Two Experts to Examine the Demise of Free Speech on North American Campuses

Professor Thomas Klocek of the University of Chicago and Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) will be the guests of the Los Angeles-based American Freedom Alliance on Thursday, October 25, 2007 at a seminar titled The Demise of Free Speech in Academia. The seminar will take place at the Nessah Educational and Cultural Center 142 So.Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills at 7:30 pm. Admission is $15.00 for adults and $10.00 for students.

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The seminar has been organized in response to growing complaints throughout the United States and Canada of intolerance to views that do not reflect the prevailing liberal orthodoxies in academia and among student groups. Klocek, a former professor from DePaul University, was summarily dismissed from his position as a lecturer in the School of New Learning at DePaul University for expressing pro- Israel views on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Lukianoff, whose organization is devoted to monitoring the threats to free expression on campus, has documented not only the alarming growth of intolerance of pro-Israel sentiment, but also the upsurge in anti-Semitism and the marginalization of Christian groups. All of these topics will be addressed at the seminar. The seminar is a precursor to a much larger AFA conference which will take place on Sunday, June 15, 2007 titled The Case for Academic Freedom. The American Freedom Alliances mission is to promote the free exchange of ideas, freedom of conscience, freedom of inquiry and freedom of conscience among the practitioners of the worlds religions. It seeks to build alliances between people of faith in order to protect and defend common values, principles and ideals. Its programs, publications and websites explore the means by which peoples of faith can protect their ethical principles and moral values against the scourge of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, coercion, penalties for blasphemy and fascist ideologies.

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