ZOMG, THEY’RE TEACHING TERRORISM!?!?!
My head hurts. I just spent 20 minutes reading the comments in this article and I need to lie down. It’s by Rizwaan Sabir, a PhD student who was arrested for downloading an Al-Qaeda manual (and being a bit brown). That seems fair enough, you might think: surely someone who downloads such a manual deserves it? Except Sabir was studying for a PhD in terrorism. He was thus arrested for doing a fundamental part of his degree.
In his piece, Sabir points out that this is a bit silly. People need to be able to study terrorism to understand why it happens and even work out ways to stop it. This point was sadly missed by hordes of commentators, who left missive after missive declaring:
Y R THEY TEAHCIHING TERRORISM AT UNIVIERSTY?!?@!
Or something along those lines. CJCJC said:
Beyond parody.
This sums up the current academic mindset in a nutshell.
Teaching “terrorism” as an academic subject while turning a blind eye, indeed actively refusing to co-operate with the police, to the radicalisation taking place right under you noses.
It’s political correctness gone literally mad. polishsupporter said:
I mean what does studying terrorism teach. There a lots of angry people in the world and lots of martyrs who are prepared to blow themselves in the name of some bogus interpretation of religion.
Innit. Except for the terrorists who aren’t religious. Or those who don’t commit suicide. Hang on, this terrorism thing is slightly more complicated than it looks. kevwell was more suspicious:
One does have to wonder why there are those who are so interested in Islamic extremism & terrorism, that they wish to study it at university.
Yes, bit funny that. And all those historians interested Fascism. And what about Chemists? They like chemicals. What are explosives made out of: chemicals! QED.
Anyway, head over to The Guardian and give yourself a giggle.
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Oh god, the comment threads over at comment is free have to be among the most depressing places on the internet. Some of the responses make me want to shoot myself in the face.