Prevented Education- Controlling The Narrative In Colleges And Universities - podcast episode cover

Prevented Education- Controlling The Narrative In Colleges And Universities

Jan 12, 20241 hr 7 min
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Episode description

Never mind learning, debating and meeting like-minded peers: in 2023, UK universities and colleges require students to conform to a government narrative, or else. Expelled for thinking, Saed sacrificed his education for his beliefs and principles. Read the write-up at: https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/prevented-education-controlling-the-narrative-in-colleges-and-universities

Transcript

Hello and welcome to another UK column interview. My name's Debbie Evans and for those of you that might not know me, I'm a retired nurse, I'm a past government advisor, I'm a mum and I'm a granny. And that's why I'm particularly particularly grateful to the three young men that have joined me today. Who's listening to you? What can you say? Who's watching you? What can you do? Is it OK to think?

And if it is, if it's alright for us to think, what can we think about without repercussions? Do we live in 2023 or are we living in 1984? Many who are watching and who are regular members of UK column news will know that we have been reporting on censorship, eradication of free speech, thought crime and terrorism, counter terrorism, domestic terrorism for many, many months

and many years. Actually, Brian Gerrish was first talking about Prevent. We're going to be talking about Prevent today, back in 2015, but many people might not realise that Prevent came to my attention and very, very quickly to the centre of my radar because of the courage of three young men who have stood up and told their story about what

they've been going through. Not only have they been telling the story, but they've been supporting one another and I'm delighted therefore to introduce you to a very brave teenager called Saeed who was looking forward to his further education, studying A levels and his life was completely changed. So first of all, I'm going to introduce you to Saeed and we've blurt him out to preserve his identity because he has his whole life in front of him and there will be potential

litigation ahead of him. And we've also blurred out his supporter as well to preserve his identity and confidentiality. So without further ado, let me bring on screen for a very brief introduction. Saeed, thank you so much for agreeing to speak to UK column. Would you like to just briefly introduce yourself?

My name is Saeed and I am I was studying for the education course at a college within the United Kingdom when suddenly I was threatened with Prevent for simply expressing the opinion in class that a transgender person should not be able to use the opposite sex bathroom because I thought it was wrong. I don't have any hate towards any group or anyone, but I was just expressing this opinion. I said in class the way I said

this. I said, I said, you know, can anyone identify as any gender they want? The class was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course. And they said, OK and can anyone who identifies as any gender they want to use the bathroom or the sex they identify with to to a response I received. Yes, yes, yes, of course, of course. So when I said, OK, on that note, I identify as a girl and I will be using for girls changing groups to which your class was like what?

You can't say that. You can't say that. Eventually I was referred to to the like the safeguarding lead of my colleague who said that it was a transphobic comment. I said to her, I said, you know, this is not transphobic. I was just making a point about people using a different bathroom for nefarious reasons. Which, you know has been the

case many times unfortunately. And then I was told about this is against the Equality Act. But if my colleague actually read the Equality Act, it doesn't actually mention anything about about people who identify as with different sex being able to use different bathrooms. It specifically excludes that for obvious reasons. Of course, this is for law. And I then said that you know that my faith is of the is of is of the Christian faith.

And I I do not, you know, believe in certain agendas going on today. People are. I said, you know, people are free to believe that on their own time. But I'm not going to be taking part in this. You know no no disrespect to anyone to which I was told that my Bible is not relevant. I said you know this is very offensive and this is discrimination And then I got told well I could have this conversation with Prevent. Eventually I I complained to

another member of staff. She was like some deputy in the school and I was told by her to wait a week and I would receive an an apology. And eventually I received an apology and yeah, I was told to wait a week and a meeting would happen. And in that meeting I received an apology. I accepted, you know the apology and I thought I would move on with my life, studying very hard to get the grades I needed in my course.

And then a month later, a Prevent officer came into my college to speak to me without notifying me in the first place. Saeed, I want to just stop you for a second because I do want to go into much more detail about your story because it really it it it's shocking what has happened to you because of the impact that it's had on on your education. But before I do, I just want to bring on screen.

James, you are one of the founder members of Students Against Tyranny, and you've been helping Saeed and supporting him. But not only have you been helping and supporting Saeed, you also help and support many other students who are finding themselves isolated and censored for all sorts of different reasons. Really grateful that you could join us today. Welcome, and tell us a bit about how you've been able to help Saeed and also a bit more about Students Against Tyranny.

Thank you so much for having me on. So I found Decisions Against Tyranny on the 5th of September, 2021, and it was originally started as a kind of social group for young people who didn't want to get vaccinated because at the time a lot of them were facing societal pressures. Would that be from the government, from the media, from their parents, from their families, from the schools, pretty much from all walks of

life? And they were all being pressured to get the jab and a lot of them didn't want to. And so we understood that as students, you might feel quite lonely and isolated in the sense that all your friends are getting it or your friends are pressuring you to get it. And so we founded this organization as a social group to bring like minded young people together. So they didn't feel so alone and isolated.

And they could. I kind of have AI don't want to use the term safe space, but it was a safe space for them to have their own opinions without fears of repercussions or being branded as a far right extremist, you know, an outcast. So that's how it started. And it has since transpired now into an activism movement of young people opposed to institutionalized Marxism and the shutdown of free speech within universities. I think the harsh reality is

that Side Story isn't a new one. There are literally we get tons of phone calls every single week from students and young people who are being bullied, persecuted by the, by the university establishment, by their friends, by Antifa for having these so-called right wing extremist views. You know, the the extremist views that a man cannot, cannot contain female genitals. So that's kind of how it

started. I mean there's a story we're current, we've been working on now for the past year of a a young lad who's also anonymous, who goes by the name of John Christian and like we don't have time to go for his full story. But it all started because he said he was pro Brexit and in response to that you have faculty.

