Students Face Sanctions for False Islamophobia Claims Against Grenoble Professors

"The students involved, by defaming their professors on social networks, by attacking their honor and consequently the reputation of the IEP, have behaved in an unacceptable way. They will have to be sanctioned," said Frédérique Vidal in an interview with the newspaper Le Figaro. Students had posted posters accusing Klaus K., a German professor at the IEP of Grenoble for 25 years, and Vincent T., a lecturer in political science, of Islamophobia. The posters were posted at the entrance of the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) on March 4. The Grenoble prosecutor’s office had then opened an investigation "for public insult against a private individual by speech, writing, image or means of communication to the public by electronic means [...], and slight damage or deterioration of property intended for public utility or decoration by inscription, sign or drawing".

The Unef student union had supported this action, which had sparked lively controversy. The director of the IEP, Sabine Saurugger, had "clearly condemned" the posters. She had also noted that one of the professors had made "extremely problematic" remarks about Islam. "I do not deny that my course includes a critical approach to Islamism. [...] But the problem is not in the definition problems: it is in the use of labels which, today, we know, can kill," explained Vincent T., lecturer in political science, to Marianne.

"All the actors in this affair have made errors of judgment, clumsiness, shortcomings and more or less serious faults," indicated the report of the National Education Inspectorate. Condemning these defamatory remarks, the minister specified that "no testimony (had allowed) to lend credence to the rumors of Islamophobia". The inspection, for its part, denounces the "marked lack of interest" of the students for respect for privacy or the presumption of innocence and the "surprising attitude" of young people "already well advanced in a political science curriculum". It calls on the IEP to take "without delay firm measures" to sanction them.

"We need to reflect on an education in the basic rules of law on social networks, perhaps for all students," suggested the minister.