David Horowitz brings up the Thomas Klocek free speech case in debate

Simply said, one of the greatest conservative writers and thinkers is David Horowitz. His Front Page Magazine web site is an invaluable source of information on the PC assault on America, specializing in the continued leftward drift of academia in this country. He's the author of several books, the most recent of which is the non-political The End of Time.

Horowitz is the driving force behind the Academic Bill of Rights, which has in turn, has inspired congressional bill HR 609, which may be voted on by the full House this summer.

That bill is the Higher Education Re-Authorization Act, which has a section in it greatly influenced by Horowitz' ideas.

From the Students for Academic Freedom (yet another Horowitz project) web site:

The academic freedom provisions in HR 609 were inspired by the Academic Bill of Rights. (The Academic Bill of Rights and a list of national and state legislation currently under consideration is available on the organization's website at http://studentsforacademicfreedom.org.) These provisions state in part that, "an institution of higher education should ensure that a student attending such institution on a full- or part-time basis is evaluated solely on the basis of their reasoned answers and knowledge of the subjects and disciplines they study and without regard to their political, ideological, or religious beliefs" and that students should be exposed to "diverse approaches and dissenting sources and viewpoints within the instructional setting."

Let's hope HR 609 becomes law soon.

David Horowitz recently participated in a debate with liberal Ohio University professor Kevin Mattson. The complete transcript is here.

In the debate, Horowitz brings up the sad case of Thomas Klocek, a DePaul professor who was suspended for defending Israel in front of some Muslim students at a student activities fair there. The students were not accustomed to having their controversial (except on college campuses) views challenged.

Marathon Pundit has been blogging the Klocek free speech struggle since March 1. This Richard Baehr American Thinker article neatly sums up this PC-thinking run amok case.

Here is what Horowitz said about Klocek:

The reason there are so few cases of liberal students abused by conservative professors is obvious. First, there are so few conservative professors since the university hiring process has been so politicized as to weed them out (yet another abuse of academic freedom). Second, because there are so few conservative professors, they have to be extra careful lest the ax fall on them. Thomas Klocek was an adjunct at DePaul until he got into an argument off campus with some anti-Israel Muslim students, who complained. Now he's gone.

On June 14, Klocek filed a lawsuit against DePaul.