Human rights scholar and professor Steven Greer, 66, who was exonerated of Islamophobia by an inquiry last year, said he lives in fear because of left-wing activists.
Greer first faced Islamophobia allegations in 2020 after he used a political cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on a teaching slide in his class at Bristol University. Bristol University is based in the United Kingdom and enrolls over 22,000 students.
Bristol University's Islamic Society filed a complaint against Greer alleging that elements in his teaching were Islamophobic. They also made the complaint public through an online petition and social media campaign in February 2021.
One of Greer’s lectures was accused of being "bigoted" for addressing Sharia Law and the treatment of women and non-Muslims in Islamic states.
Although Bristol University’s 5-month investigation concluded that the accusations against Greer were baseless, he succumbed to the aftermath.
Greer was signed off work by a doctor and was placed on unofficial "research leave." When he returned to campus, he was not given any teaching duties. Eventually, Bristol University, the institution he taught at since the 1980s, removed his teaching module on Islam, China, and other far eastern countries.
Furthermore, he went into hiding after Bristol University Law School undergraduates complained that elements of his course were Islamophobic.
"For my own safety, I was forced to act like a fugitive for including academically authoritative, fact-based information in my course that a few militant students took objection to," Greer told Daily Mail.
"My case is not the first of this kind and nor, sadly, is it likely to be the last," Greer said.
Greer was so scared for his life that he grew a long, bushy beard, wore fake glasses, and carried a screwdriver with him in case he was attacked. Additionally, he admitted he was more afraid for his life after he was berated by "woke" students.
Greer shared concern that academics were at risk of attacks because of how easy it was for students to fling racism allegations "based on nothing but lies and distortion."
"There is a growing risk that many students will leave university with little critical insight, knowledge, or appreciation of the vital importance of intellectual freedom and evidence-based thinking in a healthy democracy," Greer said. "Some, wearing self-tied gags and blinkers, will go on to join the next generation of leaders. This does not bode well for the future of our society."
