From the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East website:
The SPME petition to reinstate Thomas Klocek, the Roman Catholic faculty member who was fired by DePaul University without due process for challenging Muslim students' assertions of Israeli treatment of Palestinians to the Nazi's treatment of Jews, has already amassed nearly 1000 signatures in three days. The petition, which can be viewed and signed at http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/display_petitions.cgi?ID=3 calls for his complete reinstatement without prejudice or penalty.
Morry Fiddler, a professor at DePaul University, writes, " If I'm not there for a colleague, then who will be there for me?" Other DePaul professors signing the petition to date are Allan Berele, Gary Siegel, Jonathan Cohen and Jerold Friedland.
Bernard Arfin of Stanford University asks, " What has happened to freedom of speech?"
Simon Levy at Boston University calls the incident, " A clear violation of academic standards," while his colleague, Susan Biener Bergman, also at BU, states, " It seems that at DePaul University, there is a climate of intimidation of anyone having pro-Israel views. What a shame. I thought that academic freedom meant just that."
Nicholas G. Hahn III, Treasurer of the DePaul Conservative Alliance writes, "...Klocek, as a devout Catholic, deserves the same amount of respect as the Middle Eastern students, especially at a University that claims to be the largest Catholic University in America." Mark Mason, a student at DePaul states, " I am a liberal Democrat, and believe that Thomas Klocek had the right to say what he said and should not be penalized for exercising his free speech outside of the classroom...." Richard Kinkead, a 1977 graduate of DePaul goes on to say, " You pay Ward Churchill to come, but you fire this honest professor. And you wonder why I don't send you a check every year...." And Karen Hunstad says, " As I look at colleges for my son, DePaul will not be one of them. What happened to free and open discussion of ideas and thoughts?
Technorati tags: Illinois Chicago DePaul Academic freedom Free Speech Thomas Klocek Israel Middle East Catholic Ward Churchill
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