
Scholars face death threats for critiquing religion
Thomas Hoffmann, a Ph.D. and professor of Islamic theology at the University of Copenhagen, has been subjected to harassment and death threats following his media statements, as revealed in a piece he wrote for Weekendavisen. A Danish website with only one article targeting him accuses his critical research of being Islamophobic, a claim he refutes as baseless. Brian Arly Jacobsen, chair of the Danish Association of Masters (DM), notes that over the past decade, an increasing number of researchers have reported such harassment, which silences voices that could otherwise contribute nuanced insights to public discourse. While the trend’s extent is under-researched, Jacobsen points out that academic censorship is a global concern, with recent topics like immigration, religion, and gender studies arousing controversy. As a sociologist of religion himself, Jacobsen is no stranger to receiving death threats.