POLICE ARE investigating allegations that an Asian student at Oxford University was sent racist e-mails telling him to leave the college because he was better suited to working in McDonald's.
The e-mails were sent to Nadeem Ahmed, who is taking Oxford University to court in a case alleging institutional racism. Thames Valley Police have interviewed two students, one of whom is alleged to have links with the university's Conservative Association, after Mr Ahmed showed officers e-mails which said Asians should not be at university but "working in McDonald's or on a building site". One asked Mr Ahmed, who is studying medieval Arabic: "Why don't you do a course in bricklaying?"
Police are now considering charging the students, both of whom are studying modern history, with racial harassment and offences under the Telecommunications Act. One of the e-mails warned Mr Ahmed that the authors of the e-mail had observed him in the library and that they knew where he lived. Others made obscene references to his wife and mother and contained pornographic photographs.
Mr Ahmed said he believed the e-mails were designed to intimidate him during his legal action against the university. The detail they contained led him to believe he and his family was being stalked.
Lawyers for Mr Ahmed and Oxford University will attend the county court today to set a date for the forthcoming case in which Mr Ahmed will accuse the university of racism. The poet Tom Paulin who is Mr Ahmed's personal or "moral" tutor, is expected to give evidence to support his student's case. Mr Ahmed alleges he was unfairly asked to leave Oxford University's Oriental Institute after being made to sit "flawed" exams. Mr Ahmed's lawyers will allege that he was asked to sit a series of "unofficial" exams that racially discriminated against him. They will also present what they say is evidence of racism at the Oriental Institute.
Mr Paulin has said the case will test Oxford's commitment to an anti-racism document signed last year by the Vice-Chancellor and heads of other institutions in Oxfordshire. The statement was agreed in response to the Macpherson report into the death of Stephen Lawrence.
Mr Ahmed - who is being supported by other senior academics - joined Hertford College, Oxford to take a MPhil course in medieval Arabic in October 1998 after graduating with a 2:1 in religious studies and Urdu from the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University. But in June 1999 he was asked to take informal tests in Arabic, which Mr Ahmed said he was told would have no impact on his academic career. Of the three students asked to sit these exams, a white student passed and Mr Ahmed and another Asian student failed. Later, the Asian student was told he had been "deemed" to have passed. But Mr Ahmed was told he must sit another test, which the university said he had again failed.
Mr Ahmed went to Mr Paulin for help to have the test results discounted. But Mr Paulin's attempts to seek redress for his student ended in failure. Last year, the High Court ruled against Mr Ahmed's claim to have the exam results set aside.
A spokesman for Oxford University declined to comment on the alleged e-mails as they were the subject of a police investigation.