Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Via a comment to this post, I find out that tomorrow evening, the NLG is going to give an award to Northeastern Professor M. Shahid Alam. You remember Professor Alam? He's the guy who wrote an essay likening the Founding Fathers to the 9/11 terrorists (see posts here and here), responded to his critics thus: "Why is it that the only hateful mail I have received is signed by Levitt, Hoch or Freedman?" and then went crying to Counterpunch to complain that he's being persecuted.
Now, I don't approve in anyone silencing the professor. Criticize him, let him know what you think of his views - even stridently? Yes. Silence him? No.
But does he deserve an award? Absolutely not.
Northeastern Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild to Present Free Speech Award to M. Shahid Alam.
BOSTON, February 14, 2005 - The Northeastern University School of Law Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild will present its Free Speech Award to M. Shahid Alam on Thursday, February 17, 2005, at 12:15 pm in the Law School’s Brown Lounge.
Dr. Alam is a Professor of Economics at Northeastern University. He has written extensively on issues ranging from global economics to international development. He is the author of three books, including Governments and Markets in Economic Development Strategies (Praeger: 1989), Poverty from the Wealth of Nations (Macmillan: 2000), and, most recently, Is There an Islamic Problem? (The Other Press: 2004). In addition, Dr. Alam’s essays have been widely printed in a number of academic journals, including American Economic Review, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Science and Society, Kyklos, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Southern Economic Journal and Journal of Development Economics.
"Dr. Alam has been singled out and had his loyalty to America questioned by conservative commentators like Bill O’Reilly," explained Bina Ahmad, a third-year law student at Northeastern Law and member of the National Lawyers Guild. "Daniel Pipes of Campus Watch ? an organization that claims on its website to respect professors’ right to free speech ? goes on national television and calls Dr. Alam a ‘radical Muslim’ and a ‘bomb thrower’ with ‘venom towards’ America," she continued. "These are outrageous allegations based on a selective and distorted reading of Dr. Alam’s writings. Additionally, Dr. Alam has been the target of physical threats and harassment after excerpts from one of his recent essays were posted on websites of known, extreme right-wing organizations."...
Ah yes, it's only those evil Right-Wingers who could possibly have a quarrel with Alam's thesis and anti-Semitism. Hey you men and women "of the Left," I think this guy is insulting you!
It certainly must be possible to defend Dr. Alam's right to speak without endorsing what he's said. But, of course, such a line of separation is not of interested to the National Lawyers Guild.
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So he's getting the award because his work "epitomizes the type of thought and expression that the First Amendment protects" eh? Wonder what they'd say if someone said that men and women weren't totally the same and each was better at one thing than another? Oh wait, we know the answer to that one....
And of course we know that the National Lawyers Guild is just about a communist front organization. These people are a bunch of Fifth Columnists
The National Lawyer's Guild is not the ABA. More like the ISO. Also haters of Israel.
The world's gone mad today,
and good's bad today,
and day's night today.....
Heaven knows, anything goes!