Goldsmiths' Islamic Society students disrupt human rights activist's speech

A renowned human rights campaigner has told how she was "intimidated" by Muslim students at a London university during a talk on radical Islam.

Members of the Goldsmiths University Students Union’s Islamic Society switched off a projector and heckled as Maryam Namazie delivered a lecture on Monday evening.

The students disrupted the speech, entitled ‘Apostasy, blasphemy and free expression in the age of Isis’, because they claimed it “violated their safe space”.

Footage of the lecture showed one student getting out of his seat and switching off a projector when a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad was displayed.

Ms Namazie, who was recently blocked from speaking at Warwick University’s students’ union over claims she is “inflammatory”, said after the incident: “When the talk went ahead as planned, ISOC ‘brothers’ attended the meeting in order to disrupt and create a climate of fear and intimidation.”

Speaking to the Telegraph, she added: “They shut my projector, shouted over me, threw themselves on the floor. They created a climate of fear and intimidation. I spoke as loud as I could.

“Security had to come in to allow me to carry speaking and the same person who shut my projector came back into the room again. I shouted ‘you have to get out’ and security finally escorted him out."

Ms Namazie is an Iranian-born activist who campaigns against religious laws such as Sharia.

She is also a member of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and was named Secularist of the Year by the National Secular Society in 2005.

Goldsmiths Islamic Society accused Ms Namazie of "harassment" of its members after the incident.