The School, the LSESU and the LSESU Islamic Society were fully aware that Reza Pankhurst, the teacher at the centre of a national media storm regarding allegations of preaching extremist views, was previously a member of a “hardline” Islamist group.
Pankhurst, currently undertaking a PhD in the Government department and employed as a graduate teaching assistant, has never denied his involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir. However, he was not forthcoming about his membership of the group until after the media storm that erupted last Thursday. When “informal” concerns were raised last year to the Students’ Union by two recipients of his sermons, the then Sabbatical Officers were led to believe that he was not a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Although both articles in the Times and the Guardian have stated that Hizb ut-Tahrir is listed under the National Union of Students’ (NUS) policy of “no platform” organisations, it should be noted that this was revised at a recent NUS conference. It resolved that the early motion had “falsely accused” Hizb ut-Tahrir, and it was subsequently removed.
However, the organisation is banned in Germany for anti-semitic activity, and is currently under review by the Home Office. A prominent member of the Conservative Party has spoken out against the organisation. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling stated: “..anyone who doubts its true character should take a look at the website for its sister organisation in Bangladesh, which talks about evil American plans to subjugate Muslims and about mobilising armed forces to eliminate the Jewish entity. We cannot allow such views free rein in our society.”
“No concerns about his conduct have been raised with the School and we are not aware that he is a member of any proscribed organisation or has broken any laws or LSE regulations,” read a statement from the LSE. “All students and members of staff at LSE are entitled to freedom of expression within the law. Anyone who breaks a law or disciplinary regulation can of course expect action to be taken.”
A School spokesman replied that they “were aware of discussions on these matters at the Students’ Union but no complaints were ever directly raised with the School”, when questioned about whether the Deans of the School were aware that students had addressed concerns to the LSESU about Pankhurst’s comments in Friday prayers.
Between the months of September 2008 to February 2009, two separate individuals indicated to LSESU officials that the content of Pankhurst’s sermons contained material which raised concerns, according to the LSESU. LSESU General Secretary Aled Dilwyn Fisher found “the complaints themselves offered no evidence and were unspecific in nature” as “we could not substantiate them at all through discussions with Muslim students who were not members of the ISoc committee, but attended Friday prayers and other events where they would have heard Reza speak”.
Fisher continued: “We met with senior members of ISoc to discuss the issue, to make them aware of the complaints, and to express of our concerns; we asked them to be vigilant and report any issues to us directly. We also raised the issue informally with some academic members of the School, who agreed with our line of investigation.”
In response to the Times’ article, Fisher and LSESU Islamic Society President Talha Ghannam asserted in a letter that the article had “made a number of misinformed assertions about the LSE Students’ Union Islamic Society as a whole”, as it had accused Pankhurst of gathering a group of LSESU Islamic Society male members for private talks, in a so-called “Brothers’ Circle”. Both denied claims the Circles were “secretive”: “They are openly advertised in society emails and on the society website (http://lseisoc.com). All attendees are allowed to speak and challenge the views of others in an open environment of free speech. Non-Muslims have also been invited to Brothers’ Circle meetings.”
Pankhurst, responding to allegations concerning the “secretive” Brothers’ Circle at which he espoused his “hardline views”, said: “This is sensationalist inaccurate innuendo to compensate for no real accusation, in order to scare-monger amongst the wider public by painting false pictures of sinister, clandestine activities taking place.”
Recordings of Friday prayers will soon be made available online. The letter ended with: “Challenging extremism is vital, but careless reporting does nothing to counter this; it only serves to foster further divisions and tensions in society.”
A member of the LSESU Islamic society, who has attended Friday prayers every week that he has been in London revealed to the Beaver: “[Pankhurst] talks a lot about standing up for Muslims who are generally being oppressed but he never says anything directly about violence.
I wouldn’t class him as an extremist but he’s definitely not a conservative either. He has very strong views. But it is my feeling that many other people on campus, who are not Muslims, hold similarly strong views.”
“People from the Islamic Society appear to be protecting him by calling him a conservative. I warned them that they should not point the finger at other groups without checking on what their own people were saying,” continued the member.”Hizb ut-Tahrir, an organisation which has a long track record of promoting intolerance, has not abandoned its efforts to infiltrate British universities in order to spread its destructive, confrontational message. Its infiltration of internationally renowned universities such as the LSE make a mockery of universities’ claims to be tackling extremism on campus,” said a spokesman for the Quillam Foundation, an anti-extremism think-tank.
Pankhurst has taken legal advice with regard to an article printed in Friday’s Evening Standard, which he would like to be “withdrawn and never repeated”. He believes it to contain “baseless allegations” and is “outraged by their suggestion that [he] “groomed” Omar Sharif for the “Tel Aviv” attack”.
Professor Janet Hartley said that she and other senior members of the School had met with members of the Islamic Society on Monday morning and had a very constructive and open discussion.
They discussed the issues which had arisen over Friday prayers and the ways in which the School and the Society could together take matters forward.
“My main focus over the coming days will continue to be working with the Islamic Society to ensure that the media attention focused on the situation does not lead to the smearing of all Muslim students on campus. The Islamic Society have always been an extremely positive force in my time at the School and I will stand with them in continuing to be so,” noted Fisher.
Reza Pankhurst’s Statement
The latest media attention basically suggests that I am somehow unsuitable to be a lecturer or teacher at the LSE, due solely to my membership of Hizb ut Tahrir (HT). I don’t believe this is a personal agenda about me. Rather, this is a wider debate in which there seems to be an attempt to demonise anyone holding ideological opinions the British government doesn’t like, in a manner that the dictatorial “hereditary democracy” that is Egypt would be proud – hounding them into either remaining silent or else face being forced out of their profession. This new McCarthyism is apparent, with “reds under your beds” being replaced in this instance with “Islamists under your desks”.
First of all – let me be clear about my professionalism. As a teacher, my role is to run the undergraduate seminar in a manner that encourages the students to think about the subjects at hand in a critical and academic manner, in order to develop their thinking. Anyone who suggests that I have done otherwise, or am incapable of doing so for holding certain religious and political opinions, should verify with the Government department and the School to confirm with them how I am viewed both by the students and staff.
To suggest I am unable to talk about any issue academically, whether Islamic or otherwise, is an attempt to discredit both myself and my academia without any justification.
The fact is that I have had work on Middle Eastern and Islamic politics accepted for academic publication, and that whatever research I have done so far has been appreciated by scholars both in and outside of the LSE.
I would like to point out that no other religious or political grouping is treated in such a manner, whereby because someone is a Muslim who believes in Islamic values and the revival of an Islamic State in Muslim countries means that their professionalism is automatically questioned. This is actually a form of discrimination.
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