Integration begins at home

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Whilst the EU political elites struggle with the concept and processes of integration, at domestic level our communities are far from integrated. Politician and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell writes of a situation where political extremism not only creates tensions between communities, but also leads to domestic abuse within families. His words are shocking, but in the context of recently disturbing events in a number of EU states such as France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, they place the lofty aspirations of the EU into an altogether different context. The following article not only demonstrates the dangers that face a society that fails to grasp the importance of integration, but also highlights the absurdity of unchecked "political correctness".

University College London is planning to host an extremist Islamist preacher, Abu Usamah, who openly endorses the murder of gay people, and of Muslims who give up their faith. He also encourages the beating of little girls who refuse to wear the hijab. This university would never allow a lecture by a white supremacist who used racist abuse and advocated the murder of black people, and rightly so. Why then do we see these double standards?

Abu Usamah has been invited to address the Islamic Society at University College London on Monday, 30th November. Previously, on 4th November, City University had given him a similar platform. The Vice Chancellor of City University London, Julius Weinberg, should surely consider his position: he has previously ignored student’s complaints after the Islamic Society organised an on-campus meeting addressed by Abu Usamah.

It is alarming that the student’s union has defended the hosting of this hate preacher, and that the Vice Chancellor has not responded to protests from some students. This actually violates the equal opportunities policies of the university and the student’s union.

Abu Usamah was recorded for Channel Four’s television documentary, Undercover Mosque, as saying: “Do you practice homosexuality with men? Take that homosexual man.... and throw him off the mountain.... If I was to turn around and I was to call homosexuals perverted, dirty filthy dogs that should be murdered, that’s my freedom of speech isn’t it?”

On Muslims who leave the faith he said: “Kill him in the Islamic state...If the Imam wants to crucify him, he should crucify him. The person is put up on the wood and he’s left there to bleed to death for three days.”

Abu Usamah was also filmed by Channel Four deriding women as “deficient”, inferior to men, and religiously and intellectually “incomplete”. He advocates violence against little girls who refuse to wear the hijab: “She should start hijab from the age of seven, by the age of ten it becomes an obligation on us to force her to wear hijab and if she doesn’t wear hijab, we hit her.” Another speaker given a platform at the same City University event on 4 November, Murtaza Khan, was also caught on the Undercover Mosque documentary calling Jews and Christians “enemies” and non-Muslims “filthy”.

We may talk of, and strive for, "integration" at European level. Perhaps we need also to get our own houses in order.

Peter Tatchell is an Australian born British politician and human rights campaigner. In 1983 he stood for the Labour Party in the Bermondsey by-election, where he lost to Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes following what has been widely criticised as a "homophobic" campaign by Hughes.

He is co-founder of the gay rights lobbying group 'Outrage!' and he attracted international attention in 1999 and 2001 for his valiant attempts to place Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe under citizen's arrest on charges of torture and human rights abuses.

He joined the Green Party in 2004, and was named Campaigner of the Year in The Observer Ethical Awards 2009.