A sense of proportion is necessary
Posted by Patrick Clibbens on February 14th, 2007
The coverage of this issue on many of the blogs which have picked it up needs a sense of perspective. Clareification is a magazine by Clare students, and aimed at Clare students. I am not a Clare student (and have no official ties with Clare College whatsoever) and have never even seen a copy of Clareification; nor have I ever read the magazine of any college other than my own, and this will be true for the great majority of students here (it was for everybody I asked).
To someone unfamiliar with the University of Cambridge’s collegiate system, it may seem strange that this story is not bigger news, but most people have never seen the material that is causing all the fuss. Even if we assume that all of Clare’s 640 or so students read it, that leaves 97.5% of the University’s student population of over 25,000 who are extremely unlikely to have read the magazine. Why aren’t there marches on the streets of Cambridge? Because almost nobody would know what they were marching for.
Some blogs and the National Secular Society are setting the individual in question up as a martyr to free speech, whose cause should be championed across the blogosphere. It seems not to have occurred to them that Clareification is distributed to its authors’ peers, and not designed for wider publication. I would hazard a guess that the guest editor had no idea that this magazine would (belatedly) get national and even international attention, does not want to be cited across the globe and would rather be left alone. There have been no efforts by the editor or the magazine’s authors to put the magazine on the internet in the name of free speech. Regardless of any disciplinary proceedings that may take place, I don’t doubt that Clare College and its student body consider this young person’s safety and privacy to be paramount. Others might want to take it into account.
Perhaps there will now be more accusations that we are “wimps” or “self-censoring”. No, we are just being sensitive to the needs of the real people involved rather than sloganeering. And the accusations that the authorities are threatening us with their Cheka attack dogs if we don’t toe the line are endearingly barmy.
Filed under: clareification, freespeech, religion on February 14th, 2007
Patrick, I understand why Clare College wants to deal with this issue internally and why people in the college don’t want to make a big deal of it. The gist of your post, although you don’t use these words, is that everyone else should mind their own business.
The trouble is, free speech is everyone’s business. Clare College might be a private institution but the censorship of a student magazine on the grounds that it might provoke trouble from Muslim groups (assuming that this is what happened), is of concern to people beyond Cambridge University. Surely you can see why so many people around the world are interested in this story.
I’m inclined to agree with Steve. I appreciate we cannot force you to publish certain stories. Yet, had this debacle concerned the insinuations made against the Clare Union president, that would have been purely an internal matter; the way it has manifested itself, though, affects the Outside World as well. Concerning the apparent surprise we’re seeing at the resurrection of this “old story”, it is only three weeks old. In days of yore, before mass media and e-mail and mobile phones (you may have read of them in history books), such a time scale would have been perfectly routine.
The problem is you still need to say ‘assuming that this is what happened’. Why are you assuming this is what happened? Why have you decided this is a matter of free speech being censored? It might be, but you and I do not know. The way it has been portrayed in the ‘Outside World’ is a fiction, based on a complete lack of information.
Considering that, I do not see why an internal Clare process, both by the College and by the student body (some of whom are standing up for the editor, I have been led to believe) is an inappropriate response for an internal Clare magazine. I am interested: would you still be responding in the same way if this had appeared in a sixth form magazine, handed out to other school students? At this stage, I do not see whose interests are served by making grand statements about free speech and censorship on the Internet. Maybe it will become appropriate, but at the moment there is a process and it should be allowed to take its course first.
Hi, Patrick.
I can assure you that Pommy’s aim is the precise opposite from “assuming” that a certain series of events “has happened”. Instead he is leaving open the possibility that his stated view is inaccurate which, again, is a point the CEN and university spokespeople should have considered before making such perjorative statements. His choice of neutral language can be compared to your “led to believes”.
There have, I conceed, been individuals in the Outside World who have made sweeping statements about free speech and civil liberties, or pushed their own bigoted agenda, based on the sparse details which we have seen. I do not approve of the former, and certain not the latter, as does no doubt Pommy. This has been fueled by what looks like attempts of a cover-up by certain university figures.
And, of course, I meant Steve and not Pommy(granate).
And, in response to your question about sixth form colleges; yes.
Patrick
The problem is you still need to say ‘assuming that this is what happened’.
Yes. We do. Because noone will tell us.
So, tell us what happened, Patrick, by sending us the offending publication. Then people can make up their own minds.
You’re going to have more luck, Pommy, getting a condom machine installed in the Vatican (oh, have I just issued an incitement to religious hatred?). I compare this carefree and concilatory attitude to that Niemuller was referring to, I really do.
As I said in the post you’re commenting on, I “have never even seen a copy of Clareification”. This is still true, and I cannot send you a copy or even tell you what’s in it. I shall remember Pastor Niemöller’s words when Clare College come for me too.
Criticism of a religion, especially one as cruel, misogynistic and blackmailing as either islam or christianity is not racism.
It is the exercise of free speech, for freedom
The Clare college authorities should be ashamed of themselves.
Tell the christians that Yeshua ben Joseph was the result of the umarried mother Mary’s sex act, and the muslims that Mohammed made it up as he went along.
Aftre all, there isn’t a god, unless someone has managed to produce an invisible friend in the last few minutes?
Especially, tell the arrogant bully, Hicham Kwieder to go and rectally insert a pork sausage ……