CHICAGO: A Texas university canceled Monday a planned white supremacist rally on its campus next month, citing safety concerns following the deadly violence at a rally in Virginia at the weekend.
Texas A&M University, one of the most prestigious public colleges in the United States, scrapped a September 11 rally at which known white supremacist leader Richard Spencer was scheduled to speak.
Spencer was one of the leading figures in a rally that saw hundreds of white supremacists gather Saturday in the town of Charlottesville, triggering violence that left one person dead and 19 others injured.
The university’s decision to cancel the event came after it emerged that organizers were billing the event as “Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M.”
“Linking the tragedy of Charlottesville with the Texas A&M event creates a major security risk on our campus,” the university said in a statement.
Spencer has asked sympathizers to invite him to speak on campuses, and he has been invited to speak at the University of Florida on September 12, although authorities have yet to give their approval.
In an open letter to students, University of Florida president Kent Fuchs indicated how the college was torn over whether to give the event the green light.
“For many in our community, including myself, this speaker’s presence would be deeply disturbing,” Fuchs wrote, before adding that “we must follow the law, upholding the First Amendment not to discriminate based on content and provide access to a public space.”
Texas university cancels white supremacist rally
Texas university cancels white supremacist rally
UK teenager who praised Southport murderer jailed for possessing Al-Qaeda manual
- Morgan told a psychiatric nurse on the morning of his arrest in June that he “planned to commit a Rudakubana-style terrorist attack“
- The teenager twice tried to buy a 15-centimeter kitchen knife from Amazon
LONDON: A British teenager who praised the killer of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event and said he planned to bomb British rock band Oasis’ reunion concert was sentenced to detention on Friday for possession of an Al-Qaeda manual.
McKenzie Morgan, 18, was arrested at his home in Wales after sending messages on social media platform Snapchat in which he praised Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three girls and stabbed 10 others in July 2024, prosecutor Corinne Bramwell said.
Morgan told a psychiatric nurse on the morning of his arrest in June that he “planned to commit a Rudakubana-style terrorist attack” and had been researching how to stab people, Bramwell told Morgan’s sentencing hearing at London’s Old Bailey court.
The teenager twice tried to buy a 15-centimeter (6-inch) kitchen knife from Amazon, searched online for local playgrounds and a youth dance academy and put the academy on a document on his mobile phone entitled “places to attack,” Bramwell added.
She said Morgan later told another Snapchat user that he planned to bomb the Oasis concert in Cardiff last July 4, the band’s first gig of their comeback tour, and claimed to have tried to make the deadly poison ricin.
He was arrested on June 2 and a 188-page Al-Qaeda training manual was found on one of his electronic devices. Morgan pleaded guilty to a single count of possession of information likely to be of use to a person engaged in terrorism.
Morgan accepted having saved the Al-Qaeda manual and reading it, but told police he had no intention to commit an attack and simply intended to shock others with his messages.
He has been diagnosed with autism and two psychiatrists assessed Morgan as being vulnerable to being groomed or radicalized online, Bramwell told the court.
Judge Sarah Whitehouse sentenced Morgan to 14 months’ detention in a young offenders’ institution.
