http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/927801.html

The head of Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission condemned Oxford University’s debating society Sunday for inviting convicted Holocaust denier David Irving to speak at Monday forum.

Protests are expected Monday when Irving attends the Free Speech Forum, along with Nick Griffin, leader of Britain’s far-right British National Party. The BNP has opposed immigration and been accused of promoting race riots in northern England between whites and South Asian immigrants.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, said Irving never should have been invited.

“I think it is an absolute disgrace. As a former president of the National Union of Students, I’m ashamed that this has happened,” Phillips told British Broadcasting Corp. television. “This is not a question of freedom of speech; this is a juvenile provocation.”

He said students at Oxford were supposed to be brilliant, and he appealed for them to “put your brains back in your head.”

Phillips said people did not “fight and die for the right to freedom of speech only for it to be used as a silly parlor game.”

Last week, British Defense Secretary Des Browne and at least three other lawmakers canceled appearances at Oxford University’s 182-year-old debating society because of the Irving invitation. They were not invited to attend Monday’s event, but were scheduled to speak before the union on other days.

Despite the officials’ opposition, the Oxford Union debating society members voted to allow Irving and Griffin to speak.

Martin McCluskey, president of the Oxford Student Union, said it was disgraceful the pair were being given the same platform as past speakers at the debating society such as Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. The move also was opposed by Oxford University’s Muslim and Jewish societies.

But the Oxford Union debating society said it was important to give people of all views a platform to speak.

Luke Tryl, its president, said, “They will be speaking in the context of a forum in which there will be other speakers to challenge and attack their views in a head-to-head manner.”