NUS suspends academic over imam’s alleged offensive remarks
Associate Professor Khairudin Aljunied. Screengrab: Youtube
SINGAPORE — After suspending a tenured academic on Monday, the National University of Singapore (NUS) will launch an internal investigation into his criticism of a man who made public an imam’s allegedly incendiary sermon.
Dr Khairudin Aljunied, an associate professor at the university’s Department of Malay Studies, was suspended due to “purported comments made in relation to insensitive remarks about Christians and Jews allegedly made by a religious leader”, said an NUS spokesman.
An unidentified imam had supposedly quoted a verse from the Quran along the lines of “God grant us victory over Jews and Christians”, among other things. His comments were captured in a video and shared online by Facebook user Terence Nunis.
Dr Khairudin had taken to Facebook to criticise the whistleblower, then wrote in a subsequent post that his initial remarks were not meant to malign, insult or “say bad things” about anyone in particular.
NUS, however, advised him to take down his social media page last Friday. Police are investigating the remarks made by the imam and Dr Khairudin.
Speaking in Parliament last Friday, Home Affairs and Law Minster K Shanmugam said that the academic had “encouraged vilification” of the whistleblower and his conduct was “wrong and unacceptable”. He added: “He seems to suggest that it is okay for the imam to say that Jews and Christians should be defeated. He assumes that the imam intended to mean that, and Dr Khairudin sees nothing wrong with that.”
In a statement yesterday, NUS said: “(We) take a serious view of any actions or speech that condone the promotion of hatred, ill-will and enmity that targets specific faith communities.”
Standards and policies on staff conduct must be observed, and these include respecting different views and the practice of responsible communication, the university added. The university will carry out an internal investigation into Dr Khairudin’s involvement, and will continue to pay his full salary during the suspension. Dr Khairudin did not respond to media queries. VALERIE KOH
