London met uni considering banning alcohol for its muslim students.

[mj.scuba]

"Now we've got a younger generation that are often exceedingly conservative, and we need to be much more cautious about [sex] too.

 

Looks like they better have No Kissing Zones and No Fornicating student blocks as well.

[ferno]

And as the university itself says the muslim women who attend the university are not allowed to attend a uni away from home or even in the centre of London, and they have to be escorted to and from uni by a male relative.

 

 

.

 

Professor Gillies said the University was "much more cautious" about the portrayal of sex on campus than universities had been 30 or 40 years ago, the Times Higher Education reported.

Many of its female Muslim students "can only really go to university within four miles of home and have to be delivered and picked up by a close male relative", he said.

"Now we've got a younger generation that are often exceedingly conservative, and we need to be much more cautious about [sex] too.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9199759/London-Metropolitan-University-mulls-alcohol-ban-for-conservative-Muslim-students.html

 

You're misrepresenting what the university said. The university did NOT lay down any rules about catchment or escorting students, as you claimed.

[Badlittlepup]

No it doen't. 61% Islington define themselves as Christian and 9% as Muslim.

 

It has campuses in Tower Hamlets which are likely to be the campuses they are referring to. 33% of the population is Bangladeshi there according to official figures and only 44% are white British. The other 23% are other ethnic minorities and by and large they tend to be muslim in that area.

 

I would hazard a guess it is the city and east end campuses this would refer to.

[ferno]

It has campuses in Tower Hamlets which are likely to be the campuses they are referring to.

 

 

No it doesn't:

 

We have two campuses in London. London City and London North.

 

http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/find-us.cfm

[Badlittlepup]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9199759/London-Metropolitan-University-mulls-alcohol-ban-for-conservative-Muslim-students.html

 

You're misrepresenting what the university said. The university did NOT lay down any rules about catchment or escorting students, as you claimed.

 

That's misrepresenting what I said I never claimed the university had 'set down rules', merely that the university itself admitted that this was the situation many of it's female students were in.

 

 

Perhaps the uni should be encouraging a bit more freedom for these women rather than simply describing this as a 'conservative attitude' and making adjustments to accomodate such attitudes?

[ferno]

That's misrepresenting what I said I never claimed the university had 'set down rules'

 

 

Yep, you did, you also claimed there are low numbers of gay students at London Met, what's your evidence for this please?

[spooky3]

That's misrepresenting what I said I never claimed the university had 'set down rules', merely that the university itself admitted that this was the situation many of it's female students were in.

 

 

Perhaps the uni should be encouraging a bit more freedom for these women rather than simply describing this as a 'conservative attitude' and making adjustments to accomodate such attitudes?

 

[ferno]

 

Incidentally you might find that the number of gay students at London Met is rather low as it has a reputation for being rather an unwelcoming campus for such students.

 

 

Source? Where did you hear this?

[Badlittlepup]

No it doesn't:

 

We have two campuses in London. London City and London North.

 

http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/about/find-us.cfm

 

Yes, City Campus. That link shows several addresses in E1 which is Tower Hamlets, mainly Whitechapel.

[ferno]

Yes, City Campus. That link shows several addresses in E1 which is Tower Hamlets, mainly Whitechapel.

 

Unfortunately, that's not where the new bar is:

 

The president of London Metropolitan University students’ union has called for the vice-chancellor to apologise after he suggested the sale of alcohol should be banned from parts of the campus because some Muslim students believed drinking was “immoral”.

 

Claire Locke said Malcolm Gillies had "offended" Muslim students by generalising about their beliefs. There had been no calls from students to create alcohol-free areas on the London Met campus, she said.

 

Ms Locke argued that London Met's Muslim students were “respectful of other people’s cultures”. Muslim students’ union officers were currently fighting for a new student bar to be opened at the university’s City campus, she added.

 

Ms Locke said it was not true that Muslim students did not drink, and that in the previous academic year three out of the four Muslim students’ union officers had drunk alcohol. “He should retract the comments and apologise to the students he has offended,” she said.

 

Responding to her comments, Professor Gillies said that the Islamic prohibition against alcohol was “quite clear”, although the practice of Muslims regarding drink varied.

 

“It’s indisputably clear because it’s immoral [in Islam],” he said. “If you speak to virtually any Muslim student they will tell you what their teaching is.”

 

Professor Gillies said that some students, particularly Muslim women, would feel uncomfortable attending university events in a pub, for example, and that the concerns he raised could apply to other groups such as American Protestants or Buddhists.

 

“What we don’t want is the tyranny of a majority view,” he said, arguing that universities needed to have spaces where any type of student felt comfortable.

 

The proposals have generated a largely negative response online.

 

Speaking about the reaction to Professor Gillies’ comments, Ms Locke said: “I think it’s been extremely unhelpful [for London Met]. I don’t think the vice-chancellor has thought this through properly.”

 

She said that the university was shutting down a building called the Hub, which contains a bar, and the union was seeking a replacement. “Is he just generalising [about] the Muslim community in order to justify cuts to the student services?” she asked.

 

 

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=419642&c=1

 

 

The story's a storm in a tea cup. Your disgraceful dishonest claims about what's happened are depressingly predictable.