You had students who were all conspiring to engage him in a debate and then when he then when he would debate them back, they would find something to be offended over and report him for it. Like for example there was a what was it they would engagement a debate about the Irish abortion referendum. Because if anyone doesn't know what that means, it kind of legalized abortion in Ireland. I think it was 2019. I think it was.

I'm not too sure on that. But they they're the ones who started the debate and he responded, He debated back and they still reported him for it and he went for a disciplinary. It ended up after five years of studying for his PhD, they refused to assess his thesis, all because he had of the his right wing conservative viewpoints. And then you've got another person, James assess, who was kicked off his course for stating there are only two

genders. You've got another one of our friends who is also going to remain anonymous for the time being, who has been bullied and persecuted and made a meme around his university and forced him to leave, right. They they bullied him so much he's had to leave all because he he he said that that transgender ideologies is grooming kids.

It's absolutely disgusting. But this isn't just at a this isn't just being done by Antifa. This has been done at an institutional level where free speech is being shut down and Marxist values are the ones that are being upheld. It really does sound as though debate has gone out of the window. I thought that this was why youngsters went to college, went to university, in order to debate, in order to throw around different ideas, but that obviously seems to have gone. Now.

At this point, I want to introduce Dylan, because, Dylan, we've also blurred your identity out because you are a friend of Saeed's and you've been a great support and I know Saeed has spoken to me independently and said how grateful he is to you for your support. Dylan, how did how did this all present to you? How did you get to find out about it and what are your thoughts about what's happened to Saeed? I'd say to go from the

beginning. I once met at Saeed in A and outreach with who are associated with Ramisa's team. He's a rapper in in the freedom movement who protest against the the jabs and lockdowns. I met at this that outreach March back in April the 15th this year they were going on about our cashless societies and digital ID. So I met him but I did know him online fine.

So we met in person and we discussed about what we know and and then there was another meet up and then he told me about his situations, how he got in trouble and like maybe I couldn't, shouldn't be that surprised how they kicked outside for for saying about, for basically saying about there's only two genders or that a man and can't be a woman. Maybe that's not going to be surprising to me or anyone who's in just basically in favor of truth, at least as a bare

minimum. But to know that how he got, how they've been handling this, that's what's shocking to me. And obviously side is not going to be the first and he's not going to be the last. There's going to be more who are going to be persecuted for such ideas. Maybe not the same words that he says, but other ideas too. And it's could possibly get even more worse, unless we all do something about it, at least in our own way, that would account

for something. Yeah, I think very, very wise, wise words there, Dylan. And you know, we've only just scraped the tip of the iceberg with Saeed's story because Saeed, take us through a bit more of your story because it it gets worse, doesn't it? They originally apologized to you, but it was conditional. You were asked to do certain things, weren't you? Tell us a bit more about what happened to you after you'd made these comments in class.

So after that I thought, you know, panic over now the college has representative of the college has kind of, yeah, unofficially apologised. I'm just going to go my way now. So I went my way and then about a month later, this parental officer comes and the first thing he asks. Really weirdly was. Well, well, I'll say what he said first. He said, hello, I'm from Prevent. There's no need to be worried. I'm not going to go and take you off. Now Prevent is a scheme which blah blah blah.

And I thought, OK, right. And then he said something which really stuck with me and I thought, why would you associate this with with me? He said, Do you think there's a Jewish conspiracy to take to control of the world? And I thought, what's a weird question to ask, you know, I said no, I don't think, you know, I don't have any hate towards any ethnic group. I said no. I simply just believe that someone of a certain sex shouldn't be using the bathroom of an opposite gender for, you

know, nefarious reasons. And which of course is happening a lot these days. And then he went on further and he just said that. He just said that I should, you know, change my opinions. I'm prepared for things like this. I know how to debate so. But I was careful with what to say because I know how you know, with Prevent, it all starts with like, oh, we're not we're not here to hurt you. We're just here to listen. Then you say something and then suddenly it turns into a a

bigger investigation. And I I know how to deal with these people. So I I was quite quiet and I managed to get out of the meeting. I asked for his number, his badge number, and I've got it. But then what? What happened afterwards was it was just quiet for a couple of months. I I came into college and until March of 2023, when all of a sudden I was forced to sign a contract, a behaviour contract

which said that I would. Promise not to say anything offensive or irrelevant in class and the college reserves the right to to deem what is offensive or not. Of course I had this problems with this, and this was actually coming away from the topic which we talked about moving on to A to a topic of disagreeing with certain narratives around the world. In my one of my classrooms, there was a statue of Tony Blair in the back of it.

And I made a comment and I said, you know, if if we've got a statue of Tony Blair, who's in my opinion a war criminal and who's done horrible things to many different people, I I said, can we have a statue of Vladimir Putin as well? You know, like what's the difference? One invades Iraq, one invades Ukraine. You know, with all due respect, what's the difference? And um, I was told that, oh, you know, you can't say that. How dare you compare Iraq to Ukraine?

