London Metropolitan University suspends Muslim researcher over 1994 jihad car bombing conviction

Yet he had informed them of his conviction, and so has apparently only been suspended because word has now gotten out about it. He was a violent jihadist, but to have refused him a position would no doubt have been "Islamophobic," and only those nasty right-wingers are concerned about such things, anyway.

What is surprising is that this sort of thing doesn't come to light more often. Universities today are full of puffed-up hacks and mediocrities like Reza Aslan (Drew University), Haroon Moghul (Columbia University), Carl Ernst and Omid Safi (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Caner K. Dagli (Holy Cross College) who owe their positions not to the excellence of their scholarship, which consists of Islamic whitewash, deception and dawah, but to the acceptability of their political opinions to the Leftist multiculturalist dhimmis who control most universities. It wouldn't be in the least surprising if a few universities in the U.S. and Europe were also employing violent jihadis and their bosses (such as Professor Sami al-Arian of the University of South Florida).

"London Metropolitan University suspends researcher with car bomb conviction," from the BBC, February 22 (thanks to Twostellas):

A university researcher has been suspended after it emerged he has a conviction over a car bombing at the Israeli Embassy in London.

Jawad Botmeh of London Metropolitan University and another man were found guilty in 1996 of conspiracy to cause explosions in the UK.

The Unison union said Botmeh - who got a 20-year jail term - declared his conviction when he applied for the job.

He has worked at the Working Lives Research Institute for five years.

The union said Botmeh was suspended on 7 February, shortly after he was elected as a staff governor.

Botmeh, who was released from prison in 2008, was found guilty of involvement in two car bombs set off in July 1994, one of which went off outside the embassy in Kensington Palace Gardens. Nobody was killed.

'Broken no rules'

He and another man were convicted on the basis they were part of a UK-based terrorist cell which planned to sabotage the Middle East peace process.

Botmeh lost an appeal against his conviction in 2001, although he gained support from Gareth Peirce, solicitor for the wrongly jailed Birmingham Six, who claimed he had been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Unison said two other employees had also been suspended along with Botmeh, including the head of London Met's Working Lives Research Institute, Steve Jefferys, who had employed Botmeh, and a research administrator, Max Watson.

Professor Jefferys had put Botmeh forward to be interviewed five years ago as a part-time casual administrative worker on a temporary contract, despite his criminal record, the union said.

A spokesman for the university Unison branch said: "Steve, Jawad and Max have broken no university rules. They have all been entirely open and honest.

"Professor Jefferys had the authority to make casual appointments.

"Jawad had twice informed the university in writing of his earlier prison sentence and conviction and this evidence is on their files."...

So apparently they didn't care. Political correctness trumped everything else.