The books were on the university’s recommended reading list for students majoring in politics with a concentration in martyrdom and terrorism, Abraham said in a July 26 radio interview aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He added, “My studies were involved in obviously preventing these actions from occurring and they’re drawing a linkage with that and saying okay, well, you might be a terrorist.”
The incident has led Abraham’s professor, anti-terrorism expert David Wright-Neville, to warn 200 students in his terrorism studies course that government intelligence might monitor them. “These books were not bought under the counter in a brown paper bag. [Abraham] was drawing on mainstream research and scholars,” Wright-Neville said in the July 26 Melbourne Age.
“Students have a right to go about their studies and their research without that sort of interference into their private affairs,” Wright-Neville told ABC radio, adding that law enforcement needs to trust that the Monash University community “would obviously work cooperatively with the authorities” if they were suspicious about any student.
Posted July 29, 2005.