I thought, OK, right. So then I was told about how that's offensive comment and I was accused of watching Russian state media in my spare time. Right. Of Russia Today and. I was told, you know, but I should sign it or else face disciplinary actions. And when I tried to protest, I was told, you know, this meetings ended. You know, sign it or face disciplinary action. Of course I didn't sign it because I am a man of principles.

I have principles. And then unfortunately, what happened a few weeks later was I was actually suspended for. A comment I made in banter which and I maintain, you know it was in banter towards young lady who happened to have, I think, who happened to have a Jewish dad or allegedly a Jewish dad, bearing in mind this. Girl. Had had, you know, made several Bantress comments of her own and actually posted what was tantamount, I think, to inappropriate images of people under 18 on her Instagram

account. I thought, you know, it was just some some banter which I've engaged in and you know, it was, it was a mistake I made, I admit, but I didn't really think that it would go as far as it did. So the college suspended me based on that, but then a few days later they sent a letter saying. That it's been clear, transphobic comments have also

been made. And I thought this is quite weird now because what I thought was a somewhat of a disciplinary reason has now turned into a political reason for suspending me now bearing in mind these social media comments were made in Snapchat and I actually apologise, you know, to like schoolmates, right? And I had, you know, apologised personally and it was, I thought it was just a silly, you know, little thing, teenagers doing Snapchat.

I didn't really think anything of it and it took about a week for it to be reported, which I thought was quite. Odd. I'll get I'll get to that a bit in a minute because I think what happens next is quite is even more serious. So what happens next was I was told, you know, that I was suspended from college and then after and the police investigation would be made against. Me. Before you know, for making, for involved, for being involved in

a hate crime. They labeled it a hate crime and I was told I had to come to a disciplinary meeting. I came to a disciplinary meeting and in the disciplinary meeting I I was told, you know, that I needed to. Either engage fully with Prevent or else you know, be summer summarily dismissed from college. And I thought, you know, this is absolutely not not right. You know this is just a an incident on Snapchat which has been blown way out of proportion.

And I even stated myself that this girl who had made his accusations had actually goaded me to, you know, engage in banting in the 1st place and. Other things, sorry. The other point was there was other things brought up at the disciplinary meeting which made me think that I wasn't being done, you know, for anti-Semitism, which is what it was called. But I was being accused of other, you know, about my political views, my faith views

as well. And I was told I was asked repeatedly at this meeting, do you think the Bible is above the law? Do you still think the Bible is above the law? And I refuse to answer that because I know that's a loaded question against my faith. I was also told about I yeah, I was told a bunch of accusations. But I I believe I'm a conspiracy theorist and I I'm not properly learning in class because I'm refusing to believe what the teacher teaches and instead, you know, forming my own opinions

based on what I read online. I was accused of, of many things, which I'm actually kind of. There's so many of it. I'm struggling to recount them all because it was a very traumatising. Event and then I. I realised, you know, the direction the in the meeting was going in, it was essentially, you know, some the college forcing their opinions on me.

And I said at the end I said OK, OK, I understand, you know, that there's, you know, you don't want me to have my own opinion and I'm not allowed my opinion in college. Why don't I stop, you know, speaking about my views in college and I express my views outside of College in, I don't know, with my friends or, you know, just outside of college, which I thought was a fair comment to make the college.

Or a certain person of the college turned around to me and said how dare you, how dare you have your own opinion after all we've done for you, by trying to force you to engage with prevent, by trying, by even by letting you have a second chance here by, you know, suspending you and not immediately expelling you. You know, how dare, how dare you have your own opinion. And these were her words, like

how this was quite shocking. And she said actually just for thinking that you can privately think your Christian beliefs and your beliefs about so-called conspiracy theories. Um, we're going to suspend you for another week and we're going to see what we're going to do with you then, You know, how dare you think that privately? Not not express them in classroom, Which, by the way, I think as long as it's done respectfully, people have their right to do.

But express them in your own personal time. I was quite upset about this because I thought, you know. This is. This is just ludicrous. Now, you know, like what? What am I? I even forgot what I was in trouble for in the 1st place. Was it something I said on Snapchat?

Was it just for being me, You know, when a week rolls round and I was actually told by the college that I was, that I was to be expelled Because very simply I was told, you know, that I would be expelled for for lying to the college. Because because apparently, you know, we spoke to this girl and this girl said that she never spoke to me in the 1st place and it was on my own accord, which was a complete lie and I've got evidence to prove that. But but anyway, that's another

story. I was also told that for refusing to change my beliefs and therefore refusing to meaningfully engage with a prevent course, OK, but I would be expelled from college because I refused to change my beliefs. I said, you know, this is wrong, this is freedom of thought. And they they were like, Oh no, you know, your opinions are disrupting other people's learning.

Your freedom of thought isn't reflective of the college values and is undermining us because, you know, we've we've given you so many chances. You know, we tried. We they, they actually thought they were being nice by making me sign a contract and making forcing me to engage with prevent, OK. They said, well, we're being nice to you because we're trying to get you to see the error of your ways by doing that. And I thought they said how could you be so ungrateful to us?

You know, this really reminds me of what, you know, the Soviets did, or what you know many regimes around the world would do to to innocent people who protest against them. You know, and this is happening in the UK. So I protested and I said, you know, this isn't right. Then a few days, then a day later, I got a formal e-mail to say that you know it's you're being dismissed now for saying these for for. Using, yeah, to change your opinions and for a bunch of other things.

