Academic Freedom Media Review – February 25 – March 2, 2012

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

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Virginia court rejects sceptic’s bid for climate science emails
Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 3/2
Yale Professors Want Singapore Campus to Protect Human Rights
Oliver Staley, Bloomberg News, 3/2
Excellence – but those missing out don’t see it that way
Frances Mechan-Schmidt, Times Higher Education, 3/1
African leader wants end to ‘slave trade’ in education /
Phil Baty, Times Higher Education, 3/1
Student singled out for punishment over Willetts protest
Judith Welikala, The Cambridge Student, 3/1
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Beautiful Game Sets Records on Twitter, Growing Interest in the US

”]Apparently the World Cup final represented the largest period of sustained activity for an event in Twitter’s history. According to Twitter Blog, during the final, people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages. I really don’t have anything to add to the post, as it speaks for itself. Clearly Twitter is now a global phenomenon.
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Paranoia about Islam in the West

In the opinion of Arlington (Tennessee) Mayor Russell Wiseman, President Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday night on the war in Afghanistan was deliberately timed to block the Christian message of the “Peanuts” television Christmas special.
Wiseman made the statements on his Facebook page, where he declared Obama to be a Muslim. Only people on Wiseman’s “friend’s list” had access to the post. He has more than 1,600 friends on Facebook.
–via The Commercial Appeal

Before I get to the main reason why I am writing today, let me address the good Mayor’s comment that President Obama is a Muslim. He has said time and time again that he is not, but even if he is lying, take a look at his behavior. He eats pork, drinks alcohol, consorts with folks of all faiths, goes to a Christian church and never prays. He’s a very bad Muslim, if he is. More than that, he preempted the Peanuts Christmas Special to order 30,000 troops into a Muslim country! With friends like that….
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