JNU Starts Course On Islamic Terrorism, Students’ Union Says ‘An Attempt At Islamophobic Propaganda’

The academic council of the Jawaharlal Nehru University has approved the setting up of the Centre for National Security Studies, which will have courses on ‘Islamic Terrorism’ and other related subjects, Times of India has reported.

According to the report, the Center will also have courses on military modernisation of China and Pakistan, defence economics, nuclear proliferation, arms control and disarmament, civil-military relations and naxalism.

However, the left-leaning JUN Students’ Union and teachers see a conspiracy behind the university’s move and have called it “an attempt at Islamophobic propaganda.”

The meeting “finished in 30 minutes and did not discuss any of the eight agendas placed before it,” the daily quoted a member of the union as saying.

“No member, including the deans and chairs reinstated by the Delhi high court, were allowed to speak at all. It is alarming that the highest academic body of the university, in which ‘due deliberation’ must be accorded to all academic matters, was conducted by means of open suppression of dissent,” the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association, which is led by a panel of left-leaning teachers, said.

According to the two bodies, many members of the academic council had argued that the course on ‘Islamic Terrorism’ is communal in nature. At least 33 members of the council have submitted a letter to the JNU registrar raising the issue.

“Many members opposed the topic ‘Islamic Terrorism’ so as to not club any religion with terrorism, and suggested to call the phenomenon ‘religious terrorism’,” an office-bearer of the JNUTA was quoted by PTI as saying.

However, a member of the Academic Council member, who was present in the meeting, said that there was a debate on the issue and many members of the academic council supported the decision to start a course on Islamic Terrorism.

“There was a debate on the issue in the meeting with many members supporting it too, saying that it was a globally accepted phenomenon and majority of the cases (of terrorism) were associated with the religion,” the member said.