Last Thursday we wrote on the ongoing case of "terrorism" and academic freedom at Britain's University of Nottingham. Almost three years after an Algerian-born administrator was imprisoned for five months and threatened with deportation and a postgraduate student was detained for six days --- all for putting a copy of a publicly-available Al Qa'ead training manual on a computer --- the supervisor of the postgraduate student, Dr Rod Thornton, has been suspended by Nottingham. Thornton was punished after he submitted an essay to a British academic conference detailing and critquing the University's conduct in the case.
Now 67 academics have signed an open letter, first published in The Guardian of London, calling for the reinstatement of Thornton and an enquiry into the University's actions.
We write as academics deeply concerned by the suspension of Dr Rod Thornton, a lecturer in counter-terrorism in the school of politics and international relations at the University of Nottingham (Report, 4 May). We understand that Dr Thornton's suspension is the result of a whistle-blowing investigative research paper that was presented at the annual British International Studies Association conference and subsequently published on its website. In his research, Dr Thornton carefully details what appear to be examples of serious misconduct from senior university management over the arrest of two university members (The "Nottingham Two") under the Terrorism Act 2000 in May 2008.
The two men were never charged with a terrorism-related offence, and their arrests were perceived as being indicative of a growing tide of Islamophobia. Dr Thornton's research paper provides apparent confirmation, notably through internal communications obtained via the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts, that university management and senior academics colluded to paint the two men in a negative light despite no evidence of wrongdoing. The claims he makes are very serious and should be subjected to a full and proper inquiry: they cannot be ignored.
We call for the immediate reinstatement of Dr Rod Thornton and call on the University of Nottingham to openly and thoroughly examine the claims made in his research. We also request that an independent inquiry be conducted into the university's actions on this matter.
Prof Noam Chomsky MIT
Prof Paul Gilroy LSE
Dr Karma Nabulsi Oxford
Prof Charles Tripp SOAS
Prof Neera Chandhoke University of Delhi
Prof Michael Burawoy University of California, Berkeley
Prof Patrick Bond University of KwaZulu-Natal
Prof David McNally York University (Toronto)
Prof Bill Bowring University of Essex
Prof John Harriss Simon Fraser University (Canada)
Prof Neil Smith City University, New York
Dr Norman Finkelstein
Prof Joyce Canaan Birmingham City University
Prof Richard Keeble University of Lincoln
Prof Scott Lucas University of Birmingham
Prof David Miller University of Strathclyde
Prof Ian Parker Manchester Metropolitan University
Prof Scott Poynting Manchester Metropolitan University
Prof Lucy Suchman University of Lancaster
Dr Bernard Sufrin Oxford (Worcester College)
Dr Laleh Khalili SOAS
Dr Rahul Rao SOAS
Dr Tufyal Choudhury University of Durham
Dr Polly Pallister-Wilkins SOAS
Dr Mark Laffey SOAS
Dr Corinna Mullin SOAS
Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam SOAS
Dr Kate Tunstall Oxford (Worcester College)
Dr Alf Nilsen University of Bergen
Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh Oxford (Balliol College)
Dr Eddie Yuen San Francisco Art Institute
Dr Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed University of Sussex
Dr Tim Jacoby University of Manchester
Dr Laurence Cox National University of Ireland
Dr Jairus Banaji SOAS
Dr Ole Johnny Olsen University of Bergen
Dr Bhabani Sshankar Nayak Glasgow Caledonian University
Dr Rupert Read University of East Anglia
Dr Subir Sinha SOAS
Dr Neil Davidson University of Strathclyde
Dr Arun Kundnani London Metropolitan University
Dr Rashmi Varma University of Warwick
Dr Michael Edwards UCL
Dr Timothy Jones University of Glamorgan
Dr Jessie Blackbourn University of Salford
Dr Steve Hurst Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Steve Hewitt University of Birmingham
Dr Nisha Kapoor Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Jodie Chapell University of Lancaster
Dr Jack Nye Open University
Dr James Brown University of Cambridge
Dr Nicola Pratt University of Warwick
Dr Carlos Frade University of Salford
Dr Sherifa D Zuhur Strategic Studies Institute, United States Army War College
Dr Alex Dennis University of Salford
Dr William Dinan University of Strathclyde
Dr Piers Robinson University of Manchester
Dr Peter Bratsis University of Salford
Dr Helen Dexter University of Manchester
Dr Peter Waterman International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
Dr Aggie Hirst Liverpool Hope University
Dr Max Farrar Leeds Metropolitan University
Dr Elena Vezzadini École des hautes études en Sciences Sociales
Dr Giselle Vincett University of Edinburgh
Dr Betty Hagglund University of Birmingham
Dr Gary Fooks University of Bath
Dr Mahmood Delkhasteh