March 4, 2019 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
09:42
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| What happens in a British university when you're asked to give your opinion on things that are political? | |
| Well, if you don't have the right opinions, you get suspended. | |
| This is what happens to a UKIP member called Sebastian Walsh, who is 19 and suspended from his university over, quote, offensive and inappropriate comments. | |
| Oh, Sebastian, how could you? | |
| So he was suspended from the University of Central Lancashire and has been suspended after making comments about the Islamization of Britain and halal meat. | |
| In a letter to Mr. Walsh, the university said, specifically the allegations are that you have made statements within the classroom to the effect of saying the country is being Islamified, that people who do not speak English should not be paid for because this is our country, and that the practice of halal food is disgusting and barbaric, and that you would have to kill yourself if you ever ate halal meat. | |
| Some quite strong statements there, but nothing that I think is outside of the bounds of acceptable discourse. | |
| Perhaps maybe poorly formulated, but the kid is 19, and maybe a little forbearance should be considered. | |
| I mean, and just in case you think, well, that's a double standard, I actually said the same thing about Shemaima Begum in my chat with Chris Hicks on UKIP's official channel. | |
| I actually do think that there probably should be some allowance made for the fact that this person is still a teenager, because I realize that most teenagers end up smoking a joint behind the bike sheds or something, but everyone ends up doing something stupid. | |
| But either way, this is not the high crime they're making it out to be. | |
| And even if they thought it was that offensive, is suspending him really what they should have done? | |
| I mean, it's not like he isn't raising a good point, even if he's doing it in a way that seems clumsy. | |
| He said, I would never touch Subway or KFC because they use halal meat in their products. | |
| I don't agree with barbaric slaughter on any animals for a religion. | |
| Well, if you've ever seen a video of halal slaughter, and I'm not going to splice one in here because I am genuinely worried that YouTube might take my channel down, because it's pretty barbaric to watch. | |
| I mean, like, be under no illusions. | |
| It doesn't involve any consideration for the care of the animal itself. | |
| The funny thing is, we actually do have a legal requirement that you have to stun animals before you slaughter them, unless you have a religious exemption for halal and kosher slaughtering. | |
| So all this is, is a special privilege that is designed to allow a barbaric method of slaughtering animals to be practiced in the UK. | |
| I'm totally against this. | |
| I don't think that religions should have a special privilege position in this regard. | |
| And I do think that the welfare of the animal should come first. | |
| We went on to start discussing the Islamization of our country. | |
| And I think halal meat is contributing to this. | |
| What the hell was going on with that discussion? | |
| Was everyone in favour of the Islamization of the country? | |
| And when he said, actually, I think halal slaughter isn't very humane, what? | |
| Was everyone in the class just like, well, how could you possibly say that? | |
| I mean, if we're asking for people's opinions about the Islamization of the country, are we not allowed to be opposed to that? | |
| I mean, how can you say that having widespread halal meat isn't contributing to the Islamization of a country? | |
| I mean, that is one thing that you would do if you were in the process of Islamizing your country. | |
| Not that I'm saying this is being done like with any particular direction. | |
| It's just something that's happening and something that is changing the country in ways that people aren't being asked about and often don't have much of a choice about, especially as many of these outlets, many of these sort of fast food outlets have been doing it kind of under the table just because then they don't have to have any trouble from people who would be Muslim customers but won't come to their restaurants because they're non-halal. | |
| If they're allowed to make that decision for themselves, is he not allowed to make his own decision about not eating halal slaughtered meat? | |
| What they're saying with this is that he's not allowed freedom of conscience in the university. | |
| You have to follow the preset dogma, which I guess is pro-Islamization. | |
| In another lesson, we were asked about our views on the privatization of the NHS. | |
| How political is this classroom? | |
| He said, and this thing, his views weren't even radical on this, right? | |
| It should be privatized to the point where if you're not a legal UK citizen, you should not be entitled to free healthcare. | |
| I don't consider that even vaguely. | |
| I mean, I don't consider that connected to the concept of privatizing the NHS. | |
| That's just a question of who should have access to our free at the point of providing healthcare services. | |
| And the answer should obviously be UK citizens. | |
| How is that even a question? | |
| Obviously, people who are not from the UK, not legal UK citizens, should not have access to the NHS. | |
| They don't pay for it. | |
| I mean, we're not providing healthcare for the entire world, are we? | |
| I mean, and even then, like, you might say, well, why shouldn't we? | |
| Well, because we can't. | |
| Because we just don't have the resources. | |
