generalspeaking

The University of Manchester Student Union Executive team has launched an investigation into a meeting which recently took place on the university’s campus.

The meeting, held on Wednesday, February 13th, by the Global Aspi­rations of Women society, featured “various Islamist speakers promoting ideas such as the execution of homosexuals and the amputation of thieves' hands”, according to campus watchdog Student Rights.

Colin Cortbus, a student at the university, attended the meeting and asked the chair whether “in the Islamic society in which you strive for” they would “feel comfortable, personally and morally, to kill a gay man?”

“Absolutely”, was the response.

Cortbus went on to make the case for a pluralistic Islam, stating that many Muslims would not execute homosexuals. He was told "A lot of people would".


The MancUnion newspaper notes that the meeting also addressed the issue of stoning adulterers, on which the chair reasoned: “Who’s to say that some­one else might see that [unpunished adultery] and think ‘well if he’s allowed to do it why can’t I do it’.”

Similarly, the chair argued that it was not possible to condemn amputation of thieves’ hands “without looking at the specifics” of the crime in question.

After video footage of the event came to light, Khadijah Afzal, chair of Global Aspirations and speaking on behalf of the society, said:

A statement from Students’ Union Wellbeing Officer Cat Gray addressed the event, but bizarrely seemed to focus primarily on concerns over the covert nature of the footage, drawing into question once again how seriously extremism is taken on campus by the relevant authorities: