Latest news with #academicfreedom
Times
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Times
Officially defining Islamophobia endangers freedom of speech
Professor Steven Greer worked at Bristol University for 36 years as an expert in human rights law before his career was ruined. The 68-year-old faced a false accusation in 2020 from the university's Islamic Society alleging he had made Islamophobic remarks. The complainant had not attended Mr Greer's teaching module, yet alleged he had made discriminatory remarks. In reality the lecturer had merely spoken of the Islamist attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine. The complaint against Mr Greer went nowhere, until Bristol's Islamic Society launched a social media campaign against the lecturer. It falsely claimed he had mocked Islam and the Quran. A pile-on ensued with a petition calling for his sacking garnering 4,000 signatures. Mr Greer felt so intimidated by the online anger that he went into hiding, venturing out only in disguise. He sincerely believed his life was in danger. • Islamophobia row academic: I wore a disguise. Better ridiculous than dead Bristol University initiated an inquiry and, five months later, he was exonerated after an independent assessor from another department concluded it was a storm over nothing. The lecturer went on sick leave and has since retired but, rightly, he is not letting the matter rest. In an interview with this newspaper today, he accuses his former employer of failing to protect him. By scrapping Mr Greer's module on 'Islam, China and the Far East' following its inquiry, Bristol University has demonstrated institutional cowardice, as well as humiliating Mr Greer. Alas, there is a precedent here. Kathleen Stock, a professor of philosophy at Sussex University, was driven out for her views on sex and gender. Eventually an investigation by the Office for Students led to Sussex being fined £585,000 for its failure to protect freedom of speech. If the OfS is to fulfil its duties as a protector of freedom of speech on campuses, it must urgently investigate whether or not Bristol offered Mr Greer appropriate protection. Mr Greer's case is instructive as the government considers a formal definition of Islamophobia. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, instigated a working group earlier this year following a rise in reports of anti-Muslim hatred. The working group claimed that any definition 'must be compatible with the unchanging right of British citizens to exercise freedom of speech and expression'. Yet the mere instance of a definition creates a bar for free speech to be measured by, especially if a commissar is created to adjudicate on it. Although the group has pledged to engage 'widely', there are concerns about its findings becoming a foregone conclusion. According to the Policy Exchange think tank, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, which promotes its own definition of Islamophobia, has claimed that stating that those involved in grooming gangs were predominantly of Pakistani origin is Islamophobic. Yet that is exactly what Baroness Casey of Blackstock concluded in her recent report into such gangs. Equally troubling is the fact that the working group, led by Dominic Grieve, a former attorney general, has endorsed the parliamentary group's work. Given the ongoing debate on grooming gangs, with a national inquiry due, the government would be wise to halt its work on an Islamophobia definition. The danger to free speech is too great, as is the danger of more cases arising like that of Mr Greer. Strong laws against racial hatred already exist. There is no need for more.
Fox News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
A Columbia Trustee's View: Higher education is at a crossroads. Let's choose builders over destroyers
In every generation, societies face a defining choice: build or destroy. Higher education is at a crossroads. As a scientist and a trustee of Columbia University, I have witnessed firsthand how an institution once hailed as a pillar of intellectual progress can be threatened not only by enemies from without, but also by an ideology from within—one that celebrates chaos over creation, grievance over growth, and destruction over discourse. The majority of my family left Iran during the revolution (I am a Persian Jew) in the face of violence, extremism, oppression and destruction. My family chose to emigrate to the United States because it is a nation of hope, freedom and opportunity. Through education, dedication and hard work, we have been able to achieve the "American dream" – we are doctors, nurses, scientists, engineers, mothers, fathers – all productive, contributing members of society, engaged in our communities. I earned my doctorate at Columbia. It shaped the trajectory of my life, opened doors to scientific discovery, and inspired me to found a biotech company dedicated to advancing treatments for patients with rare diseases. That experience—of curiosity, exploration, and relentless innovation—was derived directly from the principles of academic freedom and leadership at Columbia University. However, in the spring of 2024, my home was filled with students (my children and many of their classmates) who no longer felt safe on Columbia's campus. Their fears didn't stem from intellectual challenge or debate—it stemmed from intimidation. Protesters, many masked, others emboldened by institutional tolerance, took control of the physical environment of the university. They shut down classrooms, buildings and libraries. Recently, Columbia released a report on antisemitism and campus climate, demonstrating that this chaos and destruction led students of both Jewish (87%) and Muslim (83%) backgrounds feel concerned about expressing their beliefs, and made the majority of students of both religions feel unsafe. After voicing my concerns regarding antisemitism on campus, I became a target of certain media voices determined to erase decades of my work, service, and scholarship with a few calculated, malevolent strokes of a pen. What these critics don't understand is this: it's easy to destroy, but we are a nation of builders. Among my proudest accomplishments are creating a company, advancing research, discovering new medicines—that's what it means to build. Builders focus on innovation, problem-solving, and positive change, while destroyers are characterized by negativity and disruption, and strive to tear down existing systems. It takes passion, creativity, and courage to put yourself on the front line – to create and share something with the world. That's why I wanted to give back to my alma mater, which has given so much to me. The past few years, I've seen how easy it is to destroy an institution, a reputation or a life's work. It's even easier to do this from behind a computer, or behind a mask, where one doesn't need to take personal accountability for what they've done. It's important to recognize that while this destruction attracts attention, it's transient; positive change has long-lasting effects. My life's work has taught me that creating is typically hard, unglamorous work. It does not make headlines. It does not go viral. It is not done from behind a mask or in the shadows of TikTok. It requires dedication, rigor, compassion, and commitment. Columbia University has consistently served as a hub for innovators. It has educated statesmen, Nobel laureates, and medical pioneers. Its laboratories have produced cancer therapies and climate models. Its classrooms have cultivated intellectuals who shaped economies and peace treaties. The real Columbia—my Columbia—is a monument of advancement shaped by generations of human endeavor. Monuments, however, can be vandalized and dismantled. And these ongoing campaigns have not been acts of civil dialogue; they have been acts of desecration. Of blaming rather than solving. Of tearing apart instead of sewing together. The world is full of destroyers. Their work is quick, loud, and rarely lasting. But it is the builders – the creators - who carry humanity forward. This transcends Columbia University. It is about a moral choice that confronts our nation—especially those endowed with the power to shape America's institutions. Do we elevate or dismantle? Do we empower students to think critically, find the truth, and then grow, or do we permit this new form of campus intimidation to silence those with opposing views and destroy educational opportunities for an entire generation? As parents, we can start our education of the next generation in our homes. We can teach our children to contribute positively to the world – to help build up our society, rather than destroy. This education must continue at our nation's top institutions, where our youngest leaders learn to grow through diversity of opinion. We must ensure adherence to nonviolent free speech, non-intimidation, willingness to hear ideas that are different to one's own and to learn with an open mind. Our educational institutions should reflect the hope, freedom and opportunity that our nation offers to all of us. Let's rebuild institutions like Columbia together to ensure that hatred and chaos do not dominate, and everyone feels included and respected. This is our generation's moment to lead. Building necessitates bravery, and in turn our courage will spread across America. Let's build again.
Independent Singapore
3 days ago
- Politics
- Independent Singapore
Judge blocks Trump's attempt to slam Harvard's doors on foreign students
Photo: Facebook / Harvard University BOSTON: A federal judge delivered a pivotal blow to President Donald Trump's administration, blocking its attempt to bar foreign nationals from entering the US to study at Harvard University. Judge halts controversial ban targeting Harvard According to a recent Reuters report, US District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston extended her earlier order preventing the administration from implementing a presidential decree inked by Trump earlier this month. The decree had quoted national security apprehensions as an explanation for prohibiting international students from Harvard, while also threatening to cancel visas for those who have already registered. However, the judge allowed Harvard to continue accepting international students. A clash over academic freedom and the Constitution In her decision, Judge Burroughs emphatically denounced the Trump adminsitration's actions as unlawful, unconstitutional and a desecration of Harvard's First Amendment rights. 'At its root, this case is about core constitutional rights that must be safeguarded: freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of speech,' Burroughs wrote. She stressed that the administration's effort to regulate and control Harvard's study programme and admissions seemed to be a political retribution against the university's apparent sociopolitical stance. The decision follows a succession of antagonistic moves by the Trump administration against Harvard, which includes freezing $2.5 billion in subsidies, putting its tax-exempt status in jeopardy, and instigating federal inquiries. The judge's phrasings highlighted anxiety over what she labelled as 'misplaced efforts to control a reputable academic institution and squelch diverse viewpoints'. Harvard vows to continue the fight Harvard hailed the decision, affirming it would permit the university to sustain its global academic community and, at the same time, continue pursuing its legal efforts. 'We will keep defending the rights of our institution, our students, and our scholars,' university spokespersons said. The university has filed two lawsuits before Judge Burroughs, one seeking to reinstate frozen federal resources and the other seeking to guarantee that international students can attend without impediment. As the legal clash unfolds, the case has come to represent the fight for academic freedom and constitutional liberties against political encroachment.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Trinity calls pest control with lucrative new contract to tackle rats and other problems
Ireland's universities hope to benefit from the US crackdown on academic free expression . ACivil Service special-ops squad has been deployed to San Francisco to talk up our merits and colleges are already well aware of the value of American undergrads , who pay top non-EU fees. In advance of the hoped-for arrival of exiles, Ireland's oldest university, Trinity College Dublin , is cleaning up its act. This week it issued a €1 million tender for pest control. The job encompasses both the city-centre campus and the college's many satellite sites, including buildings at St James's Hospital and, intimidatingly for any ratter, the boat club at Islandbridge. About 68 per cent of the buildings on campus are more than 100 years old, and being a university brings unique challenges for pest control. The challenges range from bed bugs to carpet moths and something called 'booklice', termite-like little creatures that may menace the more than six million printed volumes in the various libraries and repositories. The lucky bidder will inherit more than 200 existing rodent monitoring points, which they will be expected to upgrade, along with baiting and carcass collection duties. The standard rotation is eight visits a year, though certain sites – including cafes, the nursing school and the science building – will get 12. Still, can't be worse than Manhattan. READ MORE The Monk on stage Rex Ryan as Gerry Hutch in The Monk, at the Glass Mask on Dawson Street The reviews are in for The Monk, the cafe-theatrical one-man show about Gerry Hutch written, directed and performed by Rex Ryan , son of another Gerry. Critical consensus is mixed for the play at the Glass Mask on Dawson Street in Dublin, with praise for the 'superb' performance and staging (Daily Mail), the 'fascinating portrait' of its subject (Sunday Independent) and the 'not boring' experience in general (Sunday World) – something far from guaranteed in a theatre that has introduced audiences to a string of challenging European expressionist pieces in recent months. But there are moral and other quandaries raised by the semi-fictionalised multimedia extravaganza. The 'mishmash of fact and fiction' is 'sometimes an uncomfortable watch for the wrong reasons', says the Mail. It's like 'A Christmas Carol, with added misery, and without the redeemable protagonist,' says The Irish Independent. The Sunday World muses that 'there may be' objections to the 'somewhat glamorising' portrayal of the gangland figure. The Monk is a man you might not want to annoy by, for example, staging an entire play where you dress up as him and re-enact important moments of his life in a fashion that recalls a more miserable Christmas Carol. But Ryan says Hutch doesn't seem to mind. 'I don't give a bo***x, Rex,' was the exact verdict from Hutch himself, Ryan told the Sunday Independent's Barry Egan. Shamrock shake-up Síofra the Shamrock is back on the shelves. Photograph: Brown Thomas Welcome back Síofra the Shamrock, the limited edition plush toy that returned to sale this week after what can only be described as a period of enforced scarcity in the wake of her St Patrick's Day launch. Síofra is 'a charming, cuddly celebration of Irishness', which is to say a stuffed shamrock with a smiling face. She's no regular teddy, however: she's a Jellycat, part of a range of virally collectable baby toys focused, perplexingly, on desirable bourgeois lifestyle foods. On the shelves of Arnotts in Dublin currently are the likes of a cinnamon roll, a bowl of oats and a wedge of Brie – all in teddy form. Those with suitcases full of Beanie Babies in the attic might be feeling once bitten twice shy, but people go wild for Jellycats in a very similar fashion. Some buy them for babies, sure, but plenty of adults feel compelled to complete the collection, and harbour daydreams about the future cash value of their stash. There were queues up Grafton Street outside Brown Thomas – and a larger-than-life Síofra to pose with – which produced plenty of content for the video-sharing platform TikTok last time for influencers. It brought plenty of hype for the British brand's own account, which is followed by 1.8 million people. Desirable items are readily resold online. There was a Síofra from the first batch available on Adverts online sales platform this week for €90, while Marcus Mussel was going for more than €250 on online second-hand clothes shop, Vinted. This can make them a target for shoplifters. Legit fans who make it to Brown Thomas or Arnotts, where the shops issue new 'drops' each day for a limited period, can expect to pay €30 for their 12cm of Irish charm. [ Killiney WhatsApp chats ablaze again with a new debate about goats Opens in new window ] The green, green grass of home Mow row: 'All hell broke loose' over a Castleisland patch of grass. Photograph: Alamy/PA No awards for Castleisland , Co Kerry, in the 32-county Best Kept Towns competition won by Naas in Co Kildare this week. And no wonder, given the level of political turmoil over keeping a patch of grass cut. 'All hell broke loose,' The Kerryman reports, at a Kerry County Council meeting over a letter sent by Sinn Féin offering to deploy members to mow the grass on an estate if the council would not do it. Jackie Healy-Rae jnr, of the Kerry political dynasty, insisted a €900 lawnmower had already been purchased for the residents and Independent councillor Charlie Farrelly demanded an apology from the Sinn Féin members over the letter, 'sarcastically implying' that the 'Army Council' had sent it. This went down roughly how something like this would go down in the Dáil: ructions, rancour, appeals to the chair, calls to withdraw. Farrelly said he would withdraw the Army Council remark, which was intended 'in jest', but he still wasn't happy about the letter. Sinn Féin councillor Robert Brosnan decried the 'dirty digs' and ultimately he and his party colleagues stormed out. There is no update on the status of the grass. Fine, okay People celebrate Bloomsday on Dublin's North Great George's Street. Photograph: Dan Dennison Christmas comes earlier every year and Bloomsday is lasting longer. But six weeks on from this column's first reference of the year, this is the last, I promise. Our sympathies with the Joyceans of China, where the Irish consulate spent the past week in the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing and Suzhou bringing the complicated novel to new audiences. One cultural issue: there's no word 'Yes' in Mandarin. In the last chapter of Ulysses, the only one in Molly Bloom's voice, the word 'Yes' features more than 80 times. The last part of the last line, as erudite Irish Times readers no doubt already know, goes like this: 'And his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.' The American writer and translator Brendan O'Kane notes that one translation into Chinese, by Jin Di, opts for 'really', giving: 'and his heart was going like mad and really I said I will Really'. But our favourite is Xiao Qian and Wen Jieruo's version – 'by far the most widely read', says O'Kane. This goes with '好吧' – 'okay, fine.' This gives us the climactic line: 'Okay I said okay fine OKAY.' Which is also Overheard's position on cutting down on the Joyce references.
Al Jazeera
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
US judge blocks Trump's bid to ban Harvard from enrolling foreign students
A federal judge in the United States has blocked President Donald Trump's bid to block Harvard from enrolling foreign students, delivering the prestigious university another victory as it challenges multiple government sanctions amid a battle with the White House. Friday's order by District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston preserves Harvard's ability to host international students while a lawsuit filed by the Ivy League school plays out in the courts. Burroughs, however, added that the federal government still had the authority to review Harvard's foreign admission policies through normal processes outlined in law. Harvard found itself embroiled in a polarising debate about academic freedom and the right to protest against Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza as its pro-Palestine students demanded full disclosure of the country's oldest and wealthiest university's investments in companies linked to Israel and divestment from those companies. Trump and his allies claim that Harvard, and other US universities that saw similar protests, are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and 'anti-Semitism'. In May, Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security after the agency abruptly withdrew the school's certification to enrol foreign students and issue paperwork for their visas, skirting most of its usual procedures. The action would have forced Harvard's roughly 7,000 international students – about a quarter of its total enrolment and a major source of income – to transfer or risk being in the US without the necessary documents. New foreign students would have been barred from coming to Harvard. The university said it was experiencing illegal retaliation for rejecting the White House's demands to overhaul Harvard policies related to campus protests, admissions and hiring. Trump, who has cut about $3.2bn of federal grants for Harvard and tried numerous tactics to block the institution from hosting international students, said that his administration has been holding negotiations with Harvard. 'Many people have been asking what is going on with Harvard University and their largescale improprieties that we have been addressing, looking for a solution,' Trump said in a post on Friday on Truth Social. 'We have been working closely with Harvard, and it is very possible that a Deal will be announced over the next week or so,' he said. 'If a Settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be 'mindbogglingly' HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.' Trump did not provide any details about the purported 'deal'.
