While Saidist professors like Shahid Alam and Mark LeVine continue to dominate Middle East Studies departments on American campuses, at Columbia University they have run up against a formidable foe: the indomitable Charles Jacobs of the David Project. From the Chicago Tribune, "Politics of Middle East play out in class fracas," with thanks to Doc Washburn:
NEW YORK -- The Upper West Side of Manhattan may be half a world away from the Middle East, but a bitter war of words has turned the narrow campus of Columbia University into a miniature Gaza Strip, riven by divisions between supporters of the Israeli and Palestinian sides.Jewish students charge that three professors in the university's Middle East & Jewish Studies department have ridiculed and intimidated them for making pro-Israel remarks, violating their rights as students to express opinions contrary to those of their professors.
The allegations reflect the growing scrutiny that Middle East studies departments across the country are facing from pro-Israel groups that claim Arab or Islamic professors are slanting their courses to favor the Palestinian side, sometimes to the point of challenging Israel's right to exist.
But nowhere is that scrutiny more public--or more heated--than on the one-block-wide quadrangle of Columbia's main campus.
"They're trying to create a hegemony of ideas," said senior Ariel Beery, 25, referring to the professors at the center of the debate. "They're not allowing students to debate them or to disagree with some of their premises without attacking them in a personal manner."
The university's Middle East & Jewish Studies department was the subject of a highly critical documentary this fall by a Boston-based pro-Israel group, and university President Lee Bollinger named a committee of Columbia academics in December to investigate the students' charges and decide whether the three professors should be disciplined....
Far from being treated as colleagues, some students of professor Joseph Massad, one of the faculty members under scrutiny, say he berates and humiliates those who challenge him.
A female student who asked him whether Israeli authorities warned Palestinians before destroying the residences of suspected terrorists said he cut her off and told her that he would not allow her to deny Israeli "atrocities" in his class.
Massad, a professor of modern Arab politics, reportedly asked another student who identified himself as a former Israeli soldier how many Palestinians he had killed.
Another faculty member at the center of the controversy is professor George Saliba, a specialist in the history of Arabic and Islamic science, who reportedly told a student that her opinion about Israel was not valid because she had green eyes and was not a "true Semite."
And professor Hamid Dabashi, the former chairman of Columbia's Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department, reportedly has said that Israel is a "ghastly state of racism and apartheid" that "must be dismantled."
These accounts of the three professors' actions and beliefs are included in "Columbia Unbecoming," a 20-minute documentary produced by the David Project, a Boston-based group that says its mission is to make sure the Israeli position is fairly represented in college classes.
Professors rebut claims
The professors deny the students' accusations.
"I have been maliciously slandered," Dabashi said in an e-mail message, adding that his relationship with his students has always been "one of mutual respect, irrespective of their gender, nationality, or religious identity."
As for his comments about dismantling Israel, Dabashi said the quotes were taken out of context and that he opposes "any sort of religious state," including a "Christian empire," Islamic republic or Jewish state.
A Christian empire, eh? Yes, that's a real threat today. Anyway, note the ever-present last resort of scoundrels: his words were "taken out of context."
Saliba wrote a rebuttal in the student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, in which he said he did not remember making a remark about the student's eye color disqualifying her from having a valid opinion about Israel."What seems to have happened is probably a misquotation of an argument I sometimes make," wrote Saliba, who was unavailable for an interview. "The gist of it would be to say that being born in a specific religion, or converting to one, is not the same as inheriting the color of one's eyes from one's parents and thus does not produce evidence of land ownership of a specific real estate."
In responding to a request for an interview, Massad referred to a statement on his faculty Web site, where he calls the controversy "a witch hunt."
"The aim of the David Project propaganda film is to undermine our academic freedom, our freedom of speech, and Columbia's tradition of openness and pluralism," he says on the Web site.
Evidently Massad equates openness and pluralism with agreeing with him, and thinks disagreement with him is a threat to academic freedom. This self-indulgent solipsism, unfortunately, is pandemic in Middle East Studies departments today.
He probably means the free West as a "Christian Empire" since anyone not muslim or Jewish must be a Christian in the muslim way of thought. You know we can't have freedom spreading around the earth, they might accidentally stumble out of the 7th century.
My first post at Jihadwatch last summer and many since then concerned the idea of Jihadwatch readers meeting to plot strategies within the realm of clandestine networks. I offered two meeting places as perfect for our work: Sophia, Bulgaria for our friends in Europe, and Mexico D.F. for those of us in North America. I urge you to keep those locations in mind for conference sites, but at this time it seems we would be better meeting in more familiar settings, if we were to meet at all. Susan B. suggests a general conference of Jihadwatch readers for this summer. consider it in the works as of today.
