London, Feb 6, IRNA – Britain’s draconian anti-terrorism laws are intimidating academics at universities and have led to at least one lecturer to stop supervising studies on terrorism, according to a wrongly-arrested PhD research student.
Rizwaan Sabir revealed Saturday that since his arrest for possessing a so-called al-Qaida training manual at Nottingham University in central England in May 2008, there had been increasing pressure faced by lecturers regarding the teaching of terrorism.
“The latest fiasco to have hit Nottingham involves my former PhD supervisor, the terrorism expert Rod Thornton. Thornton has decided that he is no longer willing to teach terrorism at Nottingham University,” Sabir said.
“He fears that either he or his students risk arrest and detention as suspected terrorists due to the continued ambiguity surrounding the legitimacy of the Al-Qaida Training Manual and similar works,” he said.
Sabir was released without charge after being detained for six days as a terror suspect whilst conducting research on al-Qaida, related to his studies. He has since moved to the University of Strathclyde in Scotland to continue his doctoral research.
He suggested that the dangers to academic freedom in the UK were being posed by the risk of being charged with disseminating terrorism publication that were deemed to be illegal or for glorifying or inciting terrorism.
“In direct response to the university’s failure to offer consistent advice or support, Thornton felt that his teaching of terrorism was too risky and could potentially make him fall foul of the law,” the PhD student said.
He accused the university of failing to carry out the government’s guidelines and uphold his academic freedom that meant he felt there was “no other choice other than to cease teaching altogether.”
In an article for the Guardian’s Comment is Free section, Sabir warned that Thornton’s case highlights “some problematic issues, not only for Nottingham, but for universities throughout the UK that wish to contribute to the debate on terrorism and counter-terrorism.”
“If we are to address the problems associated with terrorism and are to have a successful, rigorous and informed counter-terrorism strategy, we need to take the threat posed to free and open inquiry at the behest of the UK’s anti-terror legislation,” he said.
“If the issue is not addressed and the problems are not fixed, I fear that Thornton’s case will be the first of many,” he further warned.
Thornton, a former British Army officer, is also an occasional lecturer at the NATO Defence College in Rome and has been contracted to produce work for the Ministry of Defence in London and the US Department of Defence.
His works include Asymmetric Warfare; Threat and Response in the 21st Century, published in 2006, which covers many of the themes pertinent to the study of international security. He has also recently co-edited a special edition of Contemporary Security Policy.