Read below CAMPUS Articles and Effective Letters – October 19, 2007:
1) NEW!
2) Campus 'Holy War'
threat growing - Julie Henry, Sunday Telegraph - 29/07/2007
3) Professor's
Letter to the Muslim
Student's Association at MSU
4) Should This Academic
Fraudster Be Entertained At Stanford?
- Amichai Magen about Holocaust
denial in Stanford
5) Letter on “Academic Freedom and Prejudice" – by M.Ostroff
6)
Letter on “Freedom of Speech on the
7) Letter of Ex-Student to
8) LETTERS DO WORK! Pennsylvania State Univ. Accepts Sole
Letter-writer's Point !!!
9) Letter to the IRISH TIMES on BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI COLLEGES
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1)
|
|
|
By
Alan
M. Dershowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com
| Friday, October 19, 2007
This is an obituary for the Oxford Union, which claims to be, one
of the most famous and distinguished debating societies in the world. The
reality is that it is no longer a debating society at all; it has become a
propaganda platform for extremist views, primarily of the hard-left. It is now
stopped even pretending to present both sides of controversial issues. To be
sure it puts forward a façade of balance, by presenting speakers who
purport to represent both sides of an issue. But the Oxford Union has become a Potemkin village where a façade of fairness serves
as a cover for the reality of bias. Consider for example a debate that is
scheduled to take place at the Oxford Union on October, 23 2007 at 8:30pm. The
proposition before the house is as follows: “This house believes that
Every
rational person knows that the so-called one-state solution is simply a way of
achieving by demography what the Arab world has failed to achieve by military
attacks: namely the destruction of
Now
let’s turn to the pro-Israel side. One of three speakers on the pro-Israel side
is Peter Tatchell who is a member of the gay rights
group called Out Rage! and of the extreme left wing of
the green party. He too is virulently anti-Israel and favors boycotts of the
“the oppressive
Yet
compared to the next debater for the pro
Yet by
the standards of the Oxford Union, Norman Finkelstein is regarded as a pro
Will
The
-------------------------------------------
2)
Campus 'Holy War' threat growing
By Julie Henry, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:42am BST 29/07/2007
|
Campuses face more cases of students becoming radicalised by extremist propaganda, a university vice-chancellor has warned. Professor Mark Cleary, of He said the problem of how to detect extremist material cut right across the higher education sector. "We cannot monitor and control every bit of information that comes in to the university," he said. "But we are certainly not complacent. The sector as a whole is grappling with the issue. "It is far better if we are able to identify
these issues within the university and work closely with the appropriate
authorities and get these things sorted out and for prosecutions to take
place." The plot by Aitzaz Zafar, Awaab Iqbal, Akbar Butt and Usman Malik to launch a Jihad,
or "Holy War" and to persuade others to become "soldiers of
Islam", came to light when a schoolboy,
Mohammed Ifran Raja, ran away from home in February
last year. Raja, from Ilford, Essex, planned to
join the students and travel to During the trial, it emerged that the first-year
students had used campus computer facilities to compile extremist material.
Police who raided Iqbal's flat in Their extreme views alarmed the university's Islamic Society, when at a meeting, Zafar called for Muslims to kill anyone who dared re-publish Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. The society ejected them, but the university only became aware of the incident after the police raids. A university spokesman said the society's decision to isolate the group demonstrated that moderate Muslim students were prepared to act when they came across unacceptable behaviour. Up to 48 British universities have been infiltrated
by fundamentalists, according to Professor Anthony Glees, the director of A Government report published in December warned of "serious, but not widespread, Islamic extremist activity in higher education institutions". Government guidance, which asks staff to log suspicious behaviour, has been rejected by the University and Colleges Union, which described it as a "witch-hunt". |
a.
Information
appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the
copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any
medium without licence. For the full copyright
statement see Copyright
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
Professor's e-mail to the Muslim Student's Association at
MSU
On this www.take-a-pen.org website on
The following is true per http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wichman.asp
The story begins at
Professor Wichman's e-mail said the
following:
"Dear Moslem Student's Association:
As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your
protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like
beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders,
murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey), burnings of Christian
churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the
imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of
Scandinavian girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the
murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris
France.
This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many,
many of my colleagues.
I counsel you, dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal and uncivilized Moslems to
be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests."
Those of you who do not like the values of the West - see the 1st Amendment - you
are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that those of you choose that option.
Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead
of troubling Americans.
Cordially,
I. S. Wichman
Professor of Mechanical Engineering"
------------------
As you can imagine, the Muslim group at the university didn't like this too
well. They're demanding that Wichman be reprimanded
and mandatory diversity training for faculty and a seminar on hate and
discrimination for freshman. Now the chapter of CAIR has jumped into the fray.
CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, apparently doesn't believe
that the good professor had the right to express his opinion.
For its part, the university is standing its ground, saying the e-mail was
private, and they don't intend to publicly condemn his remarks.
Send this to your friends, and ask them to do the same. Tell them to
keep passing it around until the whole country gets it. We are in a war.
"We either start to publicly express ourselves or this political
correctness crap is killing us."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4) SHOULD THIS
ACADEMIC FRAUDSTER BE ENTERTAINED AT
Holocaust denial comes to Stanford
By Amichai Magen
The Stanford Daily
January 25, 2007
The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (CJME) and its splinter group,
Students Confronting Apartheid in Israel (SCAI), are at it again; pulling no
punches in their relentless campaign to demonize the Jewish People and delegitimize Israel. Tonight, the two student groups are
stooping to new lows and aligning themselves with the most radical elements in
the
Finkelstein is an academic joke, and a bad one at that. The 54-year-old
Assistant Professor at
He is an American-born son of two Holocaust survivors who began his career as
an anti-Israel political agitator – circumstances which on their own make his
claims to objective historical scholarship on the Holocaust highly suspect.
Finkelstein can neither read nor write German. Being unable to access many of
the sources that are the foundation of sound research in this highly complex
and sensitive field has not prevented Finkelstein from passing sweeping,
tendentious and twisted judgments on one of the saddest, and most important,
episodes in human history.
In essence, Finkelstein's argument is as follows: The Jews, in a fiendish
conspiracy, have fabricated a "Holocaust Industry" in order to
portray themselves as victims, cynically exploit their suffering and
consolidate
This thesis is a hodge-podge of pathological paranoia, ignorance, malice and
brutal disrespect to the memory of the millions of human beings systematically
murdered by the Nazis (Christians, Jews and Muslims). If we applied
Finkelstein's warped logic, we would conclude that Blacks "exploit"
the history of slavery to obtain civil rights gains or that in the
20th-century, women have created a "Feminism Industry" in a cruel
attempt to gain power and subjugate men. How many Einsteins,
how many Kafkas, how many Menuhins,
how many lives (born and yet to be born) were lost forever in the furnaces of
Finkelstein's brand of Holocaust denial is all the more pernicious for its
relative subtlety. Unlike David Irving – who claims the gas chambers never
existed and that Hitler was the Jews' greatest friend – Finkelstein (who calls
Irving "a good historian") admits that it did happen, and then
proceeds to turn the Holocaust into a tool with which to attack its primary
victim. In the Finkelstenian mind, the Jews, and the
Jews alone, are prohibited from collective mourning. Jewish insistence that the
Holocaust be remembered becomes an act of unforgivable Jewish aggression, for
which
Not surprisingly, Finkelstein has become the house favorite of neo-fascists in
Finkelstein is an American citizen and thus at liberty to express his odious
views. But free speech is not at issue here. The real question is should this
academic fraudster be entertained at
---------------------------------------------------------------
5)
Maurice’s letter:
Dear Professor Mary Sue Coleman May 14, 2006
Re: Academic Freedom and Prejudice
Your words at the Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium last
January, carried an admirable ring of sincerity. You said inter alia "It is essential that we raise our voices, as
individuals and as a university community, to draw attention to prejudice,
discrimination and neglect that hampers the fostering of that welcoming
environment." (*Bolds by editor)
Very sadly, rather than diminishing, prejudice appears to be growing within
In these circumstances, I hope you will agree that though academic freedom is
sacrosanct, the time is overdue for a clarification of its meaning and the
legitimate measures which may be taken to prevent abuse and even possible
deterioration of standards that could result from the sense of security given
by tenure.
While universities refrain from interfering in the opinions expressed by
faculty members, nevertheless, to maintain their reputations, universities need
to constantly monitor the standards of scholarship (not the views) displayed by
them, not only in the classrooms but off-campus as well.
Publication off-campus of the academic status of the authors, in articles
showing sub-standard scholarship, must adversely affect the reputation of their
universities in the eyes of critical readers, creating concern about the level
of education students are receiving.
In this connection, I copy below an open letter I wrote to Professor Cole of
your university, in which I take issue with the unscholarly arguments he
uses in a petition he is organizing.
I would very much appreciate a considered reply, which will be published on the
Internet, as will this letter.
Sincerely,
Maurice
Herzliya
-------------------------------------------
6) An open letter to Professor Juan Cole
From
Maurice Ostroff
May 13, 2006
Dear Professor Cole,
Your petition “Freedom of Speech on the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
I am writing to ask you to please reconsider your petition because it
constitutes an appeal to restrict that very freedom of speech that you
advocate.
Your call on the Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to condemn
the smearing of Professors Mearsheimer and Walt as “anti-Semites” is
fallacious. There has been no such smearing and your allegation misleads those
who are asked to sign the petition.
I ask you as an academic of stature, to re-read your serious allegation that
Mearsheimer and Walt were smeared as “anti-Semites” and judge whether the
manner in which it has been presented meets the academic standards of the great
university you represent. On reconsideration, I trust you will agree that
serious judgmental statements of this nature should not stand alone without
substantiation. You do a disservice to the signatories by imposing your
judgment in omitting to document examples of the statements to which you
object, with actual quotations in context, allowing the signatories to judge
whether or not they are "smears"
Even in his hard-hitting article in the Washington Post
,Eliot Cohen does not call the authors anti-Semitic. Taking your Webster
definition of anti-Semitism a stage further; he writes "If by
anti-Semitism one means obsessive and irrationally hostile beliefs about Jews;
if one accuses them of disloyalty, subversion or treachery, of having occult
powers and of participating in secret combinations that manipulate institutions
and governments; if one systematically selects everything unfair, ugly or wrong
about Jews as individuals or a group and equally systematically suppresses any
exculpatory information -- why, yes, this paper is anti-Semitic". Note he
refers to the paper not the authors. I do not believe you would deny the right
to express opinions of this nature, even if you disagree with them, especially
since you do not hesitate to use pejorative adjectives and cast abusive
epithets like calling peaceful demonstrators in Israel fascists.(Informed Opinion, July 26,2004)
In the response by Alan Dershowitz, to which you
refer I cannot find any statement accusing professors Mearsheimer and Walt of
anti-Semitism, though he does legitimately discuss anti-Semitism at some
length. The subject was unavoidable in view of the fact that, Mearsheimer and
Walt accuse the lobby of indiscriminately crying anti-Semitism. In this it seems
that they anticipated the substance of your petition.
The fact that Dershowitz draws attention to the
similarity between Mearsheimer and Walt’s allegations and those promulgated in
the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and in Nazi literature does not mean he is
accusing Mearsheimer and Walt of anti-Semitism. He is merely making a perfectly
valid, verifiable observation supported by copious footnotes.
Your appeal to suppress such observations by labeling them as accusations of
anti-Semitism, contradicts your support of free-speech. As you so rightly
stated in your petition, “Democracy requires free public debate of all
issues affecting the public weal”
Please withdraw your petition or, in all fairness, make the contents of this
letter available to the signatories.
I would appreciate your considered response which will be distributed on the
internet, as will this letter.
Sincerely,
Maurice Ostroff
--------------------------------------------------
7) Letter
of Ex-Student to
For background read: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20394_Terror_Enablers_at_Brandeis&only
The e-mail was sent to five of
Brandeis' top administration staff.
I got the email addresses and idea for the email from an anti-Semitic
Brandeis student's (Kevin Montgomery) blog. I then modified it to say the
exact opposite of what that Jew-hater was encouraging people to write....
To: terris@brandeis.edu
- Daniel S. Terris, director of the
International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life, who actively lobbied
for the artwork to be removed , and to:
jreinhar@brandeis.edu
– Jehuda Reinharz –
University President
sawyer@brandeis.edu
– Rick Sawyer, Dean of Student Life
alwina@brandeis.edu
– Alwina Bennet – Assistant
Dean of Student Life
jadams22@brandeis.edu
- Jamele Adams - Assistant Dean of Student Life in
Support of Diversity
Subject: Thanks for not supporting the
anti-Israel artwork on campus
I
am thrilled by the actions of the Brandeis Administration last weekend. The
Brandeis administration had a moral obligation to pull the anti-Israel
incitement masked as "paintings by Palestinian children", and was
right in doing so.
With the resurgence of anti-Semitism
throughout the world and on university campuses, it is imperative that Brandeis
remain an outpost against anti-Semitism and against hatred to
Such "artwork of Palestinian" children has
no place on Brandeis' campus.
When the Palestinians renounce violence and stop indoctrinating
their children with anti-Semitic, Nazi propaganda , then they will have earned the right to have their voices
heard. Until then, their voices of mere hatred have no place on any university
campus.
Sincerely,
S. R. Class of 1995
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8) LETTERS DO WORK!!!
April
26, 2006
Joy Wolfe, senior
letter-writer of
Re: its cancelling exhibit on Palestinian Terror:
---Original Message-----
From: Joy Wolfe [mailto:j.wolfe@dial.pipex.com]
Sent:
Subject: University cancels exhibit on Palestinian Terror
She attached the article about this down
below, and received this answer:
''Dear Ms. Wolfe:
Thank you for your note expressing concern over the proposed art
exhibit. President Spanier is out of town
and his schedule will make it unlikely that he can respond in a timely manner
so I am responding on his behalf, but I will be sure that he sees your note.
