academic freedom
Turkey Almost Votes for Religious Freedom!
According to the print issue of the International Herald Tribune on Feb 8, Lawmakers voted early Thursday to approve a constitutional amendment to allow women to enter universities wearing Islamic head scarves, a move that many secular Turks view as an attempt to impose religion on their daily lives. Lawmakers voted 401 to 110 in [...]
Have We Entered 2008 or 1984?
Not only can you banned from entering the US for donating money to a Muslim charity a la the Muslim Martin Luther King Tariq Ramadan, but now you can be charged for “ideologically-based violence” in the land of the free and the home of the brave. The stuff of the fictionally-based Orwell political doomsday novel [...]
OH SNAP! Almontaser Sues NYC Mayor
That’s great May, now back to things that actually matter… This morning the NY Times reported that Ms. Debbie Almontaser, the founding principle of NYC’s Khalil Gibran International Academy, filed a lawsuit against Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Education Department Chancellor Joel I. Klein for suppressing her freedom of speech and “conspire-[ing] to deny her [...]
Haifa University Hinders Free Speech
Here’s an interesting story that’s controversial for all the wrong reasons: Arab students attending the Haifa University distributed on Tuesday a leaflet titles “The Palestinian Student’s Journal,” which featured texts regarding the reoccupying of Jerusalem. Pick up on the controversy yet? Here’s a hint… it’s the reoccupation of Jerusalem. OoooOOOooooh! Can you believe those ungrateful [...]
GOOD NEWS: UM Press Bucks Zionut Pressure
This, more than any football game, makes me more proud to be a UM graduate. The University of Michigan Press decided unanimously to continue to distribute Pluto Press books. A Zionut campaign pressured the university and the press to cancel the contract because Pluto Press publishes books critical of Israel. They were especially angered by [...]
Short Documentary on Academic Freedom
A video posted on YouTube explores the contest over academic freedom, with a focus on recent Columbia University controversies. The video looks at Campus Watch, Daniel Pipes, Hamid Dabashi, Joseph Massad, Rashid Khalidi, and Hamid Dabashi. It also shows Stephen Walt about the impact of his thesis critiquing the Israel lobby.
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