On Tuesday February 7, the Free University of Brussels (ULB) was the scene of an “incident” which would only be painful and grotesque if it was not a crime against the mind and an unbearable attack of the freedom of speech.

Ms. Caroline Fourest, journalist and essayist, was invited to discuss on the topic: “Is the far right became respectable?” along with Mr. Hervé Hasquin, historian, former Rector of the ULB and Permanent Secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts of Belgium. The debate was arbitrated by Mr. Guy Haarscher, philosophy professor at the university.

It was obvious for several days that the debate might be troubled: through Facebook and other social networks some individuals openly called, sometimes with the most violent sexism and the most outrageous vulgarity, to silence Ms. Fourest. These attacks did not come, which is noteworthy, from the traditional far right (on which Ms. Fourest wrote several excellent books) but from Mr. Souhail Chichah, economics researcher at the university who presents himself as the victim of a conspiracy seeking to stifle his voice as he claims to be anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian, it is indeed his absolute right to do so. He is also the defender of the racist and antisemitic humorist Dieudonné.

Then on Tuesday evening the debate barely begun when it was disturbed by cell phone ringtones an the uproar organized by a dozens of fanatics, who did not appeared of being familiar with university benches, some of them masked, screaming in a loop “Burqa Bla Bla” (literally: Burqa claptrap) and covering the voice of speakers made the debate impossible. After a few minutes the microphone was given to Mr. Chichah in order for him to argue on his claims and positions. In itself, such a move from the speakers was already a hold-up as Mr. Chichah was not part of this debate. Far from any articulated reasoning Mr. Chichah chose to spit out again his same empty slogan.

The debate has thus been canceled and the debaters evacuated under the protection of the security personnel. A handful of idiots imposed its law on hundreds of people.

The physical interdiction of the debate is one of the characteristics of the far right. The cry “Burqa Bla Bla”, besides the fact that it signifies nothing, is an obvious reference to the anti-Islamist commitments of Ms. Fourest. It is also possible to see an attack against her feminist positions or even against the simple fact that a woman could be part of a public debate. Replacing the argument by yelling and shouting is a proof of stupidity. It is therefore reasonable to think, and in this precise case to write that Mr. Chichah is a fascist or an “Islamofascist” idiot (if he feels defamed, he should not hesitate to resume the debate in a courtroom).

Those who followed him are just a bunch of twerps unable to do more that shouting their hatred to exist and whose accumulated intelligence barely equal that of a mussel.

What is serious here is the cancellation of the debate. What is even more serious is that the debate has been censored at the ULB which once claimed to be a temple of free inquiry an free thought. And finally what is intolerable is that it is not the first time that a debate is censored or at least severely heckled at the ULB; and that it is not the first attempt of Mr. Chichah, far from it.

It is time that the academic authorities take their responsibility and restore the spirit of tolerance that belongs to a university founded by Freemasons to defend and to spread ideas out of the shadows of dogma. If they fail to do so, the ULB will not only loose its soul (which is done) but will become an empty shell, a thoughtless place of exclusion, a breeding ground for hate and radicalization. In brief the opposite of a university.

As to Mr. Chichah, it seems understood: he will face the disciplinary board where he will have to answer for his action and be dismissed for serious misconduct. The students, if there are any, who where part of this painful affair should also be excluded. One can not live on the money of the university by enjoying its teaching and openly denies its most sacred principles.

Saint-Just once said “No liberty for the enemies of freedom.” This principle appears today more than relevant.

© ESISC 2012