Senior Lecturer Alireza Ashrafian at NTNU has renounced his status as a merited educator, in protest against what he considers to be the university’s failure to condemn Professor Bassam Hussein’s description of the 7 October massacre as “beautiful”. Incidentally, a description of terror that has now been condemned by both Lars Gule and Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

Alireza Ashrafian is originally from Iran, but has lived for many years in Norway and is employed at NTNU in Trondheim, where in November 2024 he was one of twelve employees awarded the status of merited educator at NTNU, that is, an employee who has distinguished himself by maintaining a consistent and clear focus on students’ learning in teaching activities. The attained status entails increased salary and a financial allocation to the unit where the educator is employed.
“I would like to congratulate all our merited educators. They do an excellent job in raising the quality of our educational programmes in general, and of teaching in particular,” said the Pro-Rector for Education, Marit Reitan, to Universitetsavisa on the occasion of the distinctions.

Renounces status in protest

Ashrafian has now decided to return this honour and distinction to NTNU, as a protest against how the leadership has handled the fact that one of their professors has outright praised terror. That is to say, Bassam Hussein and his statement that, in his opinion, the 7 October terror in Israel was the “most beautiful thing that has happened in our century”. Something that Document, as the first media outlet, revealed on 1 May this year.

NTNU professor on the October 7 Pogrom: “The most beautiful thing that has happened”

This is particularly serious because Hussein is not only a professor at NTNU. He is also a merited educator. Such a status is not merely a recognition of pedagogical quality. It also entails a particular responsibility for judgement, values, and the trust that we as educators hold in relation to students, colleagues, and the society around us, writes Alireza Ashrafian in a contribution in Universitetsavisa. And further:

I therefore believe that the NTNU leadership ought to have condemned the statement clearly. Academic freedom of expression is fundamental, but it does not exempt the university from expressing clear ethical assessments when a massacre of civilians is described as something beautiful. In my view, the failure to characterise the statement appears to be a serious omission.

On this basis, I have renounced my status as a merited educator at NTNU in protest. I do not do this lightly. I have been proud of this recognition. But so long as a merited educator can describe 7 October in this manner, without an explicit apology, and without a clear condemnation from the NTNU leadership, I believe that we are on a very wrong path.
To describe a massacre as “beautiful” is incompatible with the ethical judgement that ought to be expected of a university teacher — particularly of a merited educator, writes Ashrafian, who is a Senior Lecturer and, until now, a merited educator at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management.

NTNU has received many complaints

A number of media outlets in Norway and abroad have followed up on what many have described as glorification of terror by an employee at NTNU. As of Wednesday this week, the university had received 56 complaints arising from Professor Bassam Hussein’s statements concerning the 7 October terror.

“We do not yet have a full overview of the distribution between external and internal senders, but most come from external parties in Norway and abroad,” NTNU Rector Tor Grande told Khrono.

Rector Grande has so far stated that Professor Bassam spoke as a private individual at the meeting where the statements were made, namely at Litteraturhuset in Trondheim in April, and that this does not form part of his work duties at the university, that it has been within the bounds of freedom of expression, and would not have any consequences for the employment relationship.

Barth Eide: Strange statement from Hussein

Many have reacted both to the professor’s statements and to NTNU’s handling of the matter. Even Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has now said that Hussein’s statement is problematic. That is, after being grilled about antisemitism during the Storting’s oral question time by Himanshu Gulati (FrP) and Joel Ystebø (KrF).

Espen Barth Eide defended the government’s efforts against antisemitism and its Middle East policy. Regarding NTNU Professor Hussein’s statement, he said: “It is very, very, very strange and very far removed from what is the consensus in Norway to say that the terror attack is a beautiful act. I deeply disagree with that and it is very problematic,” writes Vårt Land.

The newspaper has also asked NTNU whether the professor’s statements will have consequences for his employment relationship at the university.

“No, based on the knowledge we have about the matter, this will not have any consequences for his employment relationship at the faculty,” Dean Vikas Thakur at the Faculty of Engineering writes to Vårt Land.

Thakur points out that “freedom of expression stands strong in Norway” and gives everyone the freedom to express their opinions “within the broad framework established by Norwegian law”. Nevertheless, the Dean does not categorically rule out that the statements may have consequences for Professor Hussein: “What type of follow-up we may potentially have as a result of this matter has not yet been determined”. Dean Thakur states that he is responding because NTNU Rector Tor Grande is travelling.

Gule believes the Rector must distance himself

Lars Gule is also among those who have expressed themselves critically regarding the Bassam Hussein matter, and what may be understood as glorification of abuses.

The distinction between general freedom of expression and academic freedom of expression should not be ignored, but nor should it be overemphasised. There are obviously also socio-ethical boundaries regarding what one may say as an academic, writes Gule on Facebook. And further:

Therefore, Rector Tor Grande both can and should clearly distance himself from Bassam Hussein’s statement that the 7 October attack was the most beautiful thing that has happened in our century. He will not do so as Hussein’s employer, but as an important societal leader. For the statement is generally reprehensible. And when the Rector even points out that this does not concern Hussein’s academic freedom (which the Rector should of course defend), but rather a statement that does not originate in his field or research, the Rector’s duty of condemnation becomes all the clearer.

This concerns the general responsibility we all have to safeguard public discourse. Consideration for NTNU’s reputation is for many quite secondary, but the Rector may also take this into account in his assessment when he condemns it. But he should not wait too long now, writes Gule, who himself was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in Lebanon and a fine for “illegal possession of weapons” (explosives). He was acquitted of attempting to carry out acts of terror in Israel using the explosives. But this was, after all, in 1977. Gule later became an expert on, among other things, extremism, both at NRK and at OsloMet, but retired in 2022.