Agadir’s English professors suspend work, call for protection against threats by ideological student groups

Agadir’s Ibn Zohr university English language professors suspended work for over two weeks, following threats they received from students during an international conference held last week.

The Faculty of literature in Agadir wrote a press release that a group of professors of the English Language and Literature Department are subjected to repeated and continuous attacks, insults, and provocations by those who call themselves al-Nahj al-Qaida militants, led by Hassan Ait al-Kayed, nicknamed “Steve.”

“These attacks began a long time ago and targeted a group of colleagues while performing their educational duties,” added the same source.

An officer in the English department told Hespress EN that “this is the first time a university activity get suspended, and it was international.”

“The student movement threatened the English department as a whole, telling us to take responsibility and to expect anything to happen,” he added.

“English studies have been suspended since last week and we need a security intervention to feel safe and well protected, after these threats and attacks,” he further stated.

The officer said the individual leading this movement is no longer a literature student and has been harassing professors since 2019.

“He persuades other students to follow on his actions, with the promise that they receive higher grades,” he explained.

The last of these attacks was the assault, insult, and detention of the Division Head, as well as the detention of the coordinator in their offices, among other threats, according to the same source.