Letter to University President Mohammad Qayoumi expressing concern about the response of San José State to the ongoing controversy surrounding the recent workshop for high school teachers and community college faculty on teaching the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was organized by Professor Persis Karim.

February 28, 2013

Letter regarding police violence at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University on December 18, 2012, when an extraordinarily large police contingent was deployed. Students were protesting government policies on the regulation of higher education and the attendant violation of student rights during PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the METU campus in connection to the launching of the Göktürk-2 satellite. (pdf)

February 28, 2013

Letter regarding police violence at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University on December 18, 2012, when an extraordinarily large police contingent was deployed. Students were protesting government policies on the regulation of higher education and the attendant violation of student rights during PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the METU campus in connection to the launching of the Göktürk-2 satellite. (pdf)

February 19, 2013

January 15 attack at the University of Aleppo where 80 or more are said to have lost their lives, and more than 150 people were injured. (pdf)

Support of Brooklyn College President Karen Gould’s principled stance regarding the public forum on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign that took place at Brooklyn College on February 7, 2013. (pdf) 

Mounting reports of intimidation and persecution of students and faculty on Marmara University’s campus and alleged actions of the Dean of the Faculty of Communications, Yusuf Devran, which threaten freedom of thought and freedom of research at the university. (pdf)

Concern regarding the imprisonment and maltreatment of Omid Kokabee, a doctoral student in physics at the University of Texas at Austin, who was arrested in February 2011 during a visit to Iran and incarcerated at Evin Prison without clear charges or a trial for 15 months. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison on unsubstantiated charges. (pdf)

Ongoing pattern of arrests and detentions of academics, scholars and students on the basis of their research and scholarship concerning Kurdish issues. (pdf)

The fourteen-year-long cycle of trials and acquittals that has subjected Pınar Selek, a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Strasbourg, to prolonged denial of justice. Selek’s plight has also contributed to a climate of intimidation confronting all scholars, within and outside of Turkey, who wish to conduct research and writing on Kurdish issues. (pdf)

UPDATE: January 24, 20313 -Pınar Selek sentenced to life in in prison (http://humanrightsturkey.org/2013/01/24/breaking-news-selek-setenced-to-life-imprisonment/)

Allegations of censorship at several Turkish universities where scholarly publications have touched on sensitive subjects such as racism against Africans in Turkey, Kurdish rights or environmental issues. (pdf)

Response dated December 21, 2012, received via fax January 03, 2013 (pdf)

Concern over the November 7th revocation of citizenship of thirty-one Bahraini nationals, including MESA member Professor Abdulhadi Khalaf. (pdf)

Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the recent decision by the US Department of State to freeze scholarships in the 2012-13 academic year for Palestinian students from Gaza who seek to further their studies in the West Bank. (pdf)

Letter to University of Jordan President Ikhleif Tarawneh concerning the early dismissal of Rula Quawas as Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Jordan University.

(pdf)

Response received November 4, 2012 (pdf)

Letter to Israel’s Minister of Education Gideon Sa’ar regarding recommendation by Israeli Council for Higher Education Subcommittee for Quality to suspend student registration in Ben Gurion University’s Department of Politics and Government for the 2013-14 academic year. (pdf)

Related Letter sent September 25, 2012: To Professor Thomas Risse and Professor regarding Israeli Council for Higher Education Subcommittee for Quality recommendations. (pdf) html

Related Article by The Jerusalem Post (Oct. 31, 2012)

Letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing dismay and concern over recent remarks by Turkish Minister of the Interior (Içişleri Bakanı) Idris Naim Şahin comparing writing and publishing ideas in support of Kurdish rights to terrorism. (pdf)

UPDATE (24 Jan 2013) Idris Naim Sahin has now replaced with Muammer Guler (html)

Letter to University of California President Mark G. Yudof expressing concerns about the recent report on “University of California Jewish Student Campus Climate” and its recommendations for new hate speech guidelines. (pdf)

Response received August 14, 2012 (html)

