Dawkins outraged by Islamic gender segregation at UCL

Yesterday evening, an event held at UCL sparked outrage in the atheist world. A debate as part of Hamza Andreas Tzortzis’ ‘Islamic Awareness Tour’, pitted the international public speaker on Islam against Lawrence Krauss, a world famous cosmologist, on the topic “Islam or Atheism: Which Makes More Sense?”. However, Krauss almost walked out after men and women were segregated to abide by Islamic law, and three students threatened with expulsion for sitting in the wrong place.

Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins then took to twitter in a rage over the event, appalled by the university’s endorsement of the segregation, leaving Dawkins particularly angry at UCL’s “cowardly capitulation to Muslims..” A succession of tweets expressed his dismay over this conduct as he blamed both Muslims and the university for enforcing the rule.

On his personal website he went on to describe how three young men moved into the women’s section of the audience before UCL security threatened to eject them. He described the segregation as “sexual apartheid” and called for “heads to roll”.

Being described by others on twitter as ‘modern’ and ‘secular’, UCL’s decision has caused an uproar within Dawkin’s followers, who now blame the university for “religious misogyny”. Many see this as a complete contradiction of UCL’s principles and maintain that the institution should not show preference to the religious ideals of any particular faith.

Mr Krauss posted a link to a video on twitter earlier today which shows him refusing outright to be involved with the event any longer as long as there was forced segregation in the audience. The video can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151324574843231&set=vb.506433230&type=2&theater

Some audience members in attendance expressed their shock on Facebook, with one member posting: “Ucl security helped to enforce the segregation. Shameful!”

Gender equality, a contentious issue for the vast majority of the student body, was sidelined last night and therefore the objectivity of a secular institution has come into question both within UCL and beyond Gower Street. Richard Dawkins has called for an inquiry as to whether UCL authorities were aware of the sexual apartheid, as he lamented the loss of our “enlightened thinking” and liberalism.