Continuous involvement with Iran’s Press TV has cost Tariq Ramadan his academic appointment at Erasmus University. Announcing its decision to dismiss Ramadan from his position as professor, the Dutch university said on Tuesday that it believes his program ‘Islam & Life’ broadcasting by Iran’s state television is ‘irreconcilable’ with his academic responsibilities at Erasmus. The City of Rotterdam, where Ramadan worked as an ‘integration adviser’, and Erasmus said in a joint statement that Ramadan continued hosting the program ‘even after the elections in Iran, when authorities there hard-handedly stifled the freedom of expression’. Calling the decision ‘naïve and simplistic’, Ramadan told Dutch radio that he would appeal against it. The Swiss scholar, no stranger to controversy, has had trouble with the American government in the past, which robbed him of the chance to receive tenure at Notre Dame University. In the meantime, Oxford University has appointed Ramadan as His Highness Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Chair in Contemporary Islamic Studies. Read full story here, here, and here.
