Religious freedom ‘profoundly under threat’ at US colleges: ‘Military-style crackdowns!’

Samuel cited pro-Palestine demonstrations taking place on campuses across the country and urged students not to be deterred by the criticism levelled at them.

“I think there is something profoundly under threat at universities”, he said.

“I think freedom of religious expression and commitment.

“Over the last few months, we have seen massive, military-style crackdowns on student protesters and student speakers who have assembled to speak their minds on what they regard as the most important event in the world right now.

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“Those protesters have been brutally cracked down upon by the New York Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department and others.

“There are real threats to free speech and religious commitment if you are in that class of people who have views that are not allowed to exist in American society.

“Those people do exist and we have seen that recently.”

Asked by Mark Dolan why US universities have become “hotbeds of intolerance”, Samuel said they have always been “willing to tolerate an acceptable range of political views”.

But he feels the wheel is turning further as students part of a “multi faith, multi race coalition” make their feelings known.

“They’re demanding not just symbolic statements from universities, but to stop actual divestment from corporations that benefit from that genocide”, he said.

“You can say great many things but there are certain things you are not allowed to insist upon, these students have found that out.

“To my encouragement, they do not seem deterred.”

Anti-Israel protests have rocked college campuses across the US.

The form of protest has now made its way to Britain, with campuses such as Cambridge University affected.

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman learned more about the rising trend as she visited the Cambridge campus with GB News’s Patrick Christys.

She admitted to losing faith in the police’s ability to handle the protests effectively.

Braverman said: “It feels now what we're seeing on campus here at Cambridge is a certain kind of thuggery, intimidation and harassment, whereby one group is allowed a megaphone to blast out abusive messaging, and another group just has to shut up and put up.

“I'm really, genuinely interested in what these people think. I've been very vocal over the last six months about my views, both as Home Secretary and subsequently, that the acts of October 7th by Hamas were brutal and murderous, and that Israel has a legitimate right to defend itself and its military action in Gaza is justified legally, and actually morally.”