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.