Anne Rosencher: At the IEP of Grenoble, Klaus Kinzler and the auditorium prosecutors

Klaus Kinzler is a German professor who has been teaching at Sciences Po Grenoble for 25 years. On November 30, as part of a week of debates on the theme of equality, he joined a working group entitled “Racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism”. The teacher does not hide then – he writes it in his registration email – want to discuss the use of the term “Islamophobia” which we can, he writes, discuss whether it has a real meaning or if it is not the instrument of propaganda. “And he continues:” My contribution may not appeal to everyone, but consensus, I told myself, should not be our goal. On the contrary. The point of an ‘equality week’ is not the equality of arguments and opinions but the debate between equal citizens. ”

Several months of intense tension followed with some students and colleagues. Until students from UNEF, the majority union at Sciences Po Grenoble, posted a collage on the outside wall of the establishment, in which Klaus Kinzler and another colleague were accused of “fascism” and ” Islamophobia “. Photographed, then posted on social networks, this collage then made the rounds of the web, with all that this kind of bad publicity can arouse terror in these days. Since Monday, the two teachers have been placed under police protection.

They take the contradiction as an attack on their emotions

Since the scandal broke on Friday, Klaus Kinzler has received the support of the ministry and management of Sciences Po Grenoble. But the majority of his colleagues continue, he says, to overwhelm him, and the vehement students persist in lying to smear him. As for the others, they don’t say a word. “I am only a small provincial German teacher, he pleaded again Monday on LCI. But I am fighting for the diversity of opinions and the freedom of debate”.

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Allow this confession: I vividly remember each of the teachers who shocked me when I was a student. At that age, we see the world with unmitigated exaltation and we quickly take the contradiction as an attack on our emotions. But it never occurred to me to ask for their resignation. Some of these teachers convinced me late. Others will never convince me and I disagree deeply. But they gave me something to “file my brain with that of the other”, according to Montaigne’s formula. Because this is the path to knowledge.

Fouquier-Tinville in Nike make the law in the name of a right not to be “offended”

However, this path is made more and more difficult. The debate scleroses in the lecture halls of France. It becomes sclerotic there as in American universities where Fouquier-Tinville in Nike rule in the name of a right not to be “offended”. But what frightens me above all is that these students today benefit from the support of many professors themselves, who, out of ideology or fear, also pour into this reign the offended against reason and argumentation. What saddens me is that many of the Klaus Kinzlers in France are also alone in their daily lives, and that we have to wait until they are exposed, or endangered, so that they finally feel support. So, it’s worth what it’s worth, and it’s just a drop in the ocean, but to all those who continue, in anonymity, adversity, sometimes in silence, to defend this sanctuary from freedom and reason that is teaching, I want to address my deep gratitude and warm support.