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Craig Matteson calls to my notice an example of what I take to be Islamists attempting, in a very rude, aggressive, and uncivil way, to shut down a speech to which they object at Goldsmiths College of the University of London:
It’s appalling and entirely inappropriate. The disruptive audience members should have been ejected immediately.
I’m sure that I disagree quite comprehensively with the positions and attitudes of the Atheist, Secular, and Humanist Society, and that I would find much in their meetings to contest, much that would be irritating and perhaps even offensive. But they have the right to be massively wrong.
I find myself defending Islam against what I regard as unfair criticisms and against increasingly strident calls for monitoring all Muslims, rounding them up, and expelling them from Western countries. But my stance, which grows out of both my respect for Islam and Islamic civilization and my friendship with many adherents of the faith, should not be misinterpreted by anybody as a failure to recognize that there are serious and fundamental problems in the Islamic community today — problems that threaten not only the Islamic world but the entire globe.
And I need to point out, alas, that the practice of disrupting campus speakers, shouting down people who hold unfashionable views, and seeking to curtail freedom of speech is scarcely unique to Muslims. It’s become a favorite tactic of the extreme political Left at many American colleges and universities.
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