The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education also criticized BYU in an article posted Monday on the U.S. News & World Report's Web site.

"BYU is literally the example we use of a university that does not promise strong free speech or academic freedom protections," FIRE president Greg Lukianoff said.

The Jones case has reopened the decades-old debate of whether BYU, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, should be revered for allowing far freer discussion of religious topics than most universities or derided for stifling some of that speech.

Many BYU professors say they appreciate academic freedoms at BYU that they have not experienced elsewhere.

In Houston's case, BYU officials said they warned her that endorsing prayer to a Heavenly Mother was inappropriate at BYU. Jones' case is unusual at BYU because it does not revolve around religion or religious values. BYU decided not to rehire part-time philosophy instructor Jeffrey Nielsen in June after he, by his own admission, clearly affiliated himself with the university when he wrote an editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune opposing the LDS Church's stand against gay marriage.

Academic freedom debates have engulfed other university instructors who joined Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization Jones co-founded.

The University of Wisconsin conducted a 10-day review of Kevin Barrett, a part-time professor, for statements he described to the Deseret Morning News as "far more radical, inflammatory and potentially offensive to public sensibilities than anything Professor Jones has said."

Barrett wrote and published a satirical letter to the U.S. Secret Service predicting President Bush would be executed for high treason. Wisconsin's chancellor cleared Barrett, citing academic freedom.

"If BYU tries to violate this clear-cut, long-established norm of academic freedom, it will set itself up for a very unfavorable place in history, immediately trigger the wrath of virtually the entire U.S. and world academic community and soon become a target of the righteous wrath of the American people," Barrett said.

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