Death threats

need to be taken seriously. 

No, I do not mean the "I'll kill you" words that are sometimes uttered in frustration and anger - the sort of thing almost everyone has said at some time or another without meaning harm. That is not a death threat. Real death threats mean just that. There is the intention to do harm. 

I was asked yesterday whether a "fatwa" is a death threat. No, it isn't. It is a ruling by an Islamic legal scholar. It may contain a statement about what is seen to be the appropriate punishment for someone who is perceived to have broken Islamic law. It is not a death threat in itself.  A fatwa is not considered mandatory by many Muslim scholars. It can depend on the circumstances in which it was issued.

That said, the appropriate punishment for Salman Rushdie for writing "The Satanic Verses" was said to be death.  The fatwa was issued by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 and it has remained to this day.

It will be interesting to see what Muslim scholars say about the appalling attack on Rushdie. Will they support his attacker? 

I have been thinking about this and, while death threats for a difference of opinion in this country are rare, I wonder whether there isn't a sort of "fatwa" culture around some of the most outspoken woke activists here. They make a statement about an issue or a person and their disciples blindly follow and do their bidding. Anyone who questions these statements is then subject to a fatwa of sorts. They must be criticised and then ostracised. For these "scholars" there is no room for debate in the religions of climate, sexuality, or race. They consider themselves to be right and any dissent must be stamped out.  

The Senior Cat used to tell the story of seeing a member of staff at the university run an angry line through the page of a student essay and say of a certain academic theory, "This will not do." Needless to say the Senior Cat was not impressed. He enjoyed civilised debate and was open to at least listening to other ideas. Not so some academics.

This has gone so far that some of our universities are now openly telling students which line of thinking must be followed. Fail to follow that and you will fail. They are also telling students what must be studied and how they must react to it.  Naturally this occurs more in the so-called "arts" rather than the sciences but it does occur across all areas of learning. 

Universities were once places of inquiry and  for the debate of ideas. They were for learning, not just for future employment but for the challenges of new ideas. 

It seems to me there is a death threat to the human race if we do not allow this.