Prof Wins Free Speech Victory After College Panicked About Test Questions on Islamic Terrorism
“Colleges can’t take away a professor’s academic freedom rights because they want to stem criticism on social media”
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education got involved here and helped make the difference.
From the FIRE blog:
VICTORY: Chancellor affirms professor’s academic freedom after Arizona college panicked over test questions about Islamic terrorism
Scottsdale Community College’s mishandling of a professor’s academic freedom drew an apology from the district’s interim chancellor Monday, just days after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education sent a letter defending the professor’s rights. The college tried to force professor Nicholas Damask to apologize for three quiz questions about Islamic terrorism that a student said were “in distaste of Islam.” Damask added that the college suggested he would be required to meet with an Islamic religious leader to review the content of his course.
“I’m happy that the Maricopa Community College governing board has acknowledged the importance of the First Amendment and academic freedom, even into subjects that may be controversial — without that freedom of thought and inquiry, America just isn’t America anymore,” said Damask, who has been teaching at SCC for 23 years. “And I’m grateful for groups like FIRE that are willing to stand by me in the fight to defend that freedom.”
FIRE sent an urgent letter to SCC on Thursday, outlining the college’s free speech and academic freedom missteps and demanding that it abandon any suggestion that it will investigate or suppress his teaching.
Damask, chair of the Department of Political Science at SCC, exchanged emails with a student on April 29 about three quiz questions in an international relations course. Within a day, someone shared this student’s concern about Damask’s quiz questions online, and the questions generated negative attention on the school’s official Instagram account.
The quiz questions asked about the context in which terrorism is justified by some in the Islamic religion, where in Islamic doctrine and law terrorism is encouraged by those who justify it, and who terrorists believe they are emulating, based on the material assigned in the course.
“Colleges can’t take away a professor’s academic freedom rights because they want to stem criticism on social media,” said Katlyn Patton, author of FIRE’s letter.
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Comments
Get back to me after someone’s head rolls for this.
“Big Trouble in Little China” is one of my favorite movies.
I’ll be satisfied if the punishment is requiring their art department to host a “draw Muhmmed” contest.
the questions generated negative attention on the school’s official Instagram account
Ummmm, sure, “negative attention” is one way to frame it. But you could also frame it as “implied death threats” and “threats of violence.”
And, of course, the questions were about the Koran passages and Hadiths that threaten violence and death to infidels. These folks were threatening violence because questions about Islam promoting violence were defamatory. *eyeroll*
See Ray Ibrahim’s latest piece on why so many Moslems genuinely think of Islam as a peaceful religion, and are astonished and offended that anyone thinks otherwise.
I’m happy that the Maricopa Community College governing board has acknowledged the importance of the First Amendment and academic freedom
These two are hardly the same thing. The First certainly doesn’t say anything about special rights for the academy, no more than it does for the press. Nor should it. Everybody has these rights.