The University of Nottingham, England, has suspended Rod Thornton, a lecturer in International Security and Terrorism and an expert in his field. The suspension came after Thornton published a paper on the May 2008 arrest of two men, Rizwaan Sabir and Hicham Yezza, on the campus.
The arrests took place after three documents were found on Yezza’s office computer. Sabir had sent the three documents, which included the Al Qaeda Training Manual, to Yezza. The latter was helping him with research and assisting him in drafting a research proposal, as part of Sabir’s dissertation involving a study of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Thornton was responsible for Sabir in his role as Postgraduate Tutor in the School of Politics at the university. His paper on the arrests, “Radicalisation at universities or radicalisation by universities? How a student’s use of a library book became a ‘major Islamist plot’”, deserves a wide audience.
The detention of the two men and the subsequent attempt to deport Yezza represented a fundamental attack on their democratic rights...In this, senior management at the University of Nottingham played a central role, claiming that the two had possessed, “terrorist materials”... The “crime” of Sabir and Yezza, as Thornton points out in his meticulous document, “was to have in their possession three documents—all of which were, in fact, available from their own university’s library”.
Students and staff have protested at the university to demand Thornton’s reinstatement... Also supporting Thornton’s reinstatement are some 67 professors and doctors from universities around the world, who have written a letter published in the Guardian on May 11. The academics...include Professor Noam Chomsky...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/acad-m25.shtml
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