Peter Kay shares his thoughts on cancel culture

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A university professor and human rights scholar who was accused of Islamophobia has spoken out about his terror at being killed by extremists. He also took aim at “woke” students for endangering the lives of academic staff.

Professor Steven Greer said he carried a weapon for his own safety and had to wear a disguise after Bristol University undergraduates at the law school claimed elements of his course were racist and discriminatory.

One of Professor Greer’s slideshows made reference to the 2015 terrorist attack on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, after the publication published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The slideshow was described by some as “Islamophobic rhetoric”.

“Well-attested observations” made about the poor treatment of women and non-Muslims in Islamic states, as well as the violence associated with sharia law, was also termed “bigoted and divisive”.

Professor Greer was fully exonerated last year following a five-month inquiry headed by a senior academic at Bristol University.

Each accusation levelled at Professor Greer, a Research Director at the Oxford Institute for British Islam, a think tank that promotes a progressive interpretation of Islam, was found to be without foundation.

Despite an independent QC also concluding that the Belfast-born professor was not guilty of harassment under the 2010 Equality Act, the “scurrilous falsehoods by a handful of illiberal students” still saw the offending material removed from his course.

As a result, he said he feared for his academic reputation as well as his life. Despite growing up during the Troubles, he said his personal concern was higher following his ordeal at Bristol.

The grandfather-of-three went into hiding, such was his concern for his safety, also wearing glasses, growing a long beard and covering his head with a hoody to disguise his appearance.

He also said he carried a “sturdy” umbrella and screwdriver, in case he was attacked. Fellow scholars, the 66-year-old claims, are “dumbing down” their courses and committing acts of self-censorship out of fear of being cast as someone “hostile to minorities including gays, transsexuals and Muslims” by “woke student campaigners”.

“Lies and distortion” are to blame for the risks now confronting academic staff, as allegations related to racism and religion are easily thrown at those scholars committed to free inquiry in the pursuit of truth.

Professor Greer, whose memoir came out on 13 Feb, said: “I had until last year enjoyed a wonderful career and I believe I had earned the respect of students, colleagues and peers all over the world.

“Almost overnight, however, my name became synonymous with bigotry, racism and Islamophobia – especially on social media – because of a handful of malicious students who set out to ruin my life.

“I was vilified, and my name and reputation were dragged through the mud. For my own safety, I was forced to act like a fugitive – simply for including academically authoritative, fact-based information in my course that a few militant students took objection to.

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October 2020 marked the start of the ordeal. A Bristol University Islamic Society (BRISOC) online petition called for Professor Greer to be suspended or sacked if he did not offer “a statement of apology to all Muslim students”, remove the offending material from his teaching plans and make a “firm commitment” not to make statements deemed offensive in the future.

The petition was, according to BRISOC, important for “bringing justice” for the “bigotry” of Professor Greer, and received more than 4,000 votes. Professor Greer said within days he received a slew of threatening emails and was alarmed after seeing a suspicious person loitering near his Bristol home.

He was fully exonerated by the University following BRISOC’s allegations. However, the society appealed the decision, which was upheld unanimously in October 2021, after a panel of three senior Bristol academics rejected BRISOC’s appeal against the inquiry’s decision. 

When Professor Greer returned to teaching at the university he said he was kept on a de facto “research leave” until her retirement in September 2022.

His module on Islam, China and the Far East was also dropped by the university so that Muslim students at Bristol would “not feel that their religion is being singled out or in any way ‘othered’ by the class material”.

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