Those who want to learn about the events of September 11 from the perspective of terrorist sympathizers now have the chance at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
The reading assignments portray the attackers in a sympathetic light.
The course syllabus or the online course description of ENGL 72: Literature of 9/11 simply states:
But The College Fix reviewed the reading material and pointed out that while none of the readings blame the victim’s families, they do “mostly focus on justifying the actions of terrorists – painting them as fighting against an American regime, or mistaken idealists, or good people just trying to do what they deem right.”
The UNC director of media relations, Jim Gregory, told IJReview.com that the “University isn’t forcing a set of belief of students” but is “asking them to prepare for and engage in every lesson, debate and conversation, and share what they think.”
In this first-year seminar, students are being asked to do so though after reading materials which take an anti-American position.
UNC’s professor rating website of Blinkness gives the professor of the course, Neel Ahuja high ratings, but several posts warn not to disagree with him. One post also urges students that since Ahuja “favors kids who share his own views,” they should “learn to do that.”
According to his page on the university website, Ahuja “was a student organizer and labor solidarity activist” at Northwestern University.
Such warnings about the professor raise not only questions about how objective the debates and papers may be, but also about the course as a whole.
