New Delhi: Key assertions in a new course approved by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)’s academic council said that “Jihadi terrorism” is the only form of “fundamentalist-religious terrorism” there is.
The course ‘Counter Terrorism, Asymmetric Conflicts and Strategies for Cooperation among Major Powers’ will be offered to students pursuing an MS with specialization in International Relations (dual master’s degree) after a BTech in Engineering.
“The exploitation of the cyberspace by the radical Islamic religious clerics has resulted in the electronic propagation of jihadi terrorism world over. Online electronic dissemination of Jihadi terrorism has resulted in the spurt of violence in non-Islamic societies that are secular and are now increasingly vulnerable to the violence that (is) on the increase,” the course’s description, accessed by The Indian Express, stated.
Another module in the same course, titled ‘State-sponsored Terrorism: Its Influence and Impact’, refers only to the Soviet Union and China.
“Islamic terrorism is a world-accepted thing. After the Taliban, it has gained momentum now,” Arvind Kumar, Chairperson of the Centre for Canadian, US and Latin American Studies, who designed the course, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
The online classes for the monsoon semester start on September 20.
Several of those in academic circles called the course structure outrageous, while the JNU Teacher’s Association has alleged that no discussion was allowed in the Academic Council meeting which approved the course.
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