Mahmood Ahmad last week told Universitas that individual states should be allowed to set penalties for homosexuality at their own discretion. The comment has caused serious concerns among human rights groups. Dag Øistein Endsjø, the leader of the Human Rights Committee for Gay Rights, says that if states shall be free to outlaw homosexuality, it follows they shall also be free to outlaw Islam. Endsjø argues out that Ahmad’s comment undermine human rights.

Copying Dues

Parliamentary representative Vidar Bjørnstad (Ap – the Labour Party) who chairs the committee working on the Act on Universities and University Colleges, criticises the new photocopying dues recently introduced at the University of Oslo. The facts that the dues are obligatory, and that they do not reflect the actual cost to the University, or the students\' genuine requirement for this service, imply that the dues run counter to the principle of free education. He argues that the University of Oslo must make a fundamental amount of materials available to the students, and points that it is the only University to have introduced such dues. Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Education Bjørn Haugstad says that the dues are compatible with the existing law, but that a stricter definition of the principle of free education in the new law may make the dues illegal.