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new op-ed article in Global Dialogue

Attacking Academic Freedom: The Case of The Nottingham Two and a Whistleblower

In a new op-ed article in Global Dialogue, the newsletter of the International Sociological Association, Alf Nilsen comments on the suspension of Rod Thornton, lecturer at the University of Nottingham.

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Alf Nilsen has recently published an op-ed article in Global Dialogue, the newsletter of the International Sociological Association.

The reason for the suspension is the publication of a detailed article that Thornton had written, criticizing his employers at the University of Nottingham for the role they played in the wrongful arrest three years ago of two young, Muslim men - Rizwaan Sabir og Hicham Yezza, student and staff member at the University respectively - under section 41 of Britain's anti-terror laws.

The two were arrested after one of Yezza's colleagues discovered a document on the desktop of his office computer entitled "Al Qaida Training Manual". Sabir had downloaded the document from the webpages of the US Department of Justice as part of the data collection for a master's dissertation he was writing on radical Islam. His dissertation work was supervised by Rod Thornton.

Nilsen writes:

- "If justice is to be done in this case, Dr. Thornton must be immediately reinstated, and the UoN must submit to an independent public inquiry of the claims made against it in his report".

 

You can read the article here.