.... the society has come under fire over an ill-tempered debate on Thursday on the motion: “This house believes Islam is a threat to the West”.
The union has been accused of giving the debate an inflammatory motion title to stir up controversy, and speaker Stephen Gash – from pressure group Stop the Islamification of Europe – was described by the society as considering “the ideology of religious Islam hateful and incompatible with freedom and democracy”. He was heckled by members of the audience, and stormed out before the end of the debate.
The other speakers were Stephen Green, director of conservative Christian pressure group Christian Voice, writer Idris Tawfiq, who converted to Islam after being a Roman Catholic priest, and Muhammad Abdul Bari, chairman of the East London Mosque, and former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.
Madeleine Fresko, a Cambridge student who attended the debate, said some Muslim students had been “very scared” by its title. [Cambridge Newspapers] Read more
