The researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) was to present this Friday at the famous Parisian University of the Sorbonne her latest book on the movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, “The Brotherhood and its networks, the investigation”, published in January. But she announced on Tuesday via Twitter that “the dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Sorbonne had asked for the suspension of (her) conference (…) for ‘security’ reasons”.
An “impediment to work”
“However, there was no demonstration against the event”, she underlined, deploring a “impediment to work and to report on (his) work”. The postponement of the conference aroused strong reactions in France on Wednesday, while Florence Bergeaud-Blackler had to be placed under police protection after death threats, according to her lawyer. The Ministry of Higher Education and Research told AFP on Wednesday that Florence Bergeaud-Blackler would be received there “soon”, considering “intolerable that academic freedom can be called into question by the slightest threat against it. “.
For her part, the researcher interviewed Thursday on Europe 1 denounces the lack of support from the public authorities and the research community: “The ministry and the CNRS tweeted in my defense, but no direct relationship (… ) I did not receive a call from the Minister of Higher Education and Research, nor from the CNRS, nor from my laboratory. The support is quite timid”. According to her, “the University is one of the first targets of Brotherhood entryism”. The postponement of his conference is “a way to accredit the thesis of my critics who accuse me of Islamophobia or racism”.
The Grand Orient of France supports the anthropologist
In a press release Thursday, the Grand Orient of France (GODF) indicated that it “fully” supported the anthropologist, judging that “the censorship of the freedom of expression of a scientist whose work is carried out within the framework of a public body, under the auspices of the Republic, is an attack on all of our freedoms and on democracy”. Founded in 1928 in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood movement carries the project of a conservative political Islam. He is now considered a “terrorist” in Egypt.