The University of Cambridge has been criticised for hosting a self-proclaimed anti-feminist group that staff claim have harassed female academics and make people feel unsafe on campus.

A letter, written by more than 300 of the university staff, students and alumni, calls for an event featuring the political party Justice for Men and Boys (J4MB) to be cancelled.

But the university said it would not stop the event, in line with its commitment to freedom of speech. Hundreds of staff and students said it is not about free speech but that the event goes against the institution’s values and mission. They argued staff have previously engaged in harassment of university members – claims J4MB deny.

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The talk, due to be held at the Alison Richard Building, home of the department of politics and international students, has been organised by J4MB, which was started in 2013 by Mike Buchanan, a former Conservative party consultant.

The letter, written to the vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Prof Stephen Toope, has been signed by staff including a large number of female academics.

It says the university is hosting a group that it accuses of shaming rape survivors, citing an article on the J4MB website entitled “13 reasons women lie about being raped.”

The letter says that hosting the group “does not comport with the values behind your laudable campaign to combat sexual harassment and misconduct”. It continues: “Nor is the event in line with the values and mission of the university, especially our state core value of ‘freedom from discrimination.’”

The group of staff and students calls for the event to be cancelled or at least moved to a non-departmental university venue, such as a public lecture hall.

It claims that J4MB has previously engaged in harassment of university members, and “there is a credible threat that members of the university will be subjected to further harassment, intimidation or even violence as a consequence of this event going ahead”.

Buchanan said: “No one has come forward with any evidence of harassment. We have challenged feminists … but we don’t go for harassing anyone. The idea that students and academics/anyone else is at risk of physical danger … is insane. It’s just a tactic to deny us freedom of speech at the university.”

J4MB launched a general election manifesto in 2015 premised on unremitting male disadvantage. The manifesto said the Equality Act should be scrapped and drew parallels between feminists and Nazis.

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Buchanan has written previously: “Life is going to become markedly worse for men and boys if Labour win the next general election … with truly obnoxious bigots such as Yvette Cooper given free rein to roll out yet more radical feminist agendas, including teaching schoolboys to be feminists, ie brainwashing them into becoming lifelong unquestioning slaves to women.”

Dr Kaitlin Ball, who recently graduated from the university having completed a PhD in politics and international studies, said she was confused by its decision. It does not “comport well with the vice-chancellor’s stance on gender equality”, she said.

Ball said she was deeply uncomfortable with extending a platform such as Cambridge to this group. “I have had the pleasure of supervising brilliant undergraduates at Cambridge and would like them focusing on their exams not showing up to protest and having to defend their right to be here.

“We have asked for it to be moved out of a place where people work. People have to show up to work in the department or classes and lectures. I don’t understand why an acceptable solution wouldn’t be just to put it somewhere where people have a choice to show up. It’s problematic.”

Dr Maha Rafi Atal, one of the letter’s signatories, said: “The university isn’t taking the concerns of female staff, who have been harassed by this group, seriously. We wrote this open letter to give people the chance to voice their concerns, the signatures are mixed but I am getting new names all the time. The staff union separately got concern about this from their members and have written their own separate letter.

“This is a group who are part of anti-feminist websites that spend lots of time harassing and threatening feminist women journalists and academics. They have publicly, on their website, written a series of posts attacking and almost cyber-stalking various feminist Cambridge scholars … ones who work or teach in [the] building this event is going to be taking place [in]. There are particular posts about specific academics here.”

Atal said it was a critical moment for universities. “This is not the first story about a group with noxious ideas, broadly referred to as alt-right … where they have tried to gain access to universities as a way to seek legitimacy for their ideas and when institutions say ‘these ideas are not serious’ they claim there is an issue around free speech. This is not the issue. These ideas simply do not belong in a university setting,” she said.

A university spokesperson said: “Under the university’s room booking policy and in line with our commitment to freedom of speech, the lawful expression of controversial or unpopular views is not grounds for withholding permission for an event.”