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May 03, 2005
Academic Integrity and the Middle East: outside agitators
Previous entries on this topic here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and description of the conference and speakers here.The original complaint of the Columbia students was very precise. It did not accuse anyone of antisemitism. It did not argue the merits of Israeli or Palestinian policies. It simply described a persistant pattern of bias composed of bad scholarship and classroom intimidation of opposing views, and advocated the free exchange of ideas, based on facts, which is supposed to be the root value of academic endeavor. One of the students went out of his way to praise one of the controversial professors - a Palestinian with whom he disagrees on many issues - for embodying those values.
However, the accused professors and their graduate student acolytes are fighting back by erecting straw men large and iconic enough to be the center of their own Burning Man Festival: accusing the students of baseless accusations of antisemitism, "McCarthyism," censorship, and plots hatched by shadowy "outside forces," scarecrows often bedecked with classic anti-Jewish imagery.
They sure don't mind politically-motivated "outside groups" supporting their pet causes, and when the cause is the anti-Israel academic fiefdom, the more the merrier.
One nefarious "outside agitator," the influential American Association of University Professors (our version of the AUT), sent two letters to the Columbia administration while the ad-hoc committee was meeting, but are refusing to make those letters public. Martin Kramer speculates that the AAUP was attempting to pressure Columbia on behalf of the professors, and points out a connection: Massad's thesis advisor, who defended him in writing to Bollinger, who was nevertheless appointed to the committee which ruled on his behavior, is a featured speaker at the annual AAUP convention. (Even more damning, if possible, is that Wahabist scholar Tariq Ramadan is another featured speaker. Presumably his visa was re-approved after being revoked by the State Dept.)
By the way, if you live in New York State, some of your tax dollars are supporting Columbia University.
Judith | 05/03/05 at 05:10 PM | Categories: - Israel vs. the world
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