This IEP teacher had been charged at the beginning of the year by students to be Islamophobic. Subsequently, he had accused the direction of not having protected him, and his colleagues for indoctrining students.
Le Monde with AFP
A professor of Sciences Po Grenoble, accused of “Islamophobia” at the beginning of the year, was suspended from his duties by the direction, which reproaches him for having held, since, of “defamatory”, a – We learned Monday 20 December.
The Order of the Director of the Institute of Political Studies (IEP), Sabine Saugger, revealed by Le Figaro , aims at interviews granted in early December by the teacher, Klaus Kinzler, at the website of the weekly Marianne, on a daily basis the opinion and the CNEWS chain. The German teacher, according to the Director, “seriously ignored several obligations”, in particular in terms of “professional discretion”. “It is necessary to seize the discipline council,” she adds in the order that suspends him for four months.
A “Witches hunt”, according to the teacher
In his interviews, the teacher described the IEP as an institute of “political reeducation”, accusing a “hard core” of colleagues, followers, according to him, “Woke” theories, to indoctrinate students, and the direction of the IEP to let do.
For his lawyers, who denounce a “witch hunt”, Mr. Kinzler “was forced to speak to defend himself” after being implicated “on the public square”. “It poisons my life, but perhaps you have to go to the end to know who has the right to say what and in what situation,” said the teacher, evoking a possible recourse to the administrative court.
Contact, the direction of the IEP of Grenoble did not wish to react to “an internal measure”. December 13, In a given interview to Marianne , M me Saugger had made the defense of the establishment. “Mr. Kinzler reproaches a number of facts that are not accurate. He says in particular that the management has never protected it. Sciences Po Grenoble is an establishment where freedom of expression and freedom of education are at The heart of the academic project, “she said.
Sixteen seventeen students relaxed
At the origin of the case, at the end of 2020, Mr. Kinzler and a historian colleague had exchanged vehement emails about a day of debate entitled “Racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia”, terms of which he disputed the scientific character, while criticizing Islam.
On March 4, Mr. Kinzler and another teacher had been the target of posters placarded by students, relayed on social networks by unions. “Fascists in our amphis. Islamophobia kills,” could be read about these posters. The Director of IEP sentenced “very clearly” these posters, while considering that the way Mr. Kinzler spoke of Islam was “extremely problematic”.
On November 26, sixteen of the seventeen students of the IEP pursued before a disciplinary body were relaxed, while the Minister of Higher Education had advocated sanctions against them. Only one has been the subject of a temporary exclusion with reprieve.
In a Message published on Twitter , The President of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, Laurent Wauquiez, however, indicated that it would suspend regional funding – about 100,000 euros per year excluding investments on projects – due to the “long ideological and communitarian drift”, which comes to “cross a new cap” with the suspension of the teacher. According to him, “a minority confiscated the debate” within the establishment, “without the management taking the measure of this worrying drift”.