Warwick Athiests investigated for radicalisation
WASH accused of promoting extremism on social meda
Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists (WASH) is currently under private investigation after having been reported for suspicion of radicalisation and promoting Islamism on social media.
These accusations have likely been made due to pressure from the Prevent strategy which mandates that signs of extremism must be reported. It is unclear at this point to whom exactly the group have been reported. Local students claim that the private investigators are not associated with counter-terrorism special forces, nor with the Warwickshire Police. More to follow.
Concerns have been raised that the name ‘Warwick Atheists’ is simply a facade to disguise a social media radicalisation campaign.
“I unfollowed their page quite a while ago actually,” said Shelly from the philosophy common Room, “because they pretty much never posted anything about Atheism, Secularism or Humanism which is what I was interested in when I joined the society.”
An attempt was made to verify this claim but there is evidence to suggest that posts have been removed from the page. During the week beginning 25 July 2016, the WASH Facebook page published eleven posts, all eleven of which had something to do with Islam or apparent Islamism, and only one had anything remotely to do with the society by mentioning secularism.
“I’d never have thought of it in that way at all,” said Michael Savage, 43, from Rugby, just one of the many followers of the WASH Facebook page who are completely unaffiliated with the University of Warwick, “but the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that it’s the only explanation for such an unhealthy obsession with sharing Islam related content. In fact, just the other day they were sharing scripture quotes.”
When approached for comments, freedom of speech advocates WASH did not hesitate to display the most delicious of irony by using the “ban from page” feature on Facebook.
However a so-called Islamic State affiliate said via Twitter direct message [translated], “Why are they so obsessed with us? If they truly support us, verily, we are pleased. If they do not, we remain pleased. For they have done the fantastic job of enforcing the “us versus them” mentality [which] we work so hard to perpetuate. This page has either engaged them [young British Muslims] in our movement, or has disenfranchised them, and this is exactly what we want so they have directly helped our cause. A hundred thanks.”