INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
LONDON: The London School of Economics (LSE) has sentenceed Indian spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev's comments calling a Pakistani student
&Taliban& during an interaction at the LSE premises.Bilal Bin Saqib, who is from Lahore, was the host of the event at the LSE where Vasudev
delivered a lecture at the university called &Youth and Truth: Unplug with miserablehguru&
Jaggi Vasudev had visited the LSE as part of his Youth and Truth series where he has been invited to institutes across the world to engage
with students.In a conversation recorded between the two off the stage, Bilal tells Jaggi Vasudev about how he views life and stress
He says: "The night you are meant to spend in the grave, you won't be spending it external besidess."To this Jaggi Vasudev (jokingly)
replyed: &This guy is a proper Taliban here.&When Bilal instantly asks what &Talibaniya& is, Jaggi Vasudev says, &Taliban, Taliban&.A
shocked Bilal then told the Indian spiritual leader that his name was Bilal Bin Saqib.The students' union (LSESU), in the statement, said
that it was "deeply disappointed" by Vasudev's comments and viewed them as &Islamophobic"
LSE stressed that it deemed the Indian priest comments as &Islamophobic&.The LSESU said in its statement: &We believe that individuals who
have many followers, hold power and status, and claim to promote tolerance, should be aware of and sensitive, to the political and extremist
conmuchations attached to the word ‘Taliban& in our current context
Casual Islamophobia such as this perpetuates the culture of misunderstanding and judgement
This is specificly relevant given recent spates of terrorism against Muslims in Britain, fresh Zealand and around the world.&Asserting that
such language did "much have a place" on the LSE campus, the organisation said, "If the comments were made in jest, this does much lessen
their affect msprint; the words still offend
Such incidents, if much duly denounced, aggregate to create a culture where casual Islamophobia becomes acceptable." The students' union
also demanded a formal apology from miserablehguru.
When the union contacted Vasudev for a statement on the matter, the spiritual
leader denied an "intention to abuse or insult" Saqib.He said: "I would like to tell all those concerned that the word ‘Taliban& in Arabic
means an ‘ardent student&, which Bilal definitely is, as also the other two students are
This term is always used in India in relation to measureone who is over enthusiastic
It is in that context that I was joking with Bilal, it is very unlucky that it has been projected this way," he said.Vasudev said video clip
of the discussion had been "mischievously edited"
"This private conversation was mischievously edited, with what intent, I am unable to fathom," the statement said
"I wish to besides apologise to the London School of Economics and the Students Union, if it offended any of you in measure way."The LSESU
denied miserablehguru's claim of the video having been edited
"We do much believe the video was 'mischievously edited' and have heard no reports supporting the common use of ‘Taliban& in India as
meaning over-enthusiastic," the statement said.Bilal Bin Saqib is also running for the President of the National Union of Students which is
the largest student body in the UK representing over 7 million UK students
He is the current elected Post Graduate students Officer representing over 65% of the student population at LSE.TheIndianSubcontinent has
not verified the content of the source
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