7 August 2012 (Turkey) – Letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing dismay and concern over March 8th arrest and detention of Müge Tuzcuoğlu, charged under the Anti-Terror Law on grounds that her attendance at training workshops and her presence at two public demonstrations in support of Kurdish rights allegedly link her to the PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan- Kurdistan Workers’ Party). (pdf)

UPDATE: Müge Tuzcuoğlu released September 25, 2012, after being detained for 7 months. Turkish link: http://www.bianet.org/bianet/insan-haklari/141068-muge-tuzcuoglu-dahil-9-tahliye

Letter to Birzeit University President Khalil Hindi regarding the university administration's handling of the controversy surrounding the caricatures Professor Musa Budeiri placed on his office door. (pdf)

Response received July 04, 2012 (pdf)

Related stories:

Inside Higher Education July 05, 2012 article.

New York Times advertisement placed by the David Horowitz Freedom Center that lists 14 professors by name, describing them (in most cases without any specific accusations) as people who “should be publicly shamed and condemned for the crimes their hatred incites.” It thereby suggests that these scholars are complicit in hate crimes merely for expressing their support for the BDS campaign.

Letter to Bahrain Minister of Justice Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa regarding the ongoing state prosecution and harassment of university faculty, staff, and students. (pdf)

UPDATES: August 16, 2012 - Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of taking part in protests in the unrest-rocked country. (html)
June 27, 2012 - University professors declared innocent by Bahraini courts (html in Arabic); Nabeel Rajab released after three weeks detention (html)

Disciplinary charges which Baylor University has brought against Professor Marc Ellis and about his removal from his teaching and administrative duties without a hearing.

Letter to the Israeli Council for Higher Education (CHE) chairman Gideon Sa’ar regarding the recommendation that Ben Gurion University consider closing down the Department of Politics and Government. (pdf)

Letter to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev President Rivka Carmi regarding pattern of restrictions on freedom of expression.(pdf)

Letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing dismay and concern over the October 28th arrest of Marmara University Professor Büşra Ersanlı, who was later charged under the Anti-Terror Law on grounds that her membership in the BDP (Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi-Peace and Democracy Party) allegedly links her to the PKK  (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan- Kurdistan Workers’ Party). (pdf)

UPDATE: July 13, 2012 - Professor Ersanli was released from prison although the charges remain and the trial will continue on October 1. (News link)

Letter to Assembly of Turkish-American Associations President Ergun Kirlikovali regarding allegations that Prof. Keith Watenpaugh had defamed the organization.

Letter to McGill University administrators for pressure put on members of its faculty who have expressed solidarity with the strike called by the McGill University Non-Academic Certified Association (MUNACA).(pdf)

Letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan about the March 2011 prison sentencing of Kurdish scholar İsmail Beşikçi for “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” in an article entitled “The Right of Self-determination and the Kurds” published in Law and Society in Our Age.

September 20, 2011

(see related letters of July 07, 2011 and April 21, 2011

Follow up letter to Bahrain Minister of Education Dr. Majid bin Ali Al-Naimi regarding the continuing violations of academic freedom at Bahraini educational institutions and affecting Bahraini students studying abroad. (pdf)  

Related stories:
Chronicle of Higher Education November 28, 2011 article

Chronicle of Higher Education October 10, 2011 article

July 07, 2011

(see related letters of April 21, 2011, September 20, 2011, and April 06, 2012)

Letter to Bahrain Minister of Education Dr. Majid bin Ali Al-Naimi expressing continued concern over an unprecedented number of assaults, arrests, dismissals, and punishments affecting faculty, students, and staff from several educational institutions in Bahrain as well as to numerous Bahraini students studying abroad.(pdf)

Related stories:

Chronicle of Higher Education October 10, 2011 article

Letter to HH Shaykh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan over the arrest of economics professor Nasser bin Ghaith at the Abu Dhabi branch of France’s Sorbonne University. (pdf)

UPDATE: November 28, 2011-Nasser bin Ghaith along with four others have been pardoned, a day after they were convicted of insulting the Gulf state's rulers.
BBC article;

April 21, 2011

(see related letters of July 07, 2011, September 20, 2011, and April 06, 2012)