I certainly understand your concern, because there has been much confusion on
this issue in the media. First, and most importantly, the
"administration" does not condone censorship of artwork and had no
role in this matter. Indeed, we have worked diligently with the art
department to help find a way to ensure that the student has an opportunity to
display his work.
On
Monday the student was again notified by email and in person that the space was
available for his use the rest of this week and that two people from the department were
also available to help him set it up. I was informed last night that
the student does not feel ready to proceed at this time and would prefer to
wait until the fall. We have assured him that the University will
help to facilitate the exhibit whenever he is ready.
So let
me reiterate that in no way is
Again, thank you for writing. We appreciate your concern over this matter.
Sincerely,
Steve MacCarthy
Vice President for University Relations''
-------------------------------------------------------
======================================== ============
PSU censors exhibit By Jessica Remitz Collegian Staff Writer
www.
collegian. psu.
edu/archive/2006/04/04-21-06tdc/04-21-06dn ews-13. asp
For
Three days before his 10-piece exhibit -- Portraits of
Terror -- was scheduled to open at the
The exhibit, Stulman said, which is based mainly on the conflict in Palestinian
territories, raises questions concerning the destruction of Jewish religious
shrines, anti-Semitic propaganda and cartoons in Palestinian newspapers, the
disregard for rules of engagement and treatment of prisoners, and the
indoctrination of youth into terrorist acts.
"I'm being censored and the reason for censoring
me doesn't make sense," Stulman said.
Charles Garoian, professor
and director of the
The decision to cancel the exhibit came after
reviewing
Garoian could not be reached by The Daily Collegian for further comment by
press time yesterday.
"We always encourage those who are offended by
free speech to use their own constitutional right to free speech to make their
concerns known,"
Stulman said the exhibit, which is sponsored by Penn State Hillel,
aims to create awareness on campus about the senselessness of terrorism and
drew inspiration from images that have appeared in the public through newspapers
and television.
He said he was shocked at the university's decision to
cancel the exhibit and that he has tried to meet with Garoian
on numerous occasions to discuss his artwork.
"It's not about hate. I don't hate Muslims. This
is not about Islam," Stulman said. "This is
about terrorism impacting the Palestinian way of life and
Stulman said advertisements for the event were defaced in the Patterson and
Stulman, who is Jewish, said he felt threatened and abused by the Nazi symbol
and is concerned for his artwork and his personal well-being.
Garoian also wrote that exhibit space in the
Stulman said he created his paintings on his own and he approached Penn State Hillel in February to help with advertising costs and food
for the opening. He said the
"We don't have a political agenda except to
support the voice of Jewish students," he said.
Abramson said Hillel is
exploring other venues for Stulman's exhibits to
ensure his message does not go unnoticed.
"It's about opening eyes and challenging
viewpoints," Abramson said. "Artistic expression is the basis for
creativity -- but here, it was blocked."
--Collegian staff writers Meaghan
Haugh and Devon Lash contributed to this article.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
9) Letter to the IRISH TIMES - May 20, 2005
BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI COLLEGES
by John Harpur, Vice-President for Public Relations, Irish
Federation of University Teachers
Madam, - In a
controversial debate that has received little attention over here, the UK
Association of University Teachers (AUT) on April 22nd passed a motion at a
national AUT council meeting to boycott both Haifa and Bar iLan
universities.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is also a potential target.
The background to the AUT decision is a farrago of ideological analyses and
propaganda relating to the participation of certain Israeli institutions in the
management of the Palestinian issue. In reality
Due to an embedded anti-Semitism in European intellectual culture, it is nearly
impossible to raise rational arguments in defence of
If one recalls the deeply offensive Punch caricatures of "the Oirish" and the crude blanket generalisations
of the Irish in Britain as potential terrorists over the past 30 years, then
one can grasp some minute insight into the portrayal of Israel as replete with
people of one religious and one political persuasion bent on the creation of a
greater Judaea-Sumeria. Of course, the fact that
political life may be less homogenous than that is sometimes inconvenient to
acknowledge in cultures tuned to resonate to anti-Semitism.
It is a fact that there are political movements in
Of course, much of the material misery of the same population could be
ameliorated if the Arab "brothers" dug deep enough into their oil
wealth, as has the global Jewish Diaspora. In the absence of this, we are
treated to tantrums by the AUT.
If the same boycott logic had been applied to Irish colleges because of
individual staff identification with republicanism, would we have progressed to
the Belfast Agreement more slowly - if at all? Would the Republic be trumpeting
its Celtic Tiger legacy?
The end of dialogue marks the end of civility. Shame on the
AUT for supporting the ending of intellectual commerce with a nation that has
suffered so much indignity historically. - Yours, etc,
JOHN HARPUR,
Vice-President for Public Relations,
Irish Federation of University Teachers,