A STUDENT is poised to take legal action after he was accused of Islamophobia for a series of online posts which he claimed “mocked Isis”.
Law student Robbie Travers, who is described as a right-wing commentator, claims the University of Edinburgh has now dismissed all complaints against him, but he is threatening to go to court to reclaim legal fees he spent having to defend himself.
He would not divulge who he intends to sue. His story made headlines across the world after the university claimed to have received multiple complaints from students who provided “a range of supporting evidence” of allegedly racist behaviour.
It was claimed Mr Travers, 21, was being investigated for breaching the student code of conduct.
Mr Travers claims he has been “cleared of being a racist, an Islamophobe, a transphobe and all other accusations” and says a report shows that he actually challenges racism.
He described the allegations against him as “baseless”.
A university spokesman said it “would not consider” bringing charges of misconduct against a student for mocking Isis.
But he said students must obey the code of conduct, which encourages everyone to “treat each other with dignity and respect”.
Mr Travers, who is also an occasional blogger for The Times of Israel, said he believed the university would “settle out of court”.
“Not only have I been found innocent, I shouldn’t have had to pay so much for legal representation to defend against baseless allegations,” he said.
He claims that the university talked about a “range of evidence”, but he claimed that amounted to a page of screenshots.
He added: “It was essential to hire a lawyer due to the malicious nature of the complaint.”
In an online post addressing the original complaint, Mr Travers had written: “Mocking Isis allegedly made Islamic and minority students feel ‘threatened’ and ‘unsafe’ so goes the complainant’s ramblings.”
In a separate post, Mr Travers said he was also being investigated for criticising Islamic clothing, including the hijab, burkha, and niqab, saying they were associated with “toxic branches of Islam which use it to further a modesty culture that targets women who don’t conform”.
Media reports of the university investigation alleged that the complaint against the Mr Travers centred on a “jovial” reference on Facebook to Jihadi fighters being set to welcome “72 Virgins” after the US military dropped a bomb on a Isis stronghold in Afghanistan in April.
A spokesman for the university said: “The University of Edinburgh is fully committed to upholding the rights of its students and staff to freedom of expression within the law.
“It has not and would not consider bringing charges of misconduct against any student for mocking Isis.
“However, the university also requires students to act within its code of student conduct and in accordance with its aims of providing an environment in which all members of the university community treat each other with dignity and respect.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel