Thursday 12 June 2008

Academic freedom

The current edition of 'The Friend' in the UK contains an article entitled 'Protests over academic freedom' by Roger Sanderson relating to 2 students who accessed open source material about al-Qaeda for legitimate research work - the material was from an open access official US govt. version of a training manual for al-Qaeda. As a result they spent 6 days in police custody before being released without charge though one was immediately re-arrested and fast tracked for deportation. After protests this led to suspension of that deportation for judicial review.This raises some very interesting issues for Friends particularly in terms of freedom of speach and access to materials which might allow the creation of understanding of a significant world issue and its resolution.The following address was given for more information about the case for those who are interested.
http://freehichamyezza.files.wordpress.com
In Peace and Friendship
Peter

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