Europe’s Future: The Decline of the
West.”
Sarrazin authored last year’s best-selling Germany Abolishes
Itself, which dissected flawed integration policies in the Federal
Republic.
Broder said at the event: “You in England have long since begun
to do away with yourselves. Your top bishop has already called for the
introduction of Shari’a law.”
Sarrazin has referred to Muslims as
“dunces” and said that Jews all “share a certain gene.”
After an outcry
by students, the university canceled the event and informed the German Society
that it could not host it on campus.
Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice chairman
of the UK’s Zionist Federation, told the Post on Tuesday that by canceling
Sarrazin’s talk while allowing speakers such as Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor Abdel
Bari Atwan to go ahead – with anti- Semitic content – “LSE is being craven and
utterly hypocritical.”
The Gaza-born Atwan spoke at LSE last
year.
Speaking about Iran’s nuclear capability on Lebanese television in
2007, he said: “If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to
Trafalgar Square and dance with delight.”
In 2006, Atwan was quoted by
the BBC as saying that the events of September 11, 2001, “will be remembered as
the end of the US empire.”
Responding to the criticism from protesters
about the alleged anti-Semitic statement from Sarrazin, Hoffman said the
statement that Jews share a particular gene was not wholly
accurate.
“One, because it is possible to convert to Judaism and because
not all Jews share a particular gene. But certainly some do. That was shown by,
for example, peer-group reviewed DNA research by Dr. Karl Skorecki which showed
that the same array of chromosomal markers was found in 97 of 106 Kohens
tested.
Sarrazin’s statement may have been inaccurate, but it certainly
was not anti-Semitic. Anyone who says it was is plain wrong.”
Raheem
Kassam, director of Student Rights, a London-based organization that tackles
extremism on campuses, said, “It is disappointing that the LSE canceled the
event only on the threat of disruption and a lack of resources. They should be
tackling the real issue of intolerance and hatred.”
He added that “if mob
rule is all it takes to shut down a speech, it is easy to see how freedoms may
not be protected, but extremist speakers may still use the university as a
platform if enough people fail to protest.”