Challenging Ideological Pressure in Academy Under the Example of Palestine

It is not clearly defined the boundaries and the context of the relationship between the debate of religion and secularism, although the nature of this relationship has not been still crystallized at universities and in public areas. While a large section of the people defends a way of life with more religious motivation, lots of matters on public or state often remain the debate on secularism or religion for the people. The debate of religion and secularism, which is accepted as a public lifestyle, brings some debates on academic and campus life in the world.

Academicians’ views or ideologies and their academic works’ reflections on academy and campus; the emergence of disagreements among scholars and academics on the campus stemming from this debate; the organization of demonstrations and protest marches on campuses in the debate axis, and issues like these from time to time out of control, the intervention of politics and sometimes the government to the events emerging on campuses because of this problem in mention etc. can be expressed as discussion of the effects of living on campus took place in religion and secularism in relation to the axis.

‘Apartheid’, as another concept of appearing in the relationship of religion and academy, is a loaded term which is saturated with emotion and history. It instantly conjures up images and memories of discrimination, brutality, and oppression; indulgence, privilege, and pretension; racism, resistance, and, ultimately, emancipation (Dugard and Reynolds, 2013: 867). We have witnessed this term during the apartheid practices in South Africa firstly in modern times.  Although the apartheid politics, practices, and also regimes have been prohibited and criminalized by international law in response to the situation in southern Africa, it appears today in various formations, practices, politics, and ways in the world.

The sample of Palestine and the apartheid executions of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory can be dealt as an example for modern variations and versions of apartheid. Israel comes to the forefront with its discrimination and oppression that it implements on the Palestinians from universities to educational organizations, from media and press to cultural motifs. The fact is that the world is carrying on watching this discriminative film and oppressive practices, and international law and international powers are not able to do anything on the opposite of human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. When looked at the Palestinian problem, the relationship of religion and academy is dragging into a more complex axis. The present situation of Palestinian academies shows that the academy is affected from Zionist political pressure on Palestine, which is a kind of religious political view.

The academic studies and theoretical views of Palestinian academics are subject to some restrictions by the Israeli state; Palestinian universities continue their activities under the intense Israeli blockade. Palestinian academies, which mostly carry out their activities with foreign aid, are subject to restrictions similar to racial discrimination both in the academic world and in the literature. As if the persecution that Palestine has been subjected to is not enough in life, it also causes serious difficulties and challenges in academia. What shall we say? May Allah help our Palestinian brothers and sisters in every field…