A university professor cleared of accusations of Islamophobia has revealed his fear of being attacked or killed by Muslim extremists – and slammed 'woke' students for putting the lives of academics at risk.
Human rights scholar Steven Greer said he was forced to wear a disguise and carry a weapon for his own protection after undergraduates at Bristol University Law School complained that elements of his course were racist and discriminatory.
A teaching slide that mentioned the 2015 terror attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a magazine that had published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, was described as “Islamophobic rhetoric”.
And a lecture which included “well-attested observations” about the inferior treatment of women and non-Muslims in Islamic states, and the tough penalties handed out under sharia law, was said to be “bigoted and divisive”.
Professor Greer, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and of the Royal Society of Arts, and Research Director at the Oxford Institute for British Islam, a think tank and research academy that seeks to promote a progressive interpretation of Islam, was fully exonerated of all wrongdoing last year.
A five-month inquiry, led by a senior academic at Bristol University, found each of the accusations to be baseless.
An independent QC appointed during the inquiry also concluded that Professor Greer had not been guilty of harassment under the Equality Act 2010.
But the “scurrilous falsehoods by a handful of illiberal students” still led to the removal of the material from the course and left him fearing for his reputation and his life.
Professor Greer, a grandfather-of-three, was so scared for his own safety that he went into hiding.
He grew a long bushy beard and disguised himself in public with false glasses and a pulled-up hoodie to obscure the rest of his face.
He also carried a “sturdy” umbrella and a screwdriver in case he was attacked.
Professor Greer, who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said he was more afraid than he had ever been growing up during the Troubles.
The terrifying ordeal reflects what he describes as a growing assault on academic freedom within British universities.
Karolien Celie, of the Free Speech Union, a body that promotes freedom of speech and defends those targeted by online mobs, said: “Professor Greer’s horrifying ordeal is yet another salutary reminder of the fragility of academic freedom in the contemporary UK.
“His account of his own case, together with authoritative reflections on the rise of cancel culture and its implications in academia, sound an alarm bell which nobody who cares about the maintenance of liberal democratic societies should ignore.”
