{"id":646,"date":"2017-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.britishasianchristians.org\/full-previous-archive\/2017\/02\/26\/christian-accuses-oxford-of-bias\/"},"modified":"2023-04-30T05:30:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T04:30:23","slug":"christian-accuses-oxford-of-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishasianchristians.org\/full-previous-archive\/christian-accuses-oxford-of-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian accuses Oxford of \u2018bias\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Muslim background believer who is an ordinand for the Church of England (CofE) and is hoping to attain a curacy later this year on completion of his<br \/>\n    studies, has been silenced from asking critical questions about Islam in one of the UK&#8217;s most recognized educational establishments.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Read Sunday Times article <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/edition\/news\/christian-accuses-oxford-of-bias-g8mss9w02\" style=\"font-size: 18px;\">(click here)<\/a><\/strong>    <span style=\"font-size: 18px;\">&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This article is taken from the Sunday Times:<\/p>\n<div>A trainee Church of England priest at Oxford University has accused it of discrimination and bias after he says he was told he could not ask a lecturer<br \/>\n    critical questions about Islam.<\/p>\n<p>The student has filed a formal complaint to the university\u2019s proctors\u2019 office in which he claims the lecturer pointed at him in a seminar and said:<br \/>\n    \u201cEverybody can ask a question except you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The student, Shahriar Ashrafkhorasani, 33, is an Iranian-born convert from Islam who is set to become a Church of England priest in July, while the<br \/>\n    lecturer, Minlib Dallh, is a research fellow at Regent\u2019s Park College in Oxford on a project about love in religion part-sponsored by the King of Jordan.<\/p>\n<p>Ashrafkhorasani, a master\u2019s student in applied theology at Wycliffe Hall, claims the lecturer refused to let him ask critical questions about his description<br \/>\n    of Islam as a religion of peace and love, after Dallh discovered in a coffee break that he was a convert from Islam who had been persecuted in Iran.<br \/>\n    Three fellow students wrote to the proctors to confirm his version of events.<\/p><\/div>\n<section>Ashrafkhorasani said: \u201cThe lecture was at best a very poor Islamic apologetic, and at worst academically dishonest and misleading. While the government<br \/>\n    is rightly concerned about Islamophobia, there is no concern whatsoever for Christianophobia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester and until last year a senior fellow at Wycliffe Hall, said: \u201cThere is an atmosphere of wanting to be<br \/>\n    politically correct. It is very widespread in the university as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf people are taking money from these sources, that can limit the critical approach to the study of Islam and Muslim civilisation generally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Robert Ellis, the principal of Regent\u2019s Park College, said: \u201cThe college strongly rejects any assertion that donors have any influence over the quality<br \/>\n    of scholarship and direction of research at the centre, or that philanthropic funding in any way compromises academic discussion and argument.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oxford University said: \u201cAll complaints made to the proctors\u2019 office are treated with the utmost seriousness and with the interests of the student<br \/>\n    paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said:<\/p>\n<p> &#8220;We have been advised that Mr Dallh, after expounding his lecture prohibited only Shahriar from speaking during a Q&amp;A. Shahriar though upset complied<br \/>\n    with this request for the benefit of Oxford University.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;At the end of the session to highlight his chagrin and share his opinion. Shahriar asked for an opportunity to speak but was interrupted several times.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">&#8220;This is despite Shahriar having very obvious personal and emotive experiences regarding the topic of discussion, having quit Islam because of the hate, and as Shahriar puts it &#8216;kaffirophobic&#8217; ideology he found within it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;If anything as a Muslim background believer his contribution to the discussion will have been very thought provoking and relevant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;If the speaker had such fragile sensibilities then was it appropriate for him to speak on a topic that can ignite passions in such a way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;The reaction by Mr Dallh was simply an act of religious censorship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;Any limitation on free speech should only be made when it incites violence or unequivocally provokes direct and harmful discrimination against a vulnerable minority.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;From the accounts shared by Shahriar and other students this did not occur.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;Oxford university has now begun to investigate the matter and must review the significant pastoral damage to Shahriar. I hope that their final verdict will not be influenced by deeper immoral designs based on funding from the King of Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  &#8220;The university cannot ignore the need to condemn religious prejudice, which kills and blights the lives of millions.<\/span><br \/>\n    <br \/><span style=\"color: rgb(79, 129, 189);\">  <br \/>&#8220;Universities should be places for open debate without restraint, this produces confident students who can handle any argument instead of creating a new wave of conformists.&#8221;<\/span><br \/>\n    <br \/>\n<\/section>\n<div>Shahriar Ashrafkhorasani commented: <\/div>\n<div>\n    <br \/>My intention has been to shed some light on widespread Christianophobia and not to undermine particular institutions such as Oxford University. It<br \/>\n    is not my calling to get involved in politics, rather to love all as a minister of the Gospel.<br \/>\n    <\/p>\n<div>\n        <\/p>\n<div>&#8220;Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Muslim background believer who is an ordinand for the Church of England (CofE) and is hoping to attain a curacy later this year on completion of his studies, has been silenced from asking critical questions about Islam in one of the UK&#8217;s most recognized educational establishments. Read Sunday Times article (click here) &nbsp; &nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christian accuses Oxford of \u2018bias\u2019 - BACA Full Previous Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britishasianchristians.org\/full-previous-archive\/christian-accuses-oxford-of-bias\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christian accuses Oxford of \u2018bias\u2019 - BACA Full Previous Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Muslim background believer who is an ordinand for the Church of England (CofE) and is hoping to attain a curacy later this year on completion of his studies, has been silenced from asking critical questions about Islam in one of the UK&#8217;s most recognized educational establishments. 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