Letter to Minister of Education and University of Bahrain Board of Trustees President Majid bin Ali Al-Naimi regarding the widespread, on-going intimidation including dismissals, firings and threats to professors’ and staff members’ employment as well as students’ continuing matriculation. (pdf)

Related stories:

Chronicle of Higher Education October 10, 2011 article

February 23, 2011

(see related letter of Feb 23, 2010)

Letter to Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas expressing concern about the decision to bring misdemeanor conspiracy charges against eleven university students in connection with their disruption of a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine on February 8, 2010. (pdf)

UPDATE: Sept 23, 2011 - Jury found 10 students guilty of criminal charges for disrupting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s February 2010 speech on the UC Irvine campus. Inside Higher Ed; LA Times

Saudi Arabia

Letter to Minister of the Interior HRH Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud over the December 5, 2010, arrest and detention of Professor Mohammed al Abdulkarim of Imam Mohammed bin Saud University. It is believed his arrest is due to an article he published online about differences in the ruling family over succession and the transfer of power in the Kingdom. (pdf)

Since the disputed election of 2009, the Iranian authorities have intensified their repression and persecution of non-violent student activists and scholars on and off university campuses.  Hundreds of students on campuses throughout Iran have been banned from study, arrested, given arbitrary and harsh sentences, imprisoned, and tortured. The letter calls for immediate and unconditional release of all students and scholars of conscience imprisoned in Iran for their political views and non-violent activism.(pdf)

Letter to Egyptian President Husni Mubarak and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Hany Mahfouz Helal expressing grave concern over numerous recent violations of the rights of university students to engage in lawful, peaceful activism. According to numerous media reports, university security officers and administrators systematically suppressed student activities prior to student union elections on October 18. Students have been verbally abused, beaten, detained, arrested, and suspended. (pdf)

Letter concerning the recent spate of harsh and unwarranted sentencing of a number of prominent scholars, intellectuals, and academic rights activists, including the continued persecution of Mr. Emadeddin Baghi and the announcement by Iranian authorities on September 21, 2010, that he has been sentenced to an additional six years imprisonment. Mr. Baghi is an internationally-renowned independent scholar and a prolific author, a prominent journalist, and a leading human rights and prisoners’ rights defender, who also has campaigned against capital punishment and torture in Iran. (pdf)

Letter to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Rachid Haraoubia expressing deep concern about a set of directives to the heads of Algerian institutions of higher education and research on a new set of procedures for the participation of Algerian scholars in conferences, colloquia, seminars, and workshops held outside the country. The document permits Algerian scholars to accept invitations to attend such meetings only with the prior approval of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS). International gatherings to be held in Algeria must also receive prior approval from the Ministry. (pdf)

February 23, 2010

(see related letter of Feb 23, 2011)

Letter to University of California, Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake expressing concern about the university's disproportionate response (severe disciplinary action and possible criminal prosecution) to the disruptive behavior of 11 students during a public talk by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on February 8, 2010. (pdf)

UPDATE: Sept 23, 2011 - Jury found 10 students guilty of criminal charges for disrupting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s February 2010 speech on the UC Irvine campus. Inside Higher Ed; LA Times

Letter to Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to express concern about the recent closure of the Université Libre de Tunis(ULT), Tunisia’s first and pre-eminent private university, and the withdrawal of that institution’s authorization to operate for the next three academic years. (pdf)

Letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressing grave concern regarding the large-scale wave of intimidation, arrests, and campus expulsions carried out by Iranian security forces against peaceful student activists and protesters on various university campuses throughout Iran since December 2008. (pdf)

CAF-endorsed open letter to Madame Catherine Bréchignac, Présidente du CNRS regarding a disciplinary hearing of Vincent Geisser voicing concern that this is related to his work on Islam in France. (pdf)

Related letters: 

Open letter to Madame Catherine Bréchignac, Présidente du CNRS from California Scholars for Academic Freedom (pdf)

Open letter to Madame Catherine Bréchignac, Présidente du CNRS from academics, independent scholars, and writers based outside France (pdf)