And the tone of the letter actually changed to say that, well, we just don't think the college is the right place for you. Because this is what if you look at the people who do, who you know commit many horrible crimes. They initially are very proud of their attacks, but then when they've realised that they're getting criticism for it, they suddenly say Oh well, we never did that in the 1st place or it wasn't like that. Look look what the other person did.

This is exactly what my school has been doing to me. They've been saying they've committed awful civil liberties violations against. Me and are now claiming that, Oh well, you know, it just didn't work out for you at college, it didn't work out for you here, and they actually sent quite a patronising e-mail to say that. Oh, by the way. We know we've scuppered all like your life.

The tone of it was like, yeah, you know, we've scuppered all like your life plans and everything now, but feel free to come and drop by college for a careers interview appointment, which I thought was so patronising. My mental health was really. At a low point here, I was even, you know, contemplating suicide based over what has happened to me at college. And I was told, I was told, you know, quite mockably by the college.

Why don't you just get a job? And I thought, this isn't, you know, I had plans to further my education, you know, to to study a further education course and now this has happened, which is absolutely disgraceful. Saeed, can I just jump in there because I think it's really important that our audience knows. I mean, they're they're hearing it for themselves. And clearly you are a very intelligent, articulate, measured young man.

And you're absolutely right when you say, you know, this appears to be thought crime, you're being punished for thought crime. But I just want everybody to understand that you were predicted A grades, weren't you? You mean, you know, you had big ambitions and you've just suddenly you've been expelled and you've had to confront a prevent officer that I'm presuming you weren't told was going to come and visit you. What actually happened?

Were you in class? Were you suddenly summonsed or how did you meet that Prevent officer and did you find out who the Prevent officer was? And let's remind our audience that prevents are the the Prevent scheme. The prevent system is to prevent young people from becoming radicalised. And it there they do an awful lot of work with the Home Office, counter terrorism, domestic terrorism if you want to to call it that and they look

at extreme right wing views. So all of a sudden you're just expressing an opinion, which is your whole right to do, and then you get a prevent officer. How did this, how did this suddenly happen and how are you informed of this? I wasn't informed. My parents got to call the day before saying that a Prevent about not even a prevent officer, just someone by the name of so and so will come into

my college. And my parent, my dad, was obviously confused about this and he told me, oh, apparently you've got a meeting with so and so at college. I thought, OK, I haven't heard that name before, maybe that's I don't really know what that is. So I came in and risk. Prevent officer was fair and he introduced himself and. Yeah, but that's what happened. My main concern is, you know, I don't, I'm a law abiding citizen. I don't, you know, have involvement with, you know, the

government, the police. I don't, you know, really understand why this has happened to someone who's just expressed his, you know, Christian opinions at school. Eventually, just a bit more about prevent a few months later as a condition of. Coming back to college. Because what the college did was they kind of trapped me with making with forcing me to engage with prevent and then suddenly drop pulling the pluck and saying, well, actually you can't

come back. So I've really wanted to go back to college to finish off my courses. So I said yes, OK, I'll, I'll do anything. I'll engage with Prevent despite, you know, begrudgingly. But yeah, OK, if it means going back to college, you know, to get in my courses because I don't really have a choice. I was, yeah, forced. To do it so with this prevent guy he he actually came round to my house and. The. Tone of the Because there was two meetings, the first meeting and the 2nd.

One a few months later, the second meeting, the tone was very different. He could actually. He was visibly like. His manner was different. He wasn't so, you know, cocky and proud. And I think I'm better than you sort of person. He was quite apologetic and he said, you know, I'm very sorry to hear what's happened at your college. And he actually said that I'm not here to get you to change your opinions. I just want you to see the other

side of things. And he actually said that, you know, Prevent, his words were Prevent doesn't deal with conspiracy theories. People could have their opinions, people could go on protests, People could do all of these things. We just want people to understand that there's a lot of misinformation out there on on the Internet and just to research both sides before you come to an opinion. Now that's a far cry from, you know, saying, well, do you believe there's a Jewish

conspiracy to run the world? But that's a bit of a far cry from it. And that kind of gave me the impression. That. There's been some misunderstanding maybe between my college prevent and the you know police or whoever and someone somewhere has messed up. You know if preventer apologizing to you saying saying that well we're very sorry for what's happened at your college. I think I know, you know, the

college has messed up big time. You know, prevent us saying that something very nefarious and something very, I would say quite, quite evil has gone on behind the scenes for that to happen. And also, Saeed, I mean, I've got to come back to your mental health, because you've already said earlier on in the interview that your mental health suffered and that at some point you did feel suicidal. And that's extremely troubling. And thank goodness you're still

here to to tell your story. But what tell us what kind of impact it has had on your mental health and how it has affected you? And were you offered any support at all while you were going through all of this? No support. I was offered no support at all by my place of education. I was offered no support. I was ridiculed. I was mocked. I was yeah, it was an awful time for I I I was going through it for a lot back then, and it was a very dark time in my life.

What kind of worried me the most was how the college had took this upon themselves. To report it to the police, a simple exchange of messages between 2 classmates at school. You know to the to the police rather than dealing with it themselves and saying you know what I think you've you know offended so and so could you just apologise And I if that if that was all that it was of course I would have apologised.

You know I take accountability for things that I I already you know, it was a domestic issue essentially between you know like 2 classmates and they made amends. You know domestically I apologise. They said I'm very, you know, sorry if I offended you. And this was without me being forced to or anything. And for the college to blow that up, you know, to the. Police. Because let's be honest, we all have. Friends, we all, you know, have ups and downs in our friendships.

