A COUPLE OF weeks ago, UCL was treated to Islamic Awareness Week, a series of lectures ostensibly aimed at encouraging an increased understanding and tolerance of our Muslim neighbours. Odd then, that one of the lecture slots was handed to Harun Yahya, a group of evolution-deniers convinced that Darwin’s theory is incompatible with their religious beliefs and must be denounced at all costs — what this has to do with Islamic Awareness is anyone’s guess.
Oh the irony
As a secular university, UCL encourages the freedom of speech, but the venue they offered Harun Yahya beggars belief: the Darwin Lecture Theatre, built on the very spot that Charles Darwin once lived.
Gloating
The gloating tone of the posters didn’t help; students were invited to celebrate the “collapse of the evolution theory” in the Darwin LT, on the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s discovery. Thankfully, the rather outrageous choice of venue proved to be a mistake on the part of the naive Room Bookings service, and the lecture was re-sited once biologists had alerted Provost Malcolm Grant to the situation. In the end the lecture took place in the Gustave Tuck LT - originally built using a donation from a former head of the Jewish Historical Society.