Request by the Minister of State (Technology and Science) for a second review process of the grant-in-aid secured from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The grant helped fund the York University conference, Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace.Three letters sent: Minister Goodyear (pdf); SSHRC President Gaffield (pdf); York University President Shoukri (pdf)

Reply from Goodyear's office received June 22, 2009

Refusal of Israeli authorities to allow Dr. Nicola Pratt to enter the West Bank on April 22, 2009 to present two seminars at the institute for Women's Studies at Bir Zeit University. (pdf)

Commendation of Tel Aviv University President Zvi Galil for his May 3, 2009 letter regarding student Omar Barghouti's petition to boycott Israeli universities. (pdf)

Reply received June 21, 2009

Alleged misconduct and investigation of Prof. William Robinson of University of California, Santa Barbara (pdf)

UPDATE: Case dismissed on June 24, 2009. (AAUP follow-up letter)

Cancellation of Professor Norman Finkelstein's lecture at Clark University. (pdf)

April 29, 2009 letter responding to rescheduling of lecture. (pdf)

Reply received April 29, 2009

Bard University termination of Professor Joel Kovel’s appointment.. (pdf)

Reply received March 9, 2009

Prevention of students from Gaza from studying abroad (pdf)

Grave concern with aspects both of the briefing report titled “Campus Anti-Semitism,” released by the United States Commission on Civil Rights in early 2007 and of the “Findings and Recommendations of the United States Commission on Civil Rights Regarding Campus Anti-Semitism,” dated April 3, 2006.

Related article U. of California at Irvine Is Cleared in Civil-Rights Office's Investigation of Anti-Semitism Allegations (http://chronicle.com/daily/2007/12/966n.htm)

Broad assault on the education system in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Response dated August 9, 2007 (click here for .pdf)

Detention of Dr. Haleh Esfandiari in Tehran.

Read the Washington Post article regarding CAF on Esfandiari May 1, 2008

US Department of State's second visa denial for Professor Tareq Ramadan (letter to Condoleeza Rice)

Update: AAR vs. Chertoff (lawsuit regarding Ramadan's visa denial)

US Department of State's second visa denial for Professor Tareq Ramadan (letter to Karen Hughes)

Reply dated October 18, 2006 (.pdf file)

Arrest of Professor Ghazi Walid Falah

Update: Ghazi Falah, an associate professor in the department of geography and planning at the University of Akron, who had been informally accused of spying for Hezbollah in Israel, was released Sunday, July 30, 2006 without any charges being filed. Professor Falah holds joint Israeli and Canadian citizenship but works in the United States on a permanent visa.

Prosecution of Elif Shafak.

Update September 21, 2006: Professor Shafak acquitted.http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Turkey-Novelists-Trial.html

Regarding withdrawal of offer of joint appointment to Dr. Juan R.I. Cole

Response received June 30, 2006

Arrest and detention of Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo Update August 30, 2006: The Canadian Depart

ment of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the release of Ramin Jahanbegloo, a Canadian-Iranian intellectual, who has been detained in Iran for the past four months. Jahanbegloo was released Wednesday from Tehran's infamous Evin prison, a ministry spokesman said.

Continued imprisonment of Professor Arif Dalilah.

Update August 7, 2008: Professor Dalilah freed from prison today in Damascus.

Denial of visas to 55 Cuban scholars to attend LASA meeting.

Response received April 26, 2006.

Proposed upgrading of College of Judea and Samaria to university status (two letters sent).

Reply received.

Rescinding of visa for Dr. Tariq Ramadan.

Reply received September 3, 2004.

Update July 17, 2009: A federal appeals court today found that the U.S. government had not adequately justified its denial of a visa to a Swiss professor and leading scholar of the Muslim world. The decision, which reverses a ruling of a lower federal court, comes in a case in which the American Civil Liberties Union contended that the government's exclusion from the U.S. of Professor Tariq Ramadan violated the First Amendment rights of organizations inside the United States that had invited Ramadan to meet with and speak to their members. More information about the Ramadan case and the ACLU's separate lawsuit concerning the exclusion of South African scholar Adam Habib is available online at: www.aclu.org/exclusion

Mar 04, 2003

Closure of Al Quds University.

Reply received August 6, 2002