A professor who claims he was unjustly removed from teaching a non-credit class titled “Understanding Militant Islamic Fundamentalism” at Manchester Community College said Friday that the American Civil Liberties Union has taken up his cause.
Michael Abdelmessih taught only one class before the college assigned another instructor to teach it. MCC officials are not commenting on his removal, but Abdelmessih claims he was replaced because two of his students, who are both Muslim and MCC faculty members, disagreed with his definition of “jihad.” Abdelmessih said that on Thursday afternoon he met with Deborah Wilson, MCC Director of Human Resources, and Alice Savage, MCC Dean of Academic Affairs, to discuss his removal. He said he tried to bring a friend, Jerry Gordon, to the meeting for moral support but Wilson and Savage wouldn’t allow it and told Gordon to wait outside. During the meeting Abdelmessih said he was told there were two reasons for his removal: in a handout to students, he said the Muslim religion does not forgive but seeks revenge, and that there were grammatical errors in the handouts. Abdelmessih said the meeting with the two faculty members was very short, and that immediately afterwards the ACLU was contacted and agreed to accept his case. An Egyptian who is also a Coptic Christian, Abdelmessih said he was looking forward to spirited debate among his students and the two faculty members enrolled in his class: Fatma Antar and Diana Hossain. But Abdelmessih said that Antar threatened him during the first class, saying she would work to ensure he did not continue teaching the course. Abdelmessih said Antar, who also is Egyptian, threatened to contact authorities in Egypt to report him. “I want the world to know,” Abdelmessih said. “This is a very serious situation and everyone in America, everyone in the world, needs to know about the terrorist movement.” |