We all, you know, have maybe said things which all maybe you shouldn't have said in hindsight, but to escalate it to the police and actually I was, you contacted the ex police inspector from the Welsh police I believe, who actually expressed the outrage that this, that simple comment of banter has been escalated you know, to the police when that just required a listen. Don't do that again sort of

conversation. But in all fairness though, because I was very worried because I was, you know, I thought am I going to go to prison for this? You know, I was just a teenager and I had, I thought, you know, because apparently you can go to prison for two years for sending messages online these days. Of course, this is the way our country is, which is not right at all my opinion. But the police were actually, the police actually were quite

understanding to have to say. They said they told they came to my house and they specifically told me that we're not going to charge you with anything. They said that we could see, you know, you've made a mistake and you know we're here to kind of listen to you and you know get your side of a story and which was really surprising. And they said we're we're not, you know, we're not going to charge you anything.

We're just here to let you know that obviously this is what's happened and maybe think for you send something like that online. And I thought, OK, fair, fair enough. You know, that's obviously the police's decision and that's quite good of them, you know, despite everything which has gone on. But then the police actually said that it was a bad, you know, decision to not charge.

And it was they've they've decided, you know, not to do that because I was so young that that their words actually was this what would what what would, you know, arresting you what would filing criminal charges against you do. They said all that's going to do is further, you know, isolate you at a already, you know, quite difficult time for you, which I thought actually made a lot of sense.

And it was quite, you know, shocking that the college didn't think about as well at my college because the police actually made it quite clear to my colleague that nothing was going to happen. And this, you know, was, you know, the police involvement there was finished. The college was actually they were quite angry that the police had just decided to leave it at that. And they, they were visibly quite.

They wanted something to happen to me and of course the rule of law prevailed and they didn't get the reaction they were looking for. So the college, the college were quite rude to me about it and just said, well you know you're expelled now because that's what they do.

You know when prevents, when you know prevent has actually actually told them Because the story is quite complicated of the sense that it started with the college, you know, thinking oh, we can get Prevent on him, we could do what we want and it ended with the police and prevent actually saying, you know what, we're not involved now. Sorry, this has gone too far. And you know, the college then took things into their own hands and, you know, decided to expel me. Which was quite.

Horrible, but yeah. Said, You know, college. I went to nursing school, but many of my friends went to to college and university and it. It's a place not just to debate and to learn, but it's also a place to socialise and get to know your peer group and share interests and have fun, happy times. How did how did all of this impact on your peer group, on your friends that you'd been at college with? How did they treat you? And and indeed, are you still in contact with your classmates?

Or effectively when you were expelled, you kind of lost contact with your your peer group as well? I was very scared because I was at that. Time I thought, You know all my I thought, OK, if a college are claiming to exit of course we know the real reason was for my beliefs. But if a college expel, if a college are expelling me and claiming that it's because of a

message I sent online. I thought how many, you know, other messages have I, you know maybe sent online or how many other I guess you know photos sorry Instagram posts of political kind of background have I posted or political tweets which, you know, the college might get a hold of. And in one of the disciplinary meetings they actually accused me of talking about Andrew Tate which obviously I have no recollection really of of showing support for Andrew Tate.

And it was everything which kind of I posted was getting back to them, which made me kind of come to the conclusion that someone, some student at my school was essentially being a snitch and reporting things because, you know, they don't like me. And I was, I was very scared because I thought, you know, all my friends turning on me, you know what's happening. But I so, so I had to make so, so I just made sure, you know maybe don't speak to as many people and only keep a few close

friends. Which looking back when it was probably the right thing to have done in that climate. I've got. Yeah, I'm still in contact with a few close friends from the college. I remember quite I think quite fittingly at the end of all of this was the fact that the college likes to talk about diversity and inclusion. But of course, you know you don't include mehi kind of thing. But two Muslim boys who know that my religion is different

from theirs. OK, who actually stuck with me throughout all of it, were always messaging me to support me. Always made it clear that they're my friends and you know, they're they're going to support me and actually made sure that, you know, I was alright throughout all of this. And if your college wants to talk about diversity and inclusion, then they should take a page out of, you know, maybe veteran students, books who are putting aside, you know, their religion to go and help someone

of opposites. You know religion. And I think that's quite, you know, ironic that all these big institutes which go on about, you know, wokism and inclusion and diversity actually doing the opposite. And yeah, it's just something which it's yeah, I'd never forget, really. And I'd like to say thank you to your two friends, your two Muslim friends as well for supporting you, because I think you shine a beacon of light into

how things should be done. We've talked about prevents a lot on UK column and how basically any one of us could end up with somebody at the door just like you did. But explain to us how it escalated to the police, because prevent officers, as we're as far as we're aware, can be anybody from a local authority official to a health official to

a professional. So when did this jump from prevent to all of a sudden you ended up what did you did you open the door and the police were suddenly at the door? Prevent was initially essentially dealing with my controversial opinions and I told them point blank, you know I'm not interested, but. How it kind of escalated to the police was, to be honest, it was a bit of my fault. But the college tried to report me for a hate crime to the

police. And the police, you know, made an investigation based on purely based on, you know, that message I sent online. And their conclusion was, you know, no further action. And this, this wasn't, you know, like their place to or this wasn't, you know, I guess kind of this wasn't because it wasn't like a big enough offence from what I got told and everything. This wasn't a big enough offence to, you know, make a arrest or anything. And it was very quick within two weeks.

