James Nimmo writes “Some of the great works of English literature could be scrapped from the syllabus of one of Pakistan’s leading universities because of what professors fear is a rising tide of Muslim fundamentalism.
A review of books studied in the English courses at Punjab University in Lahore singled out several texts, including Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels as containing offensive sexual connotations which were deemed “vulgar”.
Academics from the English department have fiercely resisted the proposed culling of the syllabus and warn of other moves to curtail liberal and critical opinion in favour of Islamist thinking. “Ordinary, professional liberals feel that there is no space for us in our own town now,” said a senior academic. “I feel increasingly that Lahore is polarised and the threshold of tolerance is falling.”
Full Stoy.”
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