The academic lynching of Professor Abunura

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

Having read your story, “Anti-Muslim attacks penetrate US ‘hallowed halls of ivy’” (AGR #226, May 15-21), I think AGR needs to report the overt cases of Islamphobia, anti-Arab racism, and anti-academic freedom in our colleges in Asheville and Western North Carolina. I am concerned about the status of the academic freedom at UNCA, and the direction of the university, when the Chief Academic Administrator at UNCA allowed the Chair of Political Science to block Professor Abunura from teaching a course on “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” and eventually forced him out of UNCA.

Most of us in Asheville know Professor Elmoiz Abunura as a teacher, human rights and community advocate, a Sufi Muslim who presents the tolerant face Sufi Islam to the churches and community organizations. He is the only voice in the region who pointed since 1996 to the danger of militant Islamic organizations and the failure of the American policy in the Middle East. He is also the only voice who usually comes from UNCA to After September 11 to explain and elaborate on the events in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia.

Professor Elmoiz Abunura is the only expert at UNCA on the Middle East and the Islamic World. He is also a well-known authority in the area of human rights, and one of four experts on Africa at UNCA. It is a major setback to UNCA to lose a faculty [member] with knowledge and highest moral character and relevance to today’s world.

I assisted Professor Abunura in re-establishing Amnesty International at UNCA in 1996. The activities of Amnesty stimulated our interest in human rights issues and generated support for Professor Abunura’s proposal for establishing a human rights center at UNCA.

Professor Abunura has made an outstanding contribution to UNCA and the Asheville community through his leadership in the Africana Studies Program and Amnesty, and his presentations on the Middle East, Islam, and human rights.

The academic lynching of Professor Abunura is a clear defeat to Chancellor Mullen’s diversity initiative. It is the time for the Chancellor to walk the walk of diversity by protecting faculty like Professor Abunura, who made a tremendous contribution to global diversity and human rights.

David Chase
Asheville, North Carolina

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