In rescinding the invitation, Cape Town’s vice chancellor, Max Price, invoked the language of “safe spaces”.

Inside Higher Ed reports.

Speaker Uninvited to Academic Freedom Event

The University of Cape Town has disinvited a speaker set to give its annual TB Davie Academic Freedom Lecture for fear of security risks and the possibility of provoking conflict and further polarization on campus.

The university withdrew the invitation to Flemming Rose, who as culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten commissioned cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that some Muslims considered blasphemous. The publication of the cartoons in 2005 triggered widespread protests and riots across the Muslim world, some of which turned deadly.

In rescinding the invitation, Cape Town’s vice chancellor, Max Price, invoked the language of “safe spaces” and asserted that bringing Rose to campus for his scheduled August talk “might retard rather than advance academic freedom on campus.”


 
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