British Columbia in Brief

UBC pulls Abu Nidal reference from course

Monday, August 22, 2005 Page S2

Vancouver -- The University of British Columbia's business school has pulled a reference to Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal from an on-line real-estate course after a complaint from a U.S. think tank that monitors universities for anti-Israeli opinions.

Dale Griffin, assistant dean of academics for the Sauder School of Business, said the reference was not appropriate and was removed.

The course, which deals with real-estate agents and the law, offers a fictitious scenario that requires the student to determine who is responsible for the imaginary damage caused.

The question begins, "Quin owned an acreage in Langley which he leased to Abu Nidal as a training camp for freedom fighters."

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Mr. Griffin said the question has been part of the course since 1991 and it is not known who wrote it.

The complaint was posted on a web log written by Philadelphia-based Daniel Pipes.

Mr. Pipes established http://www.campus-watch.org/ to encourage university and college students to report professors who exhibit anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian or pro-Islamist behaviour in the classroom.

Abu Nidal masterminded some of the 20th century's worst terror attacks against Westerners, Jews and fellow Palestinians. He was killed in Iraq in 2002. CP