In the wake of the brief interlude of decency at the School of Oriental and African Studies (see post below), the School now seems to be returning to vicious type. At an extraordinary general meeting called for this Friday, the student union is due to debate a motion proposing to elect Ken Livingstone as honorary president.

This move is effectively an obscene gesture towards all those who have protested at the London Mayor's despicable behaviour towards the Evening Standard's Jewish reporter and, more importantly, his embrace of the extremist Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi. If passed, it will mean that the SOAS student union has elected as its honorary president a public official who has lent his support -- although he denies this as vehemently as do the proposers of this motion -- to a man whose published views have revealed him to be a menace to the lives of Jews, gays, women and others, a supporter of terrorism and of the philosophy of the Muslim Brotherhood which lies at the rotten core of the religious fascism which now menaces the free world.

If the SOAS student union wanted to hoist a flag for mass murder and pre-Enlightenment bigotry, they could hardly do better than this.

Posted by melanie at March 2, 2005