A professor teaching classes on terrorism has drawn the ire of CAIR.
UCF stands up to bullies at CAIR
Bizpac Review
June 21, 2013
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations wants a state university to give one of its award-winning professors the boot — or at least muzzle him from reciting facts and rendering opinion.
CAIR’s problem is with University of Central Florida communications professor, Dr. Jonathan Matusitz and several of his courses, Terrorism and Communication and another on intercultural communication. He also wrote a book on the subject, published last year and titled, “Terrorism & Communication: A Critical Introduction,” according to the Orlando Sentinel.
CAIR claims Matusitz’s “Islamophobia” is demonstrated in a YouTube video, which appears to be a classroom lecture but which UCF notes was actually a January “outside-of-the-classroom presentation.”
The professor begins by noting that according to a Rand Corporation study, 96 percent of global terrorism is rooted in radical Islam.
“Why do so many Muslims, relative to other religions, want to kill us?” he asks in the video. “The answer is easy, very easy. It is seven letters: culture.” As an example, he notes that “The Qur’an uses the term ‘jihad’ 41 times,” a word meaning “holy war” according to the professor.
Neither Matusitz’s students nor his colleagues have lodged any complaints because of his work, and he was actually honored last year for his outstanding performance, according to UCF spokesman Grant Heston.
As for the video, Heston noted, “Dr. Matusitz expressed his opinion, which is his right.”
Matusitz indicated on a South Florida radio station Thursday that he refuses to be “politically correct just to please everybody.”
“I think that in academia, I’m sure a lot of people don’t share my views,” he noted. “But I also think that a lot of people share my views, but they’re not as open as I am.”
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http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/06/...-at-cair-78379
A copy of the the letter to the university from CAIR is located at link below.
http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/n...CF_6_14_13.pdf
The professor in question:
Dr. Jonathan Matusitz (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, 2006) is currently a tenured associate professor in the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He studies globalization, culture, terrorism and health communication. On top of having 95 academic publications and over 100 conference presentations, he taught at a NATO-affiliated military base in Belgium in 2010. Originally from Belgium himself, he moved to the United States in 2000. In 2012, he was honored with a prestigious teaching award by the College of Sciences at UCF.
In 2011, Dr. Matusitz’s research was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. His most recent book, Terrorism & Communication: A Critical Introduction, was published in 2012 by SAGE. His research methodologies include qualitative interviewing, content analysis, semiotics and theoretical analysis.
Dr. Matusitz has taught the following courses at UCF: Terrorism and Communication (COM 4416), Intercultural Communication (COM 4461), Conflict Management (COM 4462), Group Dynamics (SPC 4426), Nonverbal Communication (SPC 4331), Organizational Communication (COM 3120), Communication and Human Relations (COM 3011), Communication Research Methods (COM 3311), Health Communication (COM 6025), and Honors Fundamentals of Oral Communication (SPC 1600).
http://communication.cos.ucf.edu/per...than-matusitz/