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The fearless Charles Jacobs of the David Project and the American Anti-Slavery Group skewers Columbia's dhimmitude in the Columbia Spectator (thanks to Ted Robertson):
The Dirks Committee, created by Columbia’s administration to investigate student complaints of harassment by anti-Israel faculty, was supposed to spread sand on the MEALAC fire. Instead it threw gasoline. On Friday, The New York Times explained that Columbia “botched” the job by stacking the committee with colleagues of the accused and anti-Israel partisans. No one should have been surprised that a biased committee produced a biased report that ignored the facts and protected its own.The report is deeply flawed. It considered only three incidents of professors’ harassing students, yet we know of many, many more. It invokes a sort of “professors’ omerta” to intimidate dissenting professors, upbraiding whistleblowers who helped students report abuse. The committee turns the tables on the complaining students, giving weight—without any proof—to claims by MEALAC professors that pro-Israel “outsiders” invade classrooms to hector them. Professor Joseph Massad’s colleagues judged him guilty of inappropriate conduct, but chide him so gently—“his rhetorical response to her query exceeded commonly accepted bounds”—that his wrist may not register the slap. At the same time, the committee carefully avoided mentioning the racist screed of Professor Hamid Dabashi, who writes in Al-Ahram that Israelis suffer from “a vulgarity of character that is bone-deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture.”
Yes, the report admits the administration was insensitive, even antagonistic to students who complained that anti-Israel professors harassed them. And yes, it found that students have no effective way to register complaints. But the committee reduced what is a major academic scandal—the use of podium as pulpit for an exclusive viewpoint—to only these narrow bureaucratic foul-ups.
The Dirks Committee simply evades the main issue: how to deal with the teaching of lies and propaganda by Arabist professors who so demonize Israel that defenders of the Jewish state find themselves in a hostile environment in their classes. It achieves this evasion by referring to incidents of biased, dishonest teaching in exclusively pedagogical and psychological terms. It classes them as “rhetorically combative” methods or as expressions of “uncongenial views” that—and the issue is reduced to this—make some students “uncomfortable.”
This straw man, constructed in MEALAC and echoed by the committee—all for the purpose of dressing political acts in psychological clothes—is now endlessly rehearsed by all those who, fooled by this deception, needlessly feel compelled to make the obvious point: that at least some ideas one encounters in a college education should make people unsettled.
What the committee refused to consider is the possibility that these “teachings” are lies and propaganda. When Professor Massad teaches that the word “Zion” means “penis,” and therefore Zionism is a macho movement, this is not an uncongenial view, but a lie—or at best an egregious error for a Middle East studies professor. When at Columbia it is taught that the Israelis are Nazis and the Palestinians are the new Jews, and that the Jews slaughtered Arabs in Jenin, these are not “rhetorically combative” modes of teaching—they are blood libels, anti-Semitic provocations, deceptions, and Arabist propaganda. Will only brave Jewish students stand up and say so? Does academic freedom” give professors license to teach incendiary, hateful lies?
Read it all.
Posted by Robert at April 11, 2005 7:00 PM
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Step in the right direction It makes my hair hurt to think about how long this has been going on and Im pretty sure it is epidemic in acedemia.
Posted by: KAOSKTRL![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at April 11, 2005 8:27 PM
Professor Massad- what a schmuck!
If he thinks "Zion" means "penis" then I guess, by his amazingly astute etymological insight "Islam" means "rectum".
Zion (Sion) actually means something like "utopia".
But, I suppose, to the average fanatical Muslim proselytizer, his penis is his utopia. Since it is all they seem to think about, ultimately, as is shown by their need for 72 virgins in Paradise.
For being such a putz, Massad should be fired and deported to Saudi Arabia. And forced to change the first "a" in his name to an "o" before he gets there.
I'm sure it would be a warm welcome.
Schlemiel.
