On Tuesday, a group of Jewish students met with administrators at England’s University of Bristol to express their concerns over the anti-Semitic rantings of Professor David Miller, whose complaints at a recent online event targeted even the campus Jewish Society. But this is not a case of a professor who suddenly revealed his true colors in some offhand comments, or a scholar who happens to hold radical political views, notes Dave Rich. Rather, Miller’s hatred for Jews and the Jewish state is baked into his research:
Before arriving at Bristol, Miller made his name with his theory of the “Five Pillars of Islamophobia,” which claimed that anti-Muslim prejudice was encouraged and spread by, among others, “parts of the Zionist movement.” To justify this claim, Miller produced reports which aimed to prove that the “wealthy businessmen and financiers” who gave money to organizations he deemed to be Islamophobic also gave money to pro-Israel and Jewish causes; thereby putting “the financial and political resources of the Israel lobby” in the service of global Islamophobia.
His research was based on cherry-picked data and his conclusions relied more on inference than evidence, but astonishingly this was enough for Bristol University to give him a professorship and allow him to teach this dangerous nonsense to students. It can’t be stressed enough that Bristol University hired him in full knowledge that this was the nature of his academic work.
Miller believes his academic freedom is under threat, but it is his spurious accusations that threaten the academic freedom of his Jewish students to study free from the suspicion and hostility he clearly feels towards them.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-professor-miller-scandal-is-entirely-of-bristol-universitys-own-making/