hicham yezza, academia, and intellectual censorship
I’ve been following this story for a week or so now, and I can’t help but feel more and more uneasy about it.
Hicham Yezza, a postgraduate employee at Nottingham University, was arrested and detained for six days for possessing a copy of the al-Qaida training manual. Why did he have it? To print out for a friend who was researching an MA on their training methods. Hardly a threat to national security.
The Guardian’s article has the first interview with Yezza since the events unfolded, and highlights the crucial issues around censorship and intellectual freedom involved in the case. The article quotes academics, who point to a climate of self-censorship that is already present, and growing, within universities, hindering academic freedom and investigation. What is also interesting is Yezza’s position within the university. He was active within political societies, and the founder of the campus’ student peace movement. The university released a statement that claimed
The University works closely with the Students’ Union to promote dialogue, understanding and respect between student societies and is proactive in meeting regularly with representatives of key cultural groups. We also work closely with chaplains and faith groups, not only to meet the needs of students from particular faiths, but also to balance the interests of particular cultural or religious groups with those of the wider campus community. Where individual or group action unsettles the harmony of the campus, the University is committed to working through established channels to reinforce the values and standards that underpin a diverse and tolerant environment.
Apparently, ‘harmony’ in this case means not protesting – about anything. If I was a conspiraloon I might say that Yezza’s correspondence was monitored by the university because of his activity in the peace movement (that and his unfortunate affliction of having a strange-sounding foreign name), and it is through this monitoring that they found the copy of the manual in the first place, and that the over-reaction of going straight to the police was in direct response to those issues. However, I’m not into my conspiraloonery, so I won’t say that. But I can understand why some might.
You can follow Yezza’s deportation struggle at the Free Hicham Yezza blog, which also provides some useful comment on the events that led up to this.
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I’ve been following this story for a week or so now, and I can’t help but feel more and more uneasy about it.
Hicham Yezza, a postgraduate employee at Nottingham University, was arrested and detained for six days for possessing a copy of the al-Qaida training manual. Why did he have it? To print out for a friend who was researching an MA on their training methods. Hardly a threat to national security.
The Guardian’s article has the first interview with Yezza since the events unfolded, and highlights the crucial issues around censorship and intellectual freedom involved in the case. The article quotes academics, who point to a climate of self-censorship that is already present, and growing, within universities, hindering academic freedom and investigation. What is also interesting is Yezza’s position within the university. He was active within political societies, and the founder of the campus’ student peace movement. The university released a statement that claimed
The University works closely with the Students’ Union to promote dialogue, understanding and respect between student societies and is proactive in meeting regularly with representatives of key cultural groups. We also work closely with chaplains and faith groups, not only to meet the needs of students from particular faiths, but also to balance the interests of particular cultural or religious groups with those of the wider campus community. Where individual or group action unsettles the harmony of the campus, the University is committed to working through established channels to reinforce the values and standards that underpin a diverse and tolerant environment.
Apparently, ‘harmony’ in this case means not protesting – about anything. If I was a conspiraloon I might say that Yezza’s correspondence was monitored by the university because of his activity in the peace movement (that and his unfortunate affliction of having a strange-sounding foreign name), and it is through this monitoring that they found the copy of the manual in the first place, and that the over-reaction of going straight to the police was in direct response to those issues. However, I’m not into my conspiraloonery, so I won’t say that. But I can understand why some might.
You can follow Yezza’s deportation struggle at the Free Hicham Yezza blog, which also provides some useful comment on the events that led up to this.
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