But it took two weeks for them to contact me. And the only contact I had with the police was a knock on my door to say, you know, are you aware there's been this investigation which your college has reported? We just want to get your side on it and then it within about an hour. They said yeah, it's quite clear that this was just a simple you know, teenage and this is our opinion on it. Just try. Just try not to, you know, try not to say anything.

I guess anti-Semitic or like, like that online, which it was referred to as. But yeah, but what was quite interesting about all of it was the girl who complained to her college, her dad was running for a political role from the Conservative Party to be the local member of Parliament. Sorry, the the local councillor. Sorry, the local councillor and Conservative councillor and this reasons were happening right as I got suspended, which I thought was quite weird, and looking

into it, they actually had. Ties with the. Defence Ministry and the Israeli government, because they were a contractor for the Israeli government as well, which I thought was very suspicious as well, yeah. Wow. I mean, it's just a whole wow story, isn't it, James, let's come to you because this is obviously taken a huge toll. And even though Saeed said, you know, it was fairly quick with the police, it was only a couple

of weeks. I mean that for anybody, let alone a young man who's studying at college and just wants to get on with his life, that must do extraordinary things to your mental health. And I mean, how many people are you seeing coming through your organization, Students Against Tyranny? I mean, I would like to think not many, but I've got a horrible feeling you're going to say it's quite a few, but how are you coping with all these people? It's quite a few, yeah.

There's there's a lot of them. I think universities, I think everyone these days, they love diversity, but they don't like diversity of opinion. That's the one. That's the one type of diversity everyone seems to hate is the diversity of opinion and free thoughts. As you mentioned earlier, right? Universities used to be bastions of free speech, a marketplace of ideas where you would go to discover new concepts, new ideologies. Whereas these days it's the complete opposite.

You go, you walk around the freshest fair and all you see are left wing societies. You know, like for example, Bradford student union. They have an Afghanistan society and LGBTQ society and Islam society. Um, they have all these societies, but they don't have a debate in society, a free speech society, a conservative society, a UKIP society. They have nothing on the right wing of things, Nothing at all. Um, and that it. And that seems to be a growing theme among every single

university. There was an incident recently at Bristol University, which is now banned, the national anthem. You're not allowed to sing the national anthem anymore. And what else did they do before that? They actually banned the army from promoting themselves on campus. The army wasn't allowed to be there either. Yet you can have all of these left very left wing societies which promotes diversity and

inclusion and all of that. So it seems you can have, you can have any opinion as long as it goes with the the status quo and the the the concerning part of this is because a lot of people they'll be asking themselves, well how does this concern me? Well, if you look at any communist regime and and so he's mentioned them earlier.

If you look at the Khmer Rouge, Mao's Cultural Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Vietnamese Revolution, every single Marx inspired revolution of the proletariat, they always utilize the work of the students, primarily through ideological subversions. You know the the demoralization of the West. But every single communist regime throughout history, and that's no exaggeration. Every single one of them utilized students to their advantage. And the concerning part is, is

that's how they started, right. So if that, if that, if that's how they started in, I don't know, in the Bolshevik revolution in in Russia or the mass cultural revolution in China, which both were equally responsible for millions and millions of deaths then and and that's now being done in the UK that should be concerned to everyone. That's what's happening right now was a communist style revolution that is aiming to implement a dictatorship of the

bourgeois. So that's what we're seeing right now and that's why I think the the kind of shutdown of free speech is orientating. I think it's we're we're heading down a very scary path of of communism, fascism, you know

fascist utopia. And the only way we can stop this is by reverting universities to how they used to be. I think it was it was quite normal back in the day for a young person to go to university, become a socialist and then come out of university, get a job and then become anti socialist because they realise that the money they earn that they want to keep, right, That was that was normal back in the day.

But these days I don't think anyone's growing out of it because people aren't being given reality checks. Everyone is is pussyfooting around and stepping on egg shells around these people, never giving them a real a reality check of what life is actually about. And we see this with and we see this with. Was it transgenders entering women's bathrooms?

No one's stepping. No, like people these days, as much as everyone disagrees with it, no one, no one's really stands it up against it. I mean, yeah, you get the odd, the occasional person who will speak out against it, but the majority of people are very silent on the issue. And that's the the, the most concerning part even, you know, the the founder of the original Students Against Tyranny and Nazi Germany, what was the name Sophie Schultz. She founded a group called the White Rose.

And even she said the the that real harm is not done by the Nazis. It's done by the people who know what's going on. But refused to say anything. That's who's doing the real harm and that's who's doing the real harm right now as well. And you know, talking about Prevent, so Prevent was prevent was part of something called the contest strategy. The contest was set up was a strategy introduced in 2003 in response to 911. And it's, it's what is it, It's the four PS, right.

So you have Prevent, pursue, protect and prepare. And it was set up by Sir David Ohmand, I think his name was. And the alleged aim of the the, the, the strategy was to, well, the Prevent. Part of the strategy was to identify and address the ideological causes of radicalisation. They weren't just meant to focus on far right extremism. The main other thing they were meant to focus on is Islamic extremism as well.

Now if you look at the figures, I believe it's like 46% of Prevent referrals are far right extremists, right for far right extremism extremist opinions and 22% for Islamic extremism, 22% for Islamic extremism. You look at the figures online from the Home Office for anything, Islamic extremism is arguably a much bigger issue than far right extremism. I'm not saying that far right extremism isn't an issue.

