SPME, representing over 50,000 academics worldwide is deeply alarmed by the recent developments at the University of Grenoble. There, two of our colleagues are being threatened by the students’ union Unef on the grounds of supposed “Islamophobia”, their names standing in the pillory and texts like this – we quote the newspapers – are on the walls: “Fascists in our lecture halls. Prof. K.’s demission. Islamophobia kills”.

We still have the photos of the savagely decapitated French school teacher Samuel Paty on our minds, and fear for the security and the lives of our colleagues. We remind that the term “Islamophobia” in today’s sense is a modern construct, invented by Ayatollah Khomeini’s radical followers to intimidate any critics of the totalitarian and anti-humanistic elements in Islam, and whoever dares to contest the ideology of Islam as inviolate, is regarded as racist. “Islamophobia” – means literally “the fear of Islam” – has become a new tool of Shariah and weapon against secularism, modernity, “Western” thought, and is now being used to silence any independent scholarship at your University.

We refer to the French author Michel Houllebecq who depicted the gradual process of submission of French academics to Islam. His scary vision in the book “Soumission” must never come true, but this seems to be happening precisely at your University. And according to the press, the two colleagues, the German and the French one, are now left alone with the threat, hate speech and attacks by the Faculty and the University as a whole!

We appeal to you, not to let this absolutely inacceptable archaic terror take over the cultural and intellectual achievements of the Age d’Or, the Enlightenment, which had its roots in France. Don’t let irrationality destroy the civilization of which Universities should be the lighthouse and paragon, and above all, please don’t abandon your colleagues in this situation!

We trust that you will restore the scholarly atmosphere and civilized coexistence between members of your University despite different opinions, and prevent a dangerous conflict defined by Samuel Huntington as the “Clash of Civilizations”.