University defends 'Politics of Terrorism' class that teaches students to confront their 'biases about the Taliban'
Pennsylvania State University provided the statement to Campus Reform after a political science professor required students to write about why the Taliban is not a terrorist organization.
The Taliban controlled Afghanistan at the time of the 9/11 attacks.
Christopher R. Cook, a political science professor at Pennsylvania State University, recently required his students to write a paper about why the Taliban is not a terrorist organization.
“Any attempt to avoid answering this prompt as written; or trying to argue otherwise will result in a failing grade,” the professor reportedly stipulated, according to the instructions that a student tweeted.
Welcome to college in 2022: pic.twitter.com/Iq4JCur7H9
— Kylie Stone (@thekyliestone) January 11, 2022
The student, Kylie Stone, then appeared on national television to express her outrage over the instructions for the “Politics in Terrorism” class assignment.
A university spokesperson told Campus Reform, “The purpose of the assignment was to get students to think about their perceptions and biases about the Taliban from the opposite slant.”
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The Taliban controlled Afghanistan at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks and took over the country after the Biden administration evacuated the military from the Asian nation last year.
”These days, college is a wild place where wokism seems to be literally everywhere. I’m a senior in my last semester of college, so I figured I was in the clear. Until this assignment,” Stone posted on Instagram last week.
”Class assignments are designed to investigate issues from many angles and ideologies,” the Pennsylvania State University spokesperson added.
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“You are not allowed to answer this question in any other way,” Cook’s instructions stated. ”Any attempt to avoid answering this prompt as written; or trying to argue otherwise will result in a failing grade.”
Cook has since deleted his Twitter account.
