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Los Angeles Times - July 25, 2006
Wisconsin lawmakers want Islam teacher booted
By P.J. Huffstutter
CHICAGO — After Kevin Barrett started talking about a class he planned to teach this fall on Islam, the little-known lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found himself in the middle of a fierce political battle between the school and state politicians.
Barrett told a Milwaukee talk show host in June that he believed that the U.S. government used "controlled demolitions with explosives" on Sept. 11 to bring down the World Trade Center buildings and later said that the idea of a hijacked plane hitting the Pentagon was "preposterous." He plans to discuss these beliefs over one week of the 15-week course for undergraduate students.
Wisconsin lawmakers, however, are trying to stop him.
In a letter delivered Monday to university administrators and Wisconsin Gov. James Doyle, state lawmakers demanded that school officials fire Barrett before the fall semester begins. Sixty-one of the legislature's 133 members — now on summer recess — signed the letter.
And if the school allows Barrett to teach "these lies," some of the legislators who signed the letter are threatening to cut the university system's public funding when the next state budget is reviewed next year, said Republican Rep. Stephen L. Nass…..
School officials say they have no reason to oust Barrett because free speech protects academic freedom. "We cannot allow political pressure from critics of unpopular ideas to inhibit the free exchange of ideas," said Patrick Farrell, the school's provost. "The university is one of the chief financial engines of this state. It's short-sighted to handicap that engine just because legislators are annoyed with the views of one of our employees."
Academic experts say the controversy reflects an ongoing tug-of-war over free speech protections on college campuses. Some faculty members say they are careful about classroom discussions — particularly involving opinions that the public may find offensive.
"You can't tell someone that they can't say these things because it's not what a moral person would think," said Donald A. Downs, a University of Wisconsin professor of political science, law and journalism and president of Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights, a nonprofit organization. "I'm a supporter of the war on terror. I'm offended by him having these beliefs. But it's censorship to say he can't say these things."
Similar fights have been waged on other campuses in recent years.
The University of Colorado at Boulder is in the process of firing Ward L. Churchill, an ethnic studies professor who became the center of controversy last year when an essay he'd written comparing 9/11 victims to Nazis was unearthed. (The university system launched an investigation of Churchill's academic writings and concluded he'd committed fraud. Churchill, who says he's been targeted for his political beliefs, plans to fight the termination in federal court.)
Though faculty members' personal and political opinions should not bar them from teaching, there are limits on what happens in a classroom, said Jonathan Knight, director in the department of academic freedom and governance at the American Assn. of University Professors…..
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-academic25jul25,1,7914065.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true
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