Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Review

January 8 – 15, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk

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Iran arrests father of U.S. think tank scholar
Laura Rozen, Politico, 1/14
When Tenure Means Nothing
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 1/14
Academy’s freedoms threatened as libel law lands scholars in dock
Zoe Corbyn, Times Higher Education, 1/14
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Qantara: Mediterranean Heritage

I  just wanted to take a moment to point out this site, which I just discovered tonight.  It is a fantastic pedagogical resource, interactive and rich in media.  The interactive maps are particularly particularly fun, but there is all kinds of rich media.

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The Qantara project is part of the Euromed Heritage programme, which hopes to contribute to mutual understanding and dialogue between Mediterranean cultures by highlighting their cultural heritage. It aims to encourage intercultural dialogue by supporting the preservation and promotion of the shared historical and cultural heritage of the Euromed region, through human, scientific and technological exchanges…

The Qantara Project is a reflection of the Institut du Monde Arabe in its pursuit of openness and peace, in its modern and multimedia format that targets specialists and non-specialists alike, and in terms of its organisation, which unites several partner countries – Algeria, France, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, and Spain – as well as a guest country, Egypt. Qantara’s goal is to build or rather consolidate the bridge between the North and South, and the East and West of the Mediterranean.

"The Boy from Lebanon" or "The Killer Kid"?

A good percentage of the entries I write for this blog end up being here totally by accident, and that is the case with this one. I watched a film last night called The Boy from Lebanon. It’s a pretty powerful and intense film, though problematic. One way that it is so is that it is presented as a true story, but doesn’t appear to be so. So I went online to check that out. While doing so I found comments on YouTube preview clips that I wanted to respond to, so I went back after finishing my quick research and wrote them up. I did so, finished what I had to say, clicked on enter and wanted to go on. But by then my entry was too long and it wasn’t accepted.

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Paranoia about Islam in the West

In the opinion of Arlington (Tennessee) Mayor Russell Wiseman, President Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday night on the war in Afghanistan was deliberately timed to block the Christian message of the “Peanuts” television Christmas special.
Wiseman made the statements on his Facebook page, where he declared Obama to be a Muslim. Only people on Wiseman’s “friend’s list” had access to the post. He has more than 1,600 friends on Facebook.
–via The Commercial Appeal

Before I get to the main reason why I am writing today, let me address the good Mayor’s comment that President Obama is a Muslim. He has said time and time again that he is not, but even if he is lying, take a look at his behavior. He eats pork, drinks alcohol, consorts with folks of all faiths, goes to a Christian church and never prays. He’s a very bad Muslim, if he is. More than that, he preempted the Peanuts Christmas Special to order 30,000 troops into a Muslim country! With friends like that….
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Swiss Minarets, Islamic Feminism and Clash of Civilizations

Right Wing Posters on the Streets of Switzerland

Right Wing Posters on the Streets of Switzerland


Swiss voters approved a ban on construction of new minarets today, a surprise result certain to embarrass the country’s neutral government.
The Swiss news agency ATS and other media said about 57.5 per cent of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the Right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP).
The government and parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the country’s constitution, freedom of religion and the country’s cherished tradition of tolerance.
The government had said a ban could ‘serve the interests of extremist circles’.
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Academic Freedom Media Review, October 23-30

Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Israel Deports a Bethlehem U. Student Because She Is From Gaza
Matthew Kalman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/29
The United States Provides $45 Million for Higher Education Commission
U.S. Department of State, 10/29
Academia and its Discontents
Jia Ahmad, Nneka McGuire and Nicholas Wong, Columbia Spectator, 10/29
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Pensylvania Representative Kills Domestic Violence Resolution Because it Supports Homosexual Agenda

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that last week the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives was set to turn out a seemingly uncontroversial resolution declaring October Domestic Violence Month because to do so would support a homosexual agenda.

The state House of Representatives churns out uncontroversial resolutions every week to commemorate the dead, honor people’s achievements, raise awareness of health issues, and recognize things important to Pennsylvania, such as pretzels.
So it took many people by surprise when a resolution designating October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month was derailed Wednesday by Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler), who claimed it “had a homosexual agenda.”
The Western Pennsylvania legislator said he detected that agenda in this phrase: “one in six women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.”

