|
27. 5. 2008
An attack on academic freedom at Nottingham UniversityA student and a member of staff arrestedDear Friends -- I'm writing to call your attention to a recent incident at the University of Nottingham, where a one of our Graduate Students at the School of Politics and International Relations and an administrative member of staff at the Department of Engineering were arrested by armed police under the Terrorism Act of 2000. Their alleged "crime" was that the graduate student had downloaded an Al-Qaeda training manual from a US government website for research purposes, as he's writing his MA dissertation on Islamic extremism and international terrorist networks. He had then sent this to his friend in the Department of Engineering for printing. The printed material had been spotted by other staff and reported to the University authorities who passed on the information to the police. The two were then arrested by armed police on May 14 and held for six days without charge, before being released without charge on May 20. During the six days they were imprisoned, the men had their homes raided and their families harassed by the police. It is worth noticing that in talking to one of my colleagues, a police officer remarked that the incident would never have occurred if the persons involved had been "blonde, Swedish PhD students" (the two men were of British-Pakistani and Algerian backgrounds respectively). The incident was recently reported in the Times Higher Education Supplement online: HERE |
|
Needless to say, this raises hugely important issues both about academic freedom and civil liberties. Obviously, there is the issue that for those of us involved in research on contentious issues we will by necessity have to consult primary materials of a controversial nature, and the fact that the material is controversial should not lead to it being deemed as illegitimate research material. Moreover, we should not under any circumstances have to fear for infringements upon our civil liberties as a consequence of doing our jobs. Moreover, it goes without saying that the university should guarantee the academic freedom, freedom of speech and expression, and civil liberties of all members of staff and students, irrespective of ethnic and religious background or political beliefs! I would be most grateful if you could circulate this e-mail as widely as possible in the interest of raising awareness and attention about this incident and the wider issues of academic freedom that it gives rise to, to as many of your friends and colleagues as possible! I would of course also be very grateful if any of you would be willing to write to the University of Nottingham to express your concern about this issue. If you are willing to do so, please contact me as soon as possible. Regards Alf Dr. Alf Gunvald Nilsen RCUK Fellow, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cssgj/index.php University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, England, UK Mobile: (0044) (0) 7973332219 Office: (0044) (0) 1159514032 |
