{"id":20247,"date":"2026-08-26T01:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/professor-fired-for-claiming-romans-learnt-shipbuilding-from-malaysians\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T01:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:05:13","slug":"professor-fired-for-claiming-romans-learnt-shipbuilding-from-malaysians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/professor-fired-for-claiming-romans-learnt-shipbuilding-from-malaysians\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Fired For Claiming Romans Learnt Shipbuilding From Malaysians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-first=\"S\">\n<h3>The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has terminated the academic service of Solehah Yaacob, a former linguistics professor who claimed that ancient Romans may have learned shipbuilding techniques from Malay seafarers.<\/h3>\n<p>IIUM\u2019s Office of Communication, Advocacy and Promotion said the university terminated Solehah\u2019s service on April 27 and barred her from using any official title, position or association with the university.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing the termination, she no longer holds the position of professor or represents the institution in any official role,\u201d the university said in a statement on August 23, according to <em>Sinar Harian<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The restriction also covers references to IIUM in promotional materials, media reports, publications and advertising.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">University seeks to protect academic integrity<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>IIUM said the restriction extends to social media posts, publicity materials and other forms of dissemination that directly or indirectly associate Solehah with the university.<\/p>\n<p>The university said it issued the clarification to ensure the public accurately understands Solehah\u2019s current status and to protect the institution\u2019s academic integrity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIIUM hopes that with this clarification regarding Solehah\u2019s service status and official association with the university, confusion and future misunderstandings among the public can be avoided,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Controversial historical claims<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Solehah attracted renewed attention earlier in August after suggesting that Kedah\u2019s iron ore wealth may have originated from meteor showers. The claim sparked debate among academics and members of the public.<\/p>\n<p>Her earlier comments also generated controversy.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2025, she made headlines after claiming that ancient Romans may have learned shipbuilding techniques from Malay seafarers.<\/p>\n<p>The claim prompted questions about the historical evidence supporting the theory and contributed to a wider debate over academic standards and historical interpretation in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Source: Asia News Network) \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<footer class=\"article-tags entry-footer\">\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"category_container author-information\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<section id=\"authorpage\" class=\"authorpage\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/74a7af42a3ee68b1eb9b880b91e3e713144e269e50db87b04a35501c8e1351f8?s=164&amp;r=g\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/74a7af42a3ee68b1eb9b880b91e3e713144e269e50db87b04a35501c8e1351f8?s=328&amp;r=g 2x\" class=\"avatar avatar-164 photo lazyload\" height=\"164\" width=\"164\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-content\">\n<h5>Kosta Papadopoulos<\/h5>\n<p>Kosta Papadopoulos is an editor at Greek City Times, covering Greek and international news, travel, sport, and entertainment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/2026\/08\/26\/professor-fired-for-claiming-romans-learnt-shipbuilding-from-malaysians\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has terminated the academic service of Solehah Yaacob, a former linguistics professor who claimed that ancient Romans may have learned shipbuilding techniques from Malay seafarers. IIUM\u2019s Office of Communication, Advocacy and Promotion said the university terminated Solehah\u2019s service on April 27 and barred her from using any official title, &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Professor Fired For Claiming Romans Learnt Shipbuilding From Malaysians\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/26\/professor-fired-for-claiming-romans-learnt-shipbuilding-from-malaysians\/#more-20247\" aria-label=\"Read more about Professor Fired For Claiming Romans Learnt Shipbuilding From Malaysians\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/malay.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}