Prof resigns over 9/11 comment

2005-02-01 13:15

Denver - A University of Colorado professor who provoked a furore when he compared victims of the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks to Nazis has resigned as a department chairman but will retain his teaching job, the university said.

In an essay written after the September 11 attacks, Ward Churchill said the World Trade Centre victims were "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, who organised Nazi plans to exterminate Europe's Jews. Churchill also spoke of the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck America.

The essay attracted little attention until Churchill was invited recently to speak at Hamilton College, about 64km east of Syracuse, New York. Hundreds of relatives of September 11 victims have protested the appearance. Hamilton College President Joan Hinde has said that "however repugnant one might find Mr Churchill's remarks," the college was committed to his right of free speech and would not rescind its invitation.

Administrators have moved Churchill's appearance to a building that can seat 2 000, instead of the originally planned 300.

Appalled

Churchill resigned as chairman of Colorado's Ethnic Studies Department, telling university officials in a letter that "the present political climate has rendered me a liability in terms of representing either my department, the college, or the university."

University officials welcomed the move.

"While Professor Churchill has the constitutional right to express his political views, his essay on 9/11 has outraged and appalled us and the general public," interim CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano said.

In an interview with Denver station KCNC-TV, Churchill said he is not an advocate of violence.

"The overriding question that was being posed at the time was `why did this happen, why did they hate us so much,' and my premise was when you do this to other people's families and children, that is going to be a natural response."

The university's board of regents planned to meet on Thursday to discuss Churchill, a tenured professor. "He still has a platform, but a platform that the regents want to take a look at," board member Tom Lucero told the station.

Speaking on Monday night, New York Governor George Pataki said he would tell Hamilton officials they made a mistake in inviting Churchill.

"I am appalled first that this person with such a warped sense of right and wrong and of humanity teaches at a higher education institution anywhere in America," Pataki said. "But I am equally, or perhaps even more, appalled that Hamilton College in this state has invited that person to participate in a forum. It is wrong. There is a difference between freedom of speech and inviting a bigoted terrorist supporter."

- AP