Again, allow me to break it down into two conference locations for the convenience of those of us in Europe who might not find it easy to come to America: I suggest that our European friends find a small town in the Netherlands for a conference of like-minded people here. I offer the Netherlands as possible for reasons of centrality, but more importantly, there could well be press coverage of such a meeting, and if so, the local population will be better prepared to accept such a conference than might those in England, a location another of our friends suggested. If the Dutch read of in the papers and witness on television a conference on jihadwatchers taking place in their own country, a conference they didn't neccessarily know about, I think their interest will rise and their spirits might lift in that most threatened of all European nations. As well, if we were to meet in a small Dutch town we'll make a larger impression than if we were to meet in London: The large frog in a small pond looks far bigger.
If we meet in America as well, then I suggest we gather in the South West, in Arizona or New Mexico, once again in a small town, where the local population will likely be highly supportive of outsiders with our kind of messaqge. We might, with some proper ground-work, bring out the entire surrounding community to a march and rally down Main St., making our movement all-encompassing rather than as a few protesters looking lost in Manahattan.
There is also the question of our friends in Australia. They have the issue of free speech to organize around, regardless of the outcome of the court case impending. That would be a fine focal point for a conference and demonstration regardless of the size of the crowd because the case itself is huge and publicity generating. The Australians, too, would save themselves from having to live diagonally, thereby risking their blood rushing to their feet. As important, the court case in Australia will develop open support for the jihadwatch cause that is now underground. It's a great publicity grab.
Susan B. suggests a summer conference. By Friday, after posting this message or something similar to it daily, I insist that we offer up a date of some time in mid July. From that point on, if you wish to attend a conference, I suggest you contact Susan B. to let her know what your suggestions are, and that you sign up, in some way, so we can track our progress and make plans for securing meeting places in some real location. We can take real steps toward real organization, and if we do, you will have to make some real commitment to ensuring the work is successful.
Readers come and go here daily, and some read this or that, missing much of what goes on at other threads. I ask that you spread the idea of this conference to other threads, and that you contact Susan B. to begin the tasks of setting up real programmes for meetings.
I'm going to break this up today into small pieces of proto-party news. I have a number of areas I'd like to cover today, and I want to give others a chance to put in their comments as well, mine being "one man's opinion." If you think the idea of a summer conference is in your interest, please contact susan_b356@yahoo.com to let her know. We'll need party organizers in Europe and Australia if this is going to work. Offer Susan your ideas for this. and let me know here if this is a feasible thought for you.
Conference suggested:
Personally I think this is an awesome idea and would be glad to help in any way.
Arizona,New Mexico would not be such good ideas nor would Michigan because of migrating scum.
I would suggest some neutrality with this as well as checking hate laws in said states so we would not be liable to RICO charges or Disseminating Hate propaganda.
Can we check the Demo-graphics also so that we do not errantly put money where it does not belong.
How can we be more discreet in finalizing Logistics.
Count me in!
Back on topic with these professors here is something I ran across today and it fits so well that one would not have known it to be "OLD SCHOOL"
Lincoln describes it best when he posed this question?"If you call a dog's tail a leg,how many legs does it have?","five", his audience would usually respond."The correct answer","is four".
Calling a tail a leg does not a leg make.
Calling lies the truth does not make them so.
Let me assure faithful readers here that the loony left (anti-God) forces cannot and will not succeed. You either believe our rights were given to us by God or by government. Both viewpoints cannot be right. Israel and America are founded on biblical principles and that is why the secular humanism that is so popular today despises these countries. As for me, I experienced this fanatical devotion to PC at McMaster in Hamilton, ON that it was a relief when I graduated. I was not a Christian at that time in my life, that would happen later. I was searching for the truth, but I found it in the library and in books, never in the classroom. I would encourage all individuals who are seeking the truth that don't bother to look for it in any classroom, or TV, or the MSM because you'll never find it there. Don't give up and don't give in, this world hates the truth and all those that know the truth. Truth for me is "Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". The question is this, What do I value? Friendship with the world or friendship with our Creator? The choice is yours to make. Good Luck!!
I don't think that Arizona would be good, as al-Fuqra (US Qaeda branch) operates there. I would be willing to go closer to home. If you're thinking of some place in Canada, Calgary, AB is your best bet. We're pro-American, except for the acadhimmis, and you're all welcome to come to my place.