Of course it is right. Like any other form of radicalization extremism, that is an issue that needs to be addressed and looked into. Yes. But how come the majority of Prevent referrals and the majority of prevents work is done on far right extremism, far right opinions when those opinions most of the time are just oh there are only two genders like that's an extremist

view to have. How come the majority of prevents investigations are into that but not Islamic extremism when if you look into it, Islamic extremism is a much bigger threat to the West than far right extremism ever is never was. It's just never never made any sense to me why that's the case. So he's a very brave lad.

So we do massively appreciate him coming to us and unfortunately we our time is so stretched with so, so many other issues that are going on and we don't have the funding to to be on all of this constantly because we have, we have to have jobs and all of that as well. You know I've been kicked out of university so we all have to have, we all have to fund this ourselves. So it becomes very expensive.

Me and Dylan actually went to visit Saeed recently at his college and we handed out leaflets to I think the majority of students there, which was absolutely fantastic. I mean a few threw them on the floor is to be expected, but we it was, it was, it was an absolutely great day. I think Piers Corbyn came down as well and a few others as well. So it was an absolutely fantastic day and we did a lot of outreach to young people, which is what we're trying to do with outreach.

So if you do want to join Students Against Tyranny, which you can do for free, it's Students Against tyranny.com/join Aware. You can join myself, Saeed, Dylan and all the other students that we've got in our ranks and fight back against what is going on on campus. James, this is wonderful to hear that your organization is out there for students, and I really want this message.

You know, for people that are watching this, please send to If you've got family members at uni or at college, please send this video to them. Because I'm guessing, James, I'm going to ask you specifically actually about how isolated some students must be feeling at the moment. I mean, listening to Saeed, to be quite honest with you, if I had gone through something like that or one of my sons, I have

four sons. If one of my sons had gone through something like that, I can't imagine the mental trauma going forward because you're always watching what you're saying or got to be careful what you put online start to feel maybe slightly concerned that anything that you could say could be taken in the wrong way. I mean, how is this affecting students? I mean, you're obviously not able to help with regards to mental health.

How are you? Are you able to refer students for some mental health support or to for any psychological support at all? Or are they literally on their own? The issue is that there's not an organization that I found that I particularly trust in terms of mental health. You know, there are organisations that exist like CAMS, but the problem is if you have these wrong opinions, they're going to tell you

they're wrong opinions. So I don't think there's any organization that we've trusted enough that we're willing to work with in terms of mental health. But I'll tell you the story of, like, there's a young lad we've been working with in in London who goes to a liberal arts

college. These two know who he is and he he called me like I think he was only at university for a week and he called me because apparently it'd been leaked who he was or something leaked, you know, everyone knew who what his opinions were. They're making it. They were turning him into a meme. He was getting messages all the time. He has. I think he had a few death threats from Antifa as well. And he said he never felt so alone in his student accommodation where he lived.

There were again members of Antifa there as well, literally living next door to him, and he just he was made to feel like an outcast. He was completely persecuted and bullied for having these conservative viewpoints. He's actually left university now because he just, he said they never felt so alone now that during this time he actually had a message of one of our other friends who who claimed to be working with, who claimed to be working with the kind of teachers at the university.

And this person had been in contact with us for a while and was letting us know, Oh yeah, someone's actually reported this guy for saying that all LGBTQ people are Paedos, which is something you never said, right. But we later found out that the guy who told us this is actually a member of Antifa who infiltrated students against tyranny.

So we actually have a lot of messages all the time of young people who are feeling quite lonely and depressed over feeling like they have so-called wrong opinions. And it's definitely not on. It's a massive issue. I mean, everyone wants to talk about mental Health Awareness Week and mental health. There's mental health that. So, you know, I've got bipolar disorder.

And, you know, they like, there's videos online of, like, women listen like 7 different, was it 7 different mental health disorders that they've apparently got? Like, they're like listening them like they're a superhero, Do you know what I mean? And that's something we see a lot at the moment, is this very, very victim mentality where it's popular to have these mental health issues, but then someone who does actually have it. That's caused by the far left.

And for some reason no one, no one wants to talk about it. But unfortunately it's a very big issue among campuses where universities are where students are being bullied for having these opinions. And I mean what what one day someone does actually decide to commit suicide because they've been, because they've had their university taken from them, which in terms has their job taken, which in terms stops them and limits them from getting a job in the future.

You know these these are questions that needs to be asked, and unfortunately no one's asking them if that makes sense. James Our audience watching now, our viewers, What can they do? What would you like us to do to help you, or to help your cause, or to help students? What's your big message for people like me watching? Firstly, there's something that I don't think a lot of people are aware of, and they should be. There is something in the UK called Confucius Institutes.

Now, if you don't know what a Confucius Institute is, it's pretty much a it's a language and culture centre for for China here in the UK. And they are partnered with the majority of universities, right. If you look into your nearest university, the chances are will be paired with a Chinese university as well as Confucius Institute.

Now the problem with a lot of these Confucius Institutes is they're actually they they have the leaders of these Confucius Institutes are paired with something called the United Front Work Department, which is, which is overseen and is a part of the Chinese Communist Party propaganda Centre. Yeah, so you've got universities that are literally, indirectly paired with propaganda centers within China, right? So you've got all of these things happening and no one is

aware of them. So firstly, what I'm going to suggest that you do is look into these Confucius Institutes, look into how alarming they are, right. And I've been banned from Twitter now. So if you can give us a follow on telegram since against tyranny official, we are trying to bring out the message to as many people as possible. What is going on in these universities? You've got universities left, right and centre that are banning and removing Tibetan societies and free speech societies.

