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U.K. academic suspended for racist remark

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: For the first time, under Britain's revamped race laws, a university lecturer has been suspended for airing racist views after protests by students and staff demanding his removal.

Dr. Frank Ellis of Leeds University provoked a nationwide furore recently when he publicly justified the controversial and discredited theory propounded by two American academics in the 1990s that white people had a higher IQ than others. Dr. Ellis supported repatriation of immigrants back to their countries of origin provided it was done "humanely.'' While his supporters defended his comments in the name of free speech, students and staff of Leeds University said they were "abhorrent''.

After resisting calls for action, the university has decided to suspend him, pending an inquiry.

He was told that his views were in breach of his statutory obligations to promote good race relations.

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