I've suggested as well as national conferences that we have regional conferences, but the truth is that if anyone expects a conference to happen in his or her own hometown, you're going to be a lonely fellow. That is not to say that we should ignore those who can't make a move from here to there. If you feel that you're in one place and can't get to another it's hardly the end of the world. I suggest that for those of us who are homebound for whatever reason, that we arrange meetings with those in our own areas to start with. And how is that going to happen, you ask? Let me come back to that in a moment.
We get some objections to plans for action, such as from Cubed, as I recall, who offered that if we leaflet on private property we might find ourselves in trouble. Well, to the best of my knowledge, sidewalks are public, and most property owners don't care what you do so long as you don't cause trouble; which is to say, that if you put flyers under windscreen blades no one is likely to shoot at you. And as far as the RICO laws go, imagine how successful we would be if the U.S. government actually found us so threatening to Islam that they sicced the FBI on us. Frankly, I feel that we'll have trouble getting parking tickets in New Mexico. There will always be objections, and those who win are those who dare. Look at our rivals on the Left and our Moslem cousins who have no trouble whatsoever putting together not simply conferences but multi-million dollar mosques in American city centers. Go figure.
We can and we will organize conferences, and if you can't come, you won't be there. We will meet anyway. We will work out logistics and a timetable, but we will not stop to worry about the details of what might happen if we're hit by meteors. We will meet, even if it's only a few of us. That in itself is a conference, and we will succeed and build on it from there. If we don't organize aggressively, we will fade away and be taken over by superior forces: Islam. I'm a fighting man, myself. I will confer. And then I will fight.
If you want to meet me, you will write to susan_b@yahoo.com and tell her you want to be part of a summer, 2005 conference of Jihadwatchers. Make that commitment, and we'll go from there. Once we have a goal the rest is simply effort.
Now, for those who are staying in their communities, I suggest you meet your fellows in your communities who are as serious and as concerned about islamic fascism in the community as you are, and you must be so or why else wuold you come here? How are you going to meet your fellows? I tell you again that if you put out flyers in your community that your neighbors and community memberzs will come here because they are as afraid of what's happening in our world as you and I. Some of the ladies here at Jihadwatch pass out leaflets. A number of new people are here only because of that. They take reasonable precautions against harm because they're reasonable people. They succeed. What leaflets?
Again, if you contact susan_b you'll find one that some of us put together specifically for this group of people to pass out to your friends, neighbors, and community members. Susan will give you a jpeg that you can download and copy. You are not helpless.
No, there are few Carlos Marighellas in our group here, and of those few urban guerrillas some are not allowed to post here any longer. Those of us who remain are cautious enough to be sensitive to our needs as well as Robert Spencer's needs. Spencer, as I've written here numerous times, provides us daily with a meeting place that he has turned into a powerhouse. We are the energy he creates. Spencer urges us to act strategically, not stupidly or rashly, but with intelligence and forethought. This is our meeting place for propaganda dissemination and education. Robert and hugh and numerous others provide us with information we simply cannot get elsewhere. In this forum we have a chance to organize and take the energy that Spencer creates in us and turn that energy against Islam and its vileness. We must act strategically and concretely. We must bring the majority of the world to our position that islam is evil and must be stopped from being as it is. Therefore, we must met our neighbors in order to fill our ranks, to expand to our natural capacity, and to conquer. We will not succeed on our own at keyboards. Leafleting will bring you into contact with like-minded people. You will gain friends and gain for Spencer's and for our concern more friends who share our common value in the worth of our civilization and its continuence and propagation. The alternative is to watch our world become like France and the Netherlands.
To affect any real counter-movement to the Moslem jihad against us we must confer among ourselves and to bring in greater numbers of people. We will acheive that by the process of reification of the movement Spencer and Hugh have made at this site. Jihadwatch will become a real entity, as real as the Republican Party and the Demoncratic Party and the Catholic Church, none of which exist outside the minds of men. We will turn our movement into a movement that will surpass the anti-war movement of the 1960s because our cause is greater than stopping the war in Viet Nam: Our cause is stopping the worst Human nightmare in history. We will do that here. We will do that by meeting and planning and organizing. If you cannot make it to a conference, stay home and do what you can from there.
At this point I want to let you know that if you were to write tomorrow at the first post, as Susan_b urged, I think it will jamb up the works. I'm going to write soon to ask that we change the location, if possible to the first cold thread of the previous day, every day, for our more general discussions. In other words, go back to today's page and look for the resumption of this discussion at the end of today's postings.
We are a fluid group and not all of us can read each and every post daily. I ask you to remind other readers that we are trying to put together a movement to stop islam and roll it back. there was a time when islam did not exist, and that time will come again, with our efforts. contact other readers at this site and let them know that we will organize a conference of jihadwatch readers and activists.
