[LINK] Academics branded 'anti-US over FTA research'

[Alan L Tyree]

On Sun, 30 Jul 2006 19:35:01 +1000
Craig Sanders <cas at taz.net.au> wrote:

> On Sun, Jul 30, 2006 at 12:27:10PM +1000, Antony Barry wrote:
> > On 30/07/2006, at 11:41 AM, Roger Clarke wrote:
> > 
> > >It's unclear which ANU academics the critics would have had in
> > >mind.
> > 
> > There have been letters to the editor attacking an article on the  
> > Middle East by Prof. Amin Saikal and suggesting he was in the pay
> > of a middle eastern country. I forget which one.
> 
> yes, that would be because anyone who has even the slightest criticism
> of israel's actions or policies is an anti-semite. unless they're
> jewish themselves, of course, in which case they're a self-hating jew
> AND an anti-semite.
> 
> criticism of israel is not permitted. they can do no wrong, no matter
> what it is they do.

Well, maybe. But as far as I know, the only academic in recent times
that has suffered *actual* censorship (in the form of being deprived of
the right to teach classes, etc) is Andrew Fraser at Macquarrie.

It seems to me that if we are going to be upset by denial of free
speech, then we need to apply it to a case where the speaker is saying
things that go against the very core of what we ourselves believe,
where the speaker makes our blood boil.

It doesn't take much courage to defend free speech when the speaker is
saying things that we would say anyway.

Alan


> 
> craig
> 
> -- 
> craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
> 


-- 
Alan L Tyree                    http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~alan
Tel: +61 2 4782 2670            Mobile: +61 427 486 206
Fax: +61 2 4782 7092            FWD: 615662