‘Multicultural college’ sacks principal for “being a white Christian”

Hard to believe, but sometimes “multicultural” isn’t. Especially, it seems, when the institution is an “institute for Arabic and Islamic studies”.

A Dundee college that claims to promote multiculturalism has been accused by its former principal of sacking him because he is a white Christian.

Professor Malory Nye has taken Dundee’s Al Maktoum College of Higher Education to an employment tribunal after he was suspended from his £67,000 a year job last June. Professor Nye, who has worked at the college for eight years, claims he was dismissed to make way for an Arabic Muslim.

His suspension came just days after he changed the name of the organisation from its original title of the Al Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic studies.

In recent months, Nye says he was directed to transform the Institute into a degree-granting, accredited college. The name change was part of that effort.

However, lately, the chair of the board of directors would no longer speak with him directly; Nye thinks this is because of his language, race, and religion.

“I don’t speak Arabic. I have tried to learn, but there is no requirement in my job description for me to speak Arabic.”

Oddly, Nye also suggests that his role for the past eight years was a cynical nod to political correctness, seemingly doomed from the start:

“I was a figurehead. I was there to make it look like [the college] had a multicultural approach, that there was diversity. A person from a non-Arab, non-Muslim background demonstrated diversity. They also wanted to make use of my skills as a manager and my reputation as an academic.”

An odd situation for a skilled manager and reputable academic to place himself in; one in which his ethics are called into question along with those of the school’s directors.

Is this a matter of a failed administrator playing the race card over his termination? Or was he really removed after eight years for being the wrong race and religion?

We’ll see what the tribunal uncovers!

Related articles:

1. Islamic extremists go multicultural
2. Americans United hails settlement in case challenging religious content at Calif. community college events
3. Staver Wants to See Diverse Viewpoints on College Campuses?
4. Protest at teacher training college’s comparison of atheism to Nazism
5. Calif. Community College Should Not Impose Religion at Public Events, Americans United Tells Appeals Court