Metcalf insisted that the resolution not go forward unless the gender of perpetrators and victims was specified.
I don’t know which to be angry about first, the homophobia or the disdain for victims of domestic violence Metcalf exhibits. The vast majority of cases do involve violence by men directed at women, but not all. Women can be abusers too and we should be careful to to stigmatize the man who might be the victim of violence from his wife, or partner of whatever gender. There are many kinds of domestic violence, involving married couples and couples simply in a relationship, involving parents or other adults and children, and even involving children and other children. Or does Metcalfe also see abuse as a “privilege” which, like marriage, is to be reserved for heterosexuals?
But Metcalfe has a history of revealing his prejudice by blocking resolutions that have little real impact, almost as if he wants to go our of his way to demonstrate his intolerance and rigidity. In 2008 he blocked a resolution recognizing the 60th annual convention in Harrisburg, PA of the U.S. chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a community with the mantra, “Love for All, Hatred for None,” because “the Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as God.” That’s pretty shocking. By that logic, the US should never honor anyone or anything Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, etc.

A Jewish lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Babette Josephs of Philadelphia, also protested and said she would seek to have Metcalfe’s remarks stricken from the official record.
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“I wonder what I would not also qualify for — being on the floor myself?” she said later. “Having the right to vote? Having the right to practice my religion? That’s what I was responding to. And we have other people who are not Jewish and not Christian on the floor — some elected, some not.”

Mr. Metcalf needs to meet Mr Ali from the state legislature in Maryland.
Frustration with this kind of record has led to the establishment of the Dump Daryl Metcalfe web site.

These informational web sites are part of a campaign to educate the voters and expose Pennsylvania state representative Daryl Metcalfe’s fear mongering and the other tactics he and his campaign use against citizens of the 12th District of Pennsylvania. All of the items listed under public outrage are previously published “letters to the editor” and/or articles from the public.

Politics, recently, has gotten increasingly mean and, it is sad to say, the meanness most often comes from the Christian right. It’s not very Christ like, is it.

Taqwacore?

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New Book: Africa's Islamic Experience

Africa's Islamic Experience

Africa's Islamic Experience


Please allow me a bit of shameless self promotion. A new book has been published, and I am one of the editors: Africa’s Islamic Experience: History, Culture and Politics. The title is self explanatory. It is a collection of essays that I had the pleasure of working on while a graduate assistant at the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University.
I received my copy in the mail today, totally by surprise. It was sent to me the Institute’s director and founder, distinguished, renowned and sometimes controversial scholar, Ali A. In the Growing Pains of Adrian cialis professional online Mole, his mother remarks “Why can’t your room resemble a teenager’s with knickers on the floor. Nervous System: The most important part of the body is over- stressed a hormone known as cortisol is cheap levitra 20mg released into the blood stream. Commonly observed ones, especially with excessive cheapest cialis usage, include anxiety, insomnia, restlessness and even fever. Although this sounds a kind of far-fetched, there is actually something pill viagra for sale true to this claim. Mazrui. I am sure that professor Mazrui wouldn’t mind my including the adjective “controversial” in a description of him, as he very rarely shies away from taking a stand when he is convinced of its truth.  One adjective I didn’t include in that description because it doesn’t define him so much as a scholar as it does a man, is gentlemanly. He showed that countless times since I have known him, and receiving this book today is evidence once again.
I was only involved in this book in the early stages, but I put in a lot of work, both on the conference and on the essays, and was very proud of that work.  Anyone who has ever been a graduate student knows that many, perhaps most professors, would not acknowledge a graduate students work in this way, especially so long after he has finished his degree.  But Dr. Mazrui is generous in that way.  Because he allowed me and other graduate students to participate so centrally in the activities of the Institute and so closely with him, I dare say that my brief time at IGCS was as central to my intellectual development as any course I took and my interactions with most of my other professors.