Donald Trump’s recurring use of anti-Muslim rhetoric in his presidential campaign has caused a Scottish university to strip him of an honorary degree.
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Although the students asked expressed that they disagreed with Trump’s remarks 21% disagreed that he should have had his Business Ambassadorship and Honouring by the Robert Gordon University revoked, and 40% asked disagreed that Trump should be banned from the United Kingdom for his remarks.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Mr Trump’s recent remarks have shown that he is no longer fit to be a business ambassador for Scotland”.
Mr Trump shocked the world on Monday when he issued a statement calling for a “complete shutdown” of Muslim immigration to the USA and later he said the ban should remain in place until authorities “can figure out” Muslim attitudes to the US.
In a statement on Wednesday, the university announced that it has made a decision to revoke the degree.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump, who has significant business interests in Scotland and has spoken regularly about his ancestral links to the country, has hit back at his critics after Ms Sturgeon kicked the billionaire out of the GlobalScot network of pro-Scottish business leaders. The US Republican presidential candidate was appointed to the GlobalScot network in 2006, but Sturgeon said his role had now been withdrawn “with immediate effect”.
Trump was bestowed with an honorary doctorate of business for his “unwavering and public commitment to our nation’s founding principles of limited government, individual liberty, and the free enterprise system, and in further recognition of his iconic status as one of America’s most successful visionaries and entrepreneurs”.
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, the SNP MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, explicitly backed a ban saying Mr Trump was guilty of “hate preaching”.
A petition to bar the Republican frontrunner from Britain reached more than 358,000 signatures amid an outcry over comments by the tycoon, who owns golf courses in Scotland and has family links to the country.
“The UK politicians should be thanking me instead of pandering to political correctness”.
The online petition was set up by Suzanne Kelly, a freelance investigative journalist and satirist based in Aberdeen, on campaigning website 38 Degrees.
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It also pointed out that the award had been made before the appointment of RGU’s current principal, Ferdinand von Prondzynski.