You've got universities that are paired with Chinese universities who are also paired with Confucius Institutes, which are overseen by the China by propaganda centres within China. You've got, you've got the Marxism Festival, socialist ideas being held at SOAS, University of London of London, which also promotes Cultural Marxism, which is where they're trying to erode the culture in the West in order to revert people back to their inherent class values.

That's that's how Cultural Marxism was founded. So you've got all of these issues, just look into it and just research it. Spread to the message as much as you can. Let people know what is going on. And also if you can, there's a new university free speech TSR as well called Araf Ahmed and his job is as part of the So he his job was created as part of the higher education freedom of speech Bill that recently passed. Send him a letter.

If you can send him a letter or an e-mail, just send him a letter or an e-mail on side's behalf letting them know that you're not happy with, with what has been going on in these universities with free speech not being upheld, with students being bullied, with having their education taken from them being referred to prevent for absolutely no reason. Just let him know. Right. And the more emails he gets, the more letters he gets. I mean I've requested a meeting with him and he hasn't

responded. The more emails and letters he gets, the more the higher chance there is of him actually doing something. I mean they have the they have the power to now their higher education, freedom of speech. Bill enables them the power to do something about this and they still aren't. So yeah, just send him a letter. Researchers give us a follow on Telegram and yeah, just please

help us support. Thank you so much for that, James. And I think for our viewers, because obviously we've changed the name of this young gentleman to Saeed. When you write, if you could just say that this is the young gentleman that you've seen on UK column. Then that will be sufficient And I think that that's a great thing to do. And I think the other thing too. And I know we don't want to talk about money because it's never good to talk about money.

But students against tyranny have got a donate page and we'll make sure that the link of of that is in the article beneath. So before I go to to Dylan, let me just finish for a minute side with one last question for you, because I think everybody's going to be asking where are you now? You know, you've been kicked out of college, presumably your education has dissipated. Can you continue to study can is your how is your life progressing forward?

Do you still have the ambitions that you did have before you got expelled? I have managed to seek alternative education. However, that has come with a massive cost because I have had to. I've had to seek, you know, like private exams and things. That has come with a cost of about about 12,000 lbs. When you count in private tutoring and everything about,

that's about 12,000 lbs. I hope to be at university in the next few years, hopefully and by then I hope I'll be on the course which I want to do, hopefully to study law. And I hope, yeah, this will be my education, you know, for the for the future. I yeah, that's all I can really

say about that. For sure from me, and I know many people that are watching and and viewing now, well wants a thank you for standing up and standing out and speaking up against all of this because you're young and your whole life's ahead of you. And so we understand that anything that you say could jeopardise the rest of your life and we wish you luck and love moving forwards.

And we're so grateful to your friend Dylan, who we're going to come to now, and to also James and Students Against Tyranny, for supporting you through this absolute nightmare. Dylan, can we throw to you for your last word? Because you've witnessed this, you've watched what Saeed has had to go through, you've worked with Students against tyranny and you're seeing a lot more going on around you. What would be your last word to people watching?

I would say for those who are watching is that if you do know any young people who are, are feeling isolated for the things that they know, whether it's just against being against the narrative or other things that we know are part of the Cabal or New World Order agendas. Really. I'd say introduce them to Students Against Tyranny and Youth for Freedom UK. Because that is probably the most ideal thing to do to support those who are aged 18 to 30, whether you're a student or not.

Because we need unity more than to give them such confidence and to, you know, make sure they don't feel afraid to be themselves, which clearly, well, the status quo will not allow them to. But we can still be there as a rock, if you will, their support and we hope if we can also work together to stand up against all of this. We thank you for that. And I'm going to come to you, Saeed, for your last word. What would you like, whoever to hear? Your peer group, the government?

The education establishment? What are your last words to those of our audience that are listening? I just want everyone to know about this can't happen again. You can disagree with someone. You might not want to be friends with someone because of their opinions. You might want to call them names, whatever. Fine, you've got a right to disagree. But when it becomes a problem, it's when it is state sanctioned

persecution. You have not got a right to expel someone based on their beliefs based on their private thoughts. That's a violation of the human rights, and I will call people out on it when I see it, because a violation of human rights in terms of freedom of thought and freedom of education is not acceptable at all. And my last word would be this. I I might not, I might not agree with everything someone has to say, but I will die for their right to be able to say it. Thank you.

Bravo and James for all of these, all of our wonderful students all over the country. Your last words for them. All I have to say is don't be afraid. Don't let them bully you at the end of the day, and this goes to the the people who don't agree with what I have to say here as

well. You're going to go through life not agreeing with everyone, and that's something you need to get used to. You may sit here now and cry over again, misgendered over someone using your wrong pronouns, but you are going to go through life when you went to the workforce dealing with people who disagree with you, who you don't like, that's just a fact of life.

To then run around calling for their free speech to be cancelled, for their voice to be silenced, for them to be fired from their their jobs just purely because you disagree with them is disgraceful. And one day you will get that reality check that not everything is going to go your way. But to the students who do agree with us here, don't be afraid. Don't let them bully you into submission into shutting up. Your voice matters, especially here at Students Against Tyranny.

The more of us that stand up and speak out against what is going on, the likelihood decreases of them being able to continue down the path we are headed, As Saeed said as well, you may not like what someone says, but you should defend their right to say it.

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