Netherlands poised to cancel status of Islamic university over rector’s discriminatory remarks
Date posted: September 17, 2016
Dutch Education Minister Jet Bussemaker announced that there is a parliamentary debate over the Islamic University of Rotterdam for cancellation of the “university status” of the institution due to Rector Ahmet Akgündüz’s repeatedly hateful and discriminatory remarks against Turkey’s minorities and the Gülen movement.
According to the amendment that Bussemaker is working on, the government will intervene if an educational institution does not perform its task of “promoting social responsibility.”
The Islamic University of Rotterdam announced earlier this week that it will no longer cooperate with education ministry watchdog NAVO’s investigation into the quality of the institution. NAVO launched another investigation into the institution because of Akgündüz’s remarks.
Bussemaker criticized Akgündüz’s remarks, saying the actions of the rector are in conflict with Dutch values and norms. “A rector does have a lot of academic freedom as figurehead of an institution, but it goes with great responsibility,” she said.
The recent fight between Kemalo-Islamism and Civil Islam
İHSAN YILMAZ As I have written here before, Islamists imagine Islam as a complete and ready-to-use divine system, with concrete political, cultural, legal and economic blueprints. Their ideology is exclusivist and they are not open to negotiation, compromise or pluralistic viewpoints. Islamists do not pay much attention to civil society and always pursue the seizure […]
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