Posted by: BigSleep at April 11, 2005 9:33 PM
The Bollinger Court follies are just beginning. And it was amusing to see in today's New Duranty Times the huffing and puffing by those circling the wagons, believing that any critical scrutiny -- or criticisim -- offered of the behavior of members of MEALAC, or of the remarkable triviality of their "scholarship," which avoids the subject of Islam altgoether, is an assault on "academic freedom."
What nonsense. University faculty are not immune to criticism. And when they behave outrageously, or when they believe in people being abducted by alients (John Mack) but retain their tenured post at, say, Harvard Medical School, or when they fail to convey the real nature of Islam or its central role in everything from Saudi Arabia's malevolent use of the "wealth weapon" to the relentless Jihad against Israel which has no end, and no solution, then we have a perfect right to criticize this. When they intimidage and indoctrinate, we have a right to adduce the evidence of such intimidation and such indoctrination.
In one letter to the New Duranty Times Professor a professor at Columbia, Jonathan Arac, a copious quoter from a man he admired so much (not as much as Hamid Dabashi did, however), the late Edward Said (who blurbs Arac's books as he did those of half the members of the MLA and MESA Nostra), tells us that as an "American" and a "Jew" and a "scholar" he found nothing to worry about except the outsiders causing trouble, nothing wrong with the workings and conclusion of the Bollinger Court (which is simply a Kangaroo Court in reverse). Should anyone identify himself as a "scholar"? Isn't that a bit like someone saying he is an "artist" when he ought to say he is a "painter" or a "sculptor," or someone else claiming to be a "scientist" when he should say "chemist" or "biophysicist"? Would Housman, Momigliano, Oswyn Murray, Wilamowitz, or Evariste Levi-Provencal identify themselves as "scholars" -- which they most certainly were, or are, but they had the good taste and common sense never to claim it?
No, let me emend that last. Housman did use the word "scholar" about himself, but he was in a light-hearted mood, and was engaged in self-mockery. At a dinner in Cambridge (possibly one in his honor) he got up, in his semi-cups, a few sheets to the wind, and at the end of his remarks to the assembled crowd, said this:
"Cambridge has seen strange sights. It has seen Wordsworth drunk and Porson sober. Here am I, a better scholar than Wordsworth, a better poet than Porson -- betwixt and between." And that is the only way one should refer to oneself as a "scholar."
Posted by: Hugh at April 11, 2005 11:05 PM
Academics and Integrity
Didn't Nazism find a lot of supporters in academia in Germany pre WWII? I understood that there were many in academia, those enlightened souls, who bought in with Hitler.
Just saw "Downfall" a movie made about Hitler's last days in his bunker. It was a German movie produced in Germany, shown here with English subtitles. The story was told from the point of view of Hitler's young secretary. The secretary was still alive at the time of the filming and she appeared in a film clip at the end. Great movie.
Tell me again why Ivy League schools are supposed to be respected? Why are they entitled to prestige?
Posted by: Athena at April 11, 2005 11:44 PM
The Leftist Academia’s islam propaganda machine. It's the perfect Anti-Science: Mention only the facts that back you up, ignore contradictory data, vilify anyone that questions you, stamp out calls for reform, repeat the lies again and again, and eventually you will win. ~ kj
Parents are getting fed up with PC on Middle-Eastern studies:
http://www.nationalreview.com/kurtz/kurtz200504110831.asp
at April 12, 2005 7:36 AM
Yes, Athena, academics bought Hitler's crap and toed his line. "Intellectuals" can rationalize just about anything they put their minds to.
Posted by: waterdragon52 at April 12, 2005 8:39 AM
Funny thing about universities Gary is that it is a major complaint of the anti Semitic(and Christian) right that they are havens for, "infested by" and controlled by Jews. And that "leftism" is Jewish. Like for instance Marxist Leninist Trotskyites, aka "neo cons" like Perle,Podoheretz, Wolfowitz, Freith, Decter, Kristol, Pipes, Gaffney,etc et al.