I hope to write a manifesto for us in time that will unite us in a common purpose. I bring that up becasue we have trouble recently in deciding who and what we are. We affer such problems for discussion as that we are anti-jihad, anti-Islamo-fascism, anti-terrorism, and anti-et c. We are more than that, of course, as diverse a lot as we are. I wrote about this problem recently, and I concluded that we are pro-aporia. I'll go into greater detail late in the week on that topic. I will also go into some detail about a unifying symbol we can all use as a symbol of our united struggle to be what we are for and as a symbol of what we are against. Yes, some will argue for this or that, and some might not like anything at all, but who really came up with donkeys and elephants? All of us could have done better, but that didn't happen, and now we have what we have because as of today it's a tradition.
Two more things before I conclude this long post: Firstly, we lose track of our progress and gains as days go by. One reason for that is that we are not organized internally. My solution is that we have a minute keeper. If we have someone who can precis the contents of the site each week and send us copies of the high-lights of what we've seen and done and thought, then we can begin to guage our success on a weekly basis. It is the beginnings of a political action group. It is also the beginning of success, to which all of that is so far in the hands of our state-sponsoered rivals, the islamic world. can we come up with someone from our own group here who will keep a log of our activites? That is an essential aspect of any group intent on success. We need that person badly. If not, we're a chat-group.
Lastly, if we continue to hand out leaflets, which I intend to continue doing, we should decide what we want to hand out. So far, one of our hand-outs is a two part ad for Jihadwatch/Dhimmiwatch. I propose further that we do this:
A READERS' POLL.
Please provide five of your favorite quotations from a legitimate Islamic source on the following topic: "Islam and Women."
I want each and every reader here to provide five quotations on Islam and women, no more than five, so we have a pool of quotations to choose from to make up yet another flyer to give to the public. If you don't have five quotations in mind, you might look for some. And if you only have a few, send them in. We'll be the creators of the next flyer against Islamic fascism. I'm going to run this campaign from today till next Sunday. I'll pick the most popular quotations and paste them into our next leaflet. I have a cover shot of a woman in a burqa being hanged to death from a crane. Provide us with quotations that will enrage the public against the islamic treatment of women, and we can pass out the leaflets together till enough men and women in this world decide that it is time to come here to Jihadwatch to become organized on a world-wide scale to stop Islam altogether. Yeah, this is how these things happen. People like you and me sit down and hatch ideas and then work them out till lots of others follow along.
I can't post a letter of this length in other threads today. I'd like you to refer people to these ideas for comment. Please take your own power seriously. We covered a lot of area here, and it requires further discussion. Tomorrow I will be at the first cold thread from today's page to see if there is any positive response to this appeal. I'll also keep at it till it works or it doesn't, in which case, I think we'd all better take Arabic lessons.
R Dubya Bee:
Just swap a few words (e.g. Replace Israel and America with Islam) and God with Allah.
and you sound just like the Jihadis.
And that concerns me.
And saying that will most certainly result in the erstwhile Christians here whipping out holy water and wooden stakes, or accusing me of being an Islamist or some other such nonsense.
I have probably done more than any of you, on the internet and in personal life, to awaken my fellow infidels as to the Muslim threat, I've exposed and Mocked the "prophet" and that alone is enough to put my life at risk. I know for a fact that my IP address has been sniffed out and that they know where I reside. It isn't difficult to snag an IP address in case you are interested a lkb graphic is enough.
Second subject: The idea of a Muslim embracing Jew just baffles me. Where is their head, are they ignorant?
Amy Goodman, of Democracy Now, was in East Timor filming the genocide of East Timorese Catholics by Muslim Indonesians, and yet she plays advocate for the rights of these western hating Jihadis locked up in gitmo or in our jails.
I wonder if she is being consistent believing that protecting speech and rights, is the only way to ensure the protection of hers.
However my axiom is "that which one would do, promote, condone unto others, one promotes and condones for oneself".
Islam does not accord Free speech, so it is denied free speech.
In France, the Muslims are whining because Almanar (Hezbollah TV) is denied access to French Satellites because of it's antisemitism.
Yet in England, Muslims have prevailed on the government to include as hate speech, anything that mentions the religion of miscreants or any speech which Muslims find objectionable (which is any speech that doesn't praise them and their god Muhammad).
"Acadhimmis" - nice one Ibn Rushd! It made me chuckle. Did you make that up? Be honest.
Fieldvole,
Hehe, yes someone else said they got a smile out of it back in April/March thereabouts. Actually, I made this word up either late 2003, or really early 2004, as it was up on FFI before the crash and here before this new comments section. I thought that the word "academic/academia" sounded so much like "acadhimmi/acadhimmia" that I started using it, and it appears that the title is not far off the mark.
