Kesher Talk

Jordanian professors possibly fired for not calling a spade a spade: UPI reports that 8 professors of Islamic studies who refused to label human bomb attacks as suicide operations have been fired from public universities in Jordan.

The sources, who insisted on anonymity, said five professors from the University of Jordan in Amman, two from Muta University in Maan in southern Jordan, and one from Yarmouk University in the northern city of Irbid were "arbitrarily dismissed" over a period of two weeks.

Officials at the three universities confirmed the professors' "resignations," but said they were "an internal university issue."

A statement from the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the country's most powerful Islamist groups, criticized the move, saying it was made to please the United States "in its fight against terrorism."

Brotherhood sources quoted the professors as saying university officials told them "they have to either resign or be dismissed upon security orders."

Most of those dismissed were graduates and former professors of sharia, or Islamic law, in Saudi Arabia. They "refused to amend the ideology curricula to describe the martyr operations as suicide bombings," the Brotherhood sources said.

The Muslim Brotherhood weekly, As Sabeel, Wednesday quoted Ali Utoum, the professor of sharia fired from Yarmouk University, as saying the decision is "a political one aimed at my Islamic affiliations and against the Islamic movement of which I am honored to be a part."

posted by Howard @ 6/05/2002 11:58:05 AM