It's quite a mess to sort out, but simple mind "ucks" (left and right) don't sort out anything, they have all of the answers already: "It's the other side".
Cheap trick Gary, and dishonest, misusing kj's statement, truly worthy of a Muslim. In fact Muslims use the same tactics in their arguments with me on another forum.
How much you resemble your bete noire.
I notice that Kurtz uses as an example Columbia, but as I posted elsewheres', anti Semites claim that Columbia is "Jewish".
Hmmm, I googled Columbia Jewish and this is at the top of the list Columbia, Jewish and Mid East Studies
With links like
# Aliyah
# Antisemitism
# Bibliographies in Jewish Studies
# Directory of Scholars in Jewish Studies (The Jewish Studies Network)
# Electronic Journals and Newspapers for Jewish Studies
# The Holocaust
# Israel
# Jewish Holidays
# Judaism
# Languages
# Libraries with major Jewish Studies collections
# Literatures
* Hebrew Literature
* Yiddish Literature
# Major Jewish Organizations, Institutes and Academic Departments
# Palestine & the Palestinians
# Publishers and Bookstores in Jewish Studies
# Sephardic Jewish Communities
# Women
#
# Tanya Lesson (Virtual Tanya Lesson- Project based in Eastside Manhattan)
Yegads Jewish Friends of Palestine
Crazy, crazy world.
Posted by: Giaour at April 12, 2005 5:15 PM
I don't know why you feel the need to lump any and all Christians together (actually, yes I do, but this site IS about Jihad, not the groups you hate / would see extinct), but I see absolutely NO proof that the vast majority of Christians are anti-semitic, for starters.
Posted by: Gary at April 12, 2005 5:49 PM
'Funny thing about universities Gary is that it is a major complaint of the anti Semitic(and Christian) right that they are havens for, "infested by" and controlled by Jews. And that "leftism" is Jewish. Like for instance Marxist Leninist Trotskyites, aka "neo cons" like Perle,Podoheretz, Wolfowitz, Freith, Decter, Kristol, Pipes, Gaffney,etc et al.' ~Giaour
Actually... while I have no doubt in some circles, that thinking might be the case (some Few circles)... I think it got associated with the Jews in Russia prior to 1917 because they were oppressed there, also. Some (again, not all) gathered around Marxist thinking...
Remember, the Nazis also spoke of 'Jewish Science.' The Jews got stuck with a lot of things, it is known as Scapegoating.
And the fact that you seem to be anti-Israel (whether or not that means anti-semitic) would seem to indicate that you also have a need for scapegoating them.
In any case, I am not anti-anyone, myself. I do have a problem with thinking that requires whole other groups of people (such as Christians) be forced to suffer the Next 400 years, in order to make up for the problems past groups of people were subjected to. Which is exactly what I see happening Since the 60's, and which is culminating with pro-'religion of peace' teaching on college campuses today...
And trying to bring that bogus teaching to the attention of the masses (no pun intended) is not an attack on the left, much as several here react as tho it is.
Posted by: Gary at April 12, 2005 8:13 PM
Anyone who wishes to make a more coherent argument from my words, go for it. That was totally off the cuff. I am usually writing when I am half-asleep.
Posted by: Gary at April 12, 2005 8:16 PM
Gary,
Don't waste your time with Giaour. He has demonstrated many times that he's an anti-Semite. Of course he won't admit that because he thinks the rightists and Christians have a monopoly on anti-Semitism (and the Muslims of course). He doesn't want to be associated with those fascists, but when it comes to speaking "his truth" about the uppity Jews, nothing can hold back his paranoid rantings. Every now and then, the mask slips. So much for the nuance of the Left.
Posted by: igor at April 12, 2005 9:54 PM
Here's an interesting article related to the topic at hand:
Students Skip Liberal Ivy Leagues
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/11/opinion/main687280.shtml
at April 13, 2005 12:56 PM
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