Falsely Accused of Islamophobia

Steven Greer

Description

In 2020, Steven Greer, an internationally-renowned human rights scholar, was falsely and publicly accused of Islamophobia by the University of Bristol Islamic Society (BRISOC). In July 2021, he was officially exonerated without equivocation or reservation from all BRISOC’s allegations. Nevertheless, the University of Bristol, cancelled the Islam, China and the Far East module of his human rights course just as BRISOC demanded.

In an almost unbelievable twist of fate, in January 2022 Professor Greer was appointed the first Visiting Research Fellow, and later Research Director, at the Oxford Institute for British Islam, a newly established progressive Muslim think tank and research academy. In this book, Greer documents his struggle to avoid physical harm, resist dismissal, salvage his reputation and career, maintain his livelihood, regain the trust and respect of his colleagues, and counter betrayal by the very institutions he had every right to expect would leap to his defense. His inspirational story will encourage many others to take a similar stand for free inquiry and debate in an age of cruel, shameless, unaccountable, and groundless censorship, vilification, and victimization.

Sujets

• Political Science
• Islamic Studies
• Social Science
• EDUCATION
• Religión
• British Studies
• General officer
• Social sciences
• Religion
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Academica Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781680537208
• Langue: English

Extrait

Falsely Accused of Islamophobia
My Struggle Against Academic Cancellation
Steven Greer
Academica Press
Washington∼London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Greer, Steven (author)
Title: Falsely accused of islamophobia: my struggle against academic cancellation | Greer, Steven
Description: Washington: Academica Press, 2023. | Includes references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023931831 | ISBN 9781680537192 (hardcover) | 9781680530797 (paperback) | 9781680537208 (e-book)
Copyright 2023 Steven Greer
Dedication
To Aster, Penny and Rowan
Contents Preface Chapter 1 Background Chapter 2 Context Chapter 3 Processes Chapter 4 Allegations Chapter 5 Implications Chapter 6 Reflections Appendix A Unit Guide for Human Rights in Law, Politics and Society 2019-20 Appendix B Lecture 3: Islam, China and the Far East Appendix C Core Differences Between IHRL, Traditional Political Islam and Traditional ‘Asian values’ Appendix D Steven Greer: Evidence Report Appendix E Lecture 8: Terrorism and counter-terrorism Appendix F Chronology
Preface
On 15 February 2021 my world was turned upside down. I had just discovered that the University of Bristol Islamic Society (BRISOC), frustrated by the lack of progress with a formal complaint lodged the previous autumn, had launched a potentially life-threatening social media campaign to have me sacked as Professor of Human Rights at the University of Bristol Law School in the UK. Multiple counts of Islamophobia in my teaching and other public output were alleged. Their online petition, accompanied by my photo, demanded that I apologise ‘to all Muslim students.’ And if I refused, the University was called upon to discipline me including by dismissal. BRISOC also insisted that the Islam, China, and the Far East module on my Human Rights in Law, Politics and Society (HRLPS) course – which I’d taught without significant alteration or difficulty, including to many Muslim students, for nearly a decade and a half – should be ‘scrapped.’ Just over a week later, my wife and I were so unnerved by a suspicious incident outside our home, coinciding with the reporting of the controversy by Al Jazeera, that I fled Bristol with her to stay somewhere safer for several days.
In July 2021 a University of Bristol inquiry exonerated me completely and without equivocation from all BRISOC’s accusations, an outcome unanimously upheld on appeal that October. However, in September, the Law School nevertheless removed the Islam, China and the Far East module from the HRLPS syllabus from 2021-22 onwards, expressly in order to avoid further complaints and to protect Muslims students from being ‘othered.’ In October, the University publicly announced my exoneration, while at the same time recognising BRISOC’s ‘concerns,’ and acknowledging that the HRLPS course needed to be altered in order to be ‘respectful of the sensitivities’ of students taking it. It is difficult to regard either of these developments as other than a defiant repudiation of the outcome of the inquiry which found no substance whatever in BRISOC’s allegations.
Exhausted and demoralized by the whole experience I was signed off work by my doctor from September 2021 to the beginning of January 2022. But, early in the new year, my fortunes changed dramatically when, as a direct consequence of BRISOC’s campaign, I was appointed the first Visiting Research Fellow, and later Research Director, at the Oxford Institute for British Islam, a newly established progressive Muslim think tank and research academy. But, as I write in the early autumn of 2022, the dust has yet fully to settle on the upheaval in my life over a year and a half after the crisis surfaced.
This book is not, however, intended to be an exercise in self-pity, whinging, or in seeking revenge. If it were, it is unlikely anyone would be interested in reading it. Instead, it has the following principal objectives. One is to document my experience both in order to set the record straight and to provide a firm and clear evidential basis for my reflections upon it. A second is to name and shame the institutions and organizations responsible for the injustices I’ve suffered in an attempt to hold them accountable in the court of public opinion and, if possible, in a court of law. A third is to consider the wider implications of my ordeal in the hope that this might help protect others from suffering a similar fate, or at least offer some encouragement if they do. Finally, I seek to demarcate responsible critical appraisal of Islam from prejudiced hostility to it and to defend the right to the former while deploring the latter. Sadly, although I’m not aware of any comparable false charge of Islamophobia against a British academic, what has happened to me is otherwise far from unique. It is, rather, just another example of rampant academic ‘cancel culture,’ and the corresponding lack of effective commitment to academic freedom on the part of institutions of tertiary education throughout the English-speaking world and beyond.
My ‘lived experience,’ and that of many others, raise numerous questions. Why, for example, are so many students and their teachers so easily convinced by prejudiced, manifestly unfounded accusations, and seduced into hunting non-existent witches and virtually burning non-existent heretics? Why do host institutions and close colleagues capitulate so readily to the online mobs rather than rising to the victims’ defence? What might be done to tackle these toxic trends and to cultivate a more tolerant and less censorious, hair-trigger, environment? I regret that I don’t have definitive answers. But this book seeks to contribute to the expanding literature which attempts to diagnose the problem, and to make some suggestions.
We begin in Chapter 1 with a brief autobiography. Chapter 2 describes the HRLPS unit and the Islam, China and the Far East module. Chapter 3 recounts how the BRISOC controversy unfolded, while Chapter 4 addresses the substantive allegations. Chapter 5 considers the wider implications and Chapter 6 summarizes the core issues and reflects upon the lessons that might be learned.
I was almost broken by BRISOC’s complaint-and-campaign. Yet, far from destroying or silencing me, it has ultimately provided fresh, and even more credible platforms including this book, from which to disseminate the views they wrongly regard as Islamophobic. And although demoralized by the negative response of my employer, the overt hostility of a tiny minority of my colleagues, and the apparent indifference of most of the others, many total strangers who have since become treasured friends, rallied to my cause. Rather than canvass those supporters who do and who do not want to remain anonymous, I have decided not to name any here. They know who they are and also how much their sympathy and solidarity are appreciated. I would, however, particularly like to thank the following: the Free Speech Union, which, amongst other things, generously provided free legal assistance to prime my litigation against the University of Bristol; my legal team, Bryn Harris, Luke Gittos, and Nick Stanage; Lucy Greer for expert advice about marketing; Jack Smith for the cover graphic; the Bristol Free Speech Society which hosted a detailed online interview since available on YouTube; Policy Exchange for referring to the false charges against me in the online launch of my book, Tackling Terrorism in Britain; Simon and Victoria Baughen, Karolien Celie, Brice Dickson, Susan Greer, Stan Houston, Neil Thin, and Colin Samson, who either encouraged me to put fingers to keyboard and/or read and commented upon earlier drafts; and the staff of Academica Press for bringing the project to fruition. Needless to say, nobody but me bears any responsibility for the views expressed. But, as always, the most steadfast, unconditional and loving support has come from my wife Susan, my daughters, Cara, Lucy, and Hope, their partners, Jack, Joe, and Jake and their families, and my brother Peter, and sister-in-law Elma. Without them things would have been infinitely worse.
Chapter 1
Background
Introduction
On the surface a puzzling conundrum lies at the heart of this book. There is not a scrap of evidence from any stage or department in my life remotely suggesting that I am, or have ever been, guilty of anti-Muslim prejudice. Yet, in 2020, with little warning, I was suddenly accused of Islamophobia. The fact that, by then, I had had an unblemished academic career for nearly four decades compounds the mystery. How could someone like me teach and publish for years without incident in the relevant field, and in such a well-regulated environment, yet suddenly turn unnoticed into a hate-filled bigot until the University of Bristol Islamic Society (BRISOC) called me out? As indicated in the Preface, these questions raise other issues, deeper and wider than my own personal experience, to be considered later. However, let’s begin with a sharp irony at the core of BRISOC’s allegations. I stand accused of offences against their Muslim identity. Yet, as this chapter seeks to explain, had they or anyone else bothered to find out, they would quickly and easily have discovered that Islamophobia is utterly incompatible with my identity, my background, what I think and believe, my ‘lived experience,’ and in particular how I’ve conducted my professional life.
Childhood
I was born in Belfast in September 1956 to very ordinary Ulster Protestants, devout Methodists by conviction and choice, and uncommonly anti-sectarian. My father was an electrician and my mother, a secretary and typist. In later life I often claimed to be working class. I had, after all, arrived when my father worked on the production line of a computer factory, often on strike for better pay and conditions. But my family circumstances were probably more lower-middle class. We lived in a quiet suburb of south Belfast with my maternal grandfather, a widowe