Side note though: I've taken 1.5 years of Greek now (know all the grammar) and I think that the Arabic "dhimmi" is the Greek "demos/deme". Makes sense. But the title that they have earned, in my eyes, is more logical. And it has become common place on ISIS forum (Ibn Warraq's site) and part of FFI. This is my word invention of the millenium. :-)
To "Son of Walker" and other religious bigots:
Ahem. Jihad Watch is dedicated to informing interested individuals about the dangers of Islam in our contemporary world.
You said: "Jihadwatch will become a
real entity, as real as the Republican Party and the Democratic Party and the Catholic Church, none of which exist outside the minds of men."
Cripes. Being wise to Islam is one thing. But "spewing" is quite another. While anti-Catholicism is the only politically correct form of hate that is permitted in the United States, I don't like reading it on Jihad Watch comments.
Perhaps it is not your intention but your bigoted remarks only help undo Mr. Spencer's noble goals. Please don't highjack Jihad Watch and use it as a vent hole for your ingnorance.
Peggy, I must wonder what on Earth you think you just read. Obviously you missed the points in a very long post, none of which yyou addressed, and then you completely misread the one thing you did respond to. Reification, Madam, means something. I did not simply make it \up or throw it in for my amusement. If you care to critique my posts, please pay enough attention to respond to what I write rather than what you might think I might have written. And if you don't get the point for some reason, google my name and jhadwatch. If you look at some of my posts you'll have a better idea of what I do here than you'll get from simply day-dreaming and being upset about whatever floats across your mind at the time. If all of this is too much for you, then skip over it to something you can understand. I think I wrtie clearly and simply, but obviously there are those you can't be bothered to read even that. don't crticize if you don't understand what it is you're reading. Ask someone to explain it to you.
Peggy, you misunderstood sonofwalker's intent. Please don't get upset at his rather harsh (ouch!) response. Keep reading and you will come to recognize the tone and style of frequent posters.
Sonofwalker -- I always like your practical approach to things. You are right -- just typing at the keyboard ain't enough. We must organize, plan and follow through with those plans. The more people that unite with us, the less jihadwatchers will be on the fringe.
Good luck on the conference.
Thanks for picking up on what is a cold thread. I do return daily to read what others have left after me. I feel that others have important and interesting things to contribute here, ususally, and I urge all readers to return to old posts to see what the other guy thinks. My guess is that Peggy, having had her moment of righteous indignation will not return for some time, till the next time she can't find the kids to scream at. Frankly, I tire of it, and I become cranky after having spent a long time writing to recieve non-sense from people who don't bother reading or understanding what I just wrote. Yes, I'm sorry I was harsh, and no I won't write that I won't let fly at the next person who wastes my time and then insults me. On the brightside, as iit were, I do not respond to half-wits, so Peggy can consider herself responded to and therefore in some higher category. "Religious bigot?" No, I take that back, Peggy.
But that wastes my time, and I do have to make a living, though I seem to spend too much time here by far.
We will organize conferences in the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Will it be in your choice of locations? Not one chance in a hundred. I am going to make arbitrary decisions so that some decision is made and stuck to. I don't have any better ideas than anyone else, and I don't claim to speak for anyone other than myself, but i do say this: someone has to make desicions, and I'm making them until someone better comes along to take my place.
I chose the Netherlands over Czech Republic becuse it is easier for Europeans to get to the Netherlands from all parts cheaply, and once there to find our location, wherever it turns out to be. If we have a dozen people in the Netherlands from Europe generally, we'll find a farmhouse; but if we have a hundred, we'll find a hotel in Amsterdam. The point of the netherlaqnds is that it is a front-line state at this time and has good potential for media coverage should our numbers warrant that. I have other reasons for choosing the Netherlands, and i'll detail them at Jihadwatch over the coming months. Anyone can make an argument for any place, and by doing so nothing will come of our efforts. I made the descions, rightly or wrongly, and now we tinker with the details. those who come will come, but they will come because we have a location settled rather than a location to be argued over. Personally, I would love to go to Poland for a conference, but the Moslem population there is not a great threat to Poles like it is in the Netherlands. We have a number of people in the Netherlands already who will have to do the work involved, and it can't rest on one man's shoulders. I'm open to suggestions from those other than Peggy, who is likely willing to offer many at this point. I want us to work concretely so as not to waste Spencer's effort and perhaps by impassitivy our way of life and even our lives as well.
If you have questions I don't answer here, please contact susan_b356@yahoo.com for more information.
religious bigot! I can't believe the [nonsense] some people write.