| I don't know whether you've noticed, but the NHS is overstretched and underfunded, and it's a constant concern. | |
| And there will be no end to it either. | |
| I mean, there will simply be no end to it. | |
| While we have 250,000 new people arriving in the country who have not paid into the system, it will be the people who live in the country and have already paid into the system that will shoulder that burden. | |
| There is simply no way of getting around this. | |
| But anyway, that's all Sebastian said. | |
| And a week later, he got an email stating that the university had received a port from the tutors. | |
| Again, you know, neutral, apolitical, not trying to push an agenda here, except the person who objects to their agenda, well, he gets a complaint because apparently his conduct was unacceptable. | |
| What they mean is his ideas, his opinions were unacceptable. | |
| He was told by the university that he was suspended until September 2019 because he had made controversial statements that had breached a number of the university's conduct regulations, including those relating to harassment and bringing the university into disrepute. | |
| Well, I mean, I guess in a roundabout way, Seb has brought the University of Central Lancaster into disrepute. | |
| He has shown that they are absolutely not interested in dialogue or discussion or free exchange of ideas, and that they will be punitive to any of their students who have a dissenting political opinion whilst they're busy trying to indoctrinate them into left-wing politics in their classrooms. | |
| That is pretty damaging to a university's reputation, University of Central Lancaster. | |
| He was told he could return, however, after signing a future good conduct and behaviour agreement, you mean keeping your opinions to your fucking self-and by taking diversity training. | |
| That's right. | |
| He needs to be reprogrammed in a diversity training course because apparently he's not diverse enough. | |
| Mr. Walsh told KIPP Central he would not be signing any agreements that restricted his freedom of speech. | |
| Good. | |
| Thank goodness there is actually a major political party in the UK that is prepared to try and stand up for the values of free speech. | |
| Because God knows you're not going to get it from the Conservatives and Labour. | |
| Preston UKIP in dispute with UCLAN of students halal meet comments, according to the Lancashire Post. | |
| Members of UKIP have urged the University of Central Lancashire to drop the tyrannical ruling and uphold the values of free speech. | |
| Preston's UKIP party have written to deputy vice-chancellors at the University of Central Lancashire, asking them to allow Sebastian back based on the right to freedom of speech. | |
| The treasurer Neil Graham said, freedom of speech and freedom of thought are essential to liberty and essential to learning. | |
| They're fundamental to democracy itself. | |
| It doesn't matter whether Mr. Walsh's views are correct or not. | |
| He has the right to express them. | |
| The university is denying him his freedom and is now denying him his right to an education. | |
| This authoritarianism is entirely out of place in a free society. | |
| Members were truly shocked to hear of Mr. Walsh's experience. | |
| I'd like to say that I was shocked, but I wasn't shocked. | |
| I was just surprised this hadn't happened sooner, frankly. | |
| But on the plus side, we're going to do something about this. | |
| So Sebastian has decided to take legal action against the university, but he's not exactly a rich man and needs our help. | |
| He started a crowdjustice.com crowdfunder with 26 days to go out of a pledge request of £20,000. | |
| He has already raised £12,805. | |
| I personally am going to be donating £500 after I've recorded this video, and I'll leave a link in the description if you'd like to help him out as well. | |
| Because I do genuinely think it is important for us to fight for freedom of speech in universities. | |
| And him being a member of UKIP means that he will be singled out by the Guardian reading Corbyn Easters in the universities for persecution, as is obviously happening anyway. | |
| There was no justification for suspending him just because he had an opinion that ran counter to the mainstream current of the university. | |
| I mean, that is the purpose of universities, to have these ideas made public and to hash them out and actually have the debate, not just shut people down and silence them. | |
| So Seb has spoken to a barrister and he says that he has a very strong case to pursue, but he'll need initial funding to start the claim and see it through. | |
| If he's successful with the judicial review, he'll be readmitted to the university with a cleared record. | |
| But he says, I know the fight for fair and open discussion won't end there. | |
| And no, it of course won't, but it will definitely be a very strong card in our hands if we can force them to accept him back into the university with no fault on his part. | |
| Because really, he has committed no fault. | |
| He voiced an opinion on the subject at hand when asked to voice an opinion, and it wasn't the opinion they wanted, and so they've punished him. | |
| I consider this to be totally unjust. | |
| Even if you completely disagree with what he said, I think that there is an obligation on all of us to help him recover what he has. | |
| And at the end of the day, he's a member of UKIP. | |
| He's done his part. | |
| I mean, he spoke with me at Bolton at our UKIP rally there. | |
| So I am genuinely of the opinion that service guarantees citizenship and it's our responsibility to help him. |
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