Solomonia Archive: University of Toronto Professors Whine, Cry, Stomp Feet

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

University of Toronto Professors Whine, Cry, Stomp Feet

Daniel Pipes will be giving a talk at the University of Toronto tonight. Here's from him:

I am giving a talk at the University of Toronto this evening, for the newly-established Middle East Forum club there. Some eighty professors have written a letter protesting my appearance and an article in today's Globe and Mail says my visit is causing an uproar among academics and students. (That article also contains glaring inaccuracies, such as my having said that Islam is the enemy in the war on terrorism.)

Should you be in the Toronto area and would like to attend, here are the specifics for the event:

Sponsor: Middle East Forum Club at the University of Toronto

Co-sponsor: Muslims for Israel

Topic: Radical Islam and the War on Terror

When: March 29, 2005, 7:00 pm

Where: Sam Sorbara Auditorium, Brennan Hall, St. Michaels College, University of Toronto

Cost: Gratis

Yours sincerely,
Daniel Pipes

The referenced letter from 80 Professors and grad students is a remarkable piece of dreck that screams out for comment.

Daniel Pipes has been invited to speak on "Radical Islam and the War on Terror" at the University of Toronto by a newly formed local chapter of his Middle East Forum -an organization that "promotes American interests in the Middle East" and monitors criticism of US and Israeli policies in the media and academia. We feel obliged to inform the university community and the residents of this city that Pipes is someone who has used freedom of speech in order to restrict the academic freedom of those whom he attacks from his position outside the academic world.

The Middle East Forum once singled out "unpatriotic professors" on its Campus Watch website, creating a list that challenged the basic principles of academic freedom and university autonomy. In the United States, Pipes has supported a bill introduced to Congress recently (H.R. 3077) that calls for establishing an International Higher Education Advisory Board with broad investigative powers "to study, monitor, appraise, and evaluate" activities of Middle East and other area studies. This means academic funding will no longer be offered on the basis of merit but on the basis of party politics. This severe violation of the autonomy of our colleagues in the US should be denounced by academics the world over...

This is typical of the Academic Ivory-Tower elites. They believe that academic freedom means freedom from criticism. They don't mind the silencing of dissenting views, as long as it is they who are doing the silencing - as they are trying to do here. Campus Watch is concerned with preventing the silencing and intimidation of what are minority views, and shining light on the campus thought-police. Not surprisingly, this is an uncomfortable situation for the PC deputies. Pipes's legislative efforts, so far as I know, are aimed at bringing accountability back to the academy, and accountability back to the tax money they receive. No shock that this is resisted by those who don't know where the line is between their teaching and their political-advocacy.

...Pipes has a long record of xenophobic, racist and sexist speech that goes back to 1990. After the end of the cold war, Pipes warned that "Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene.... all immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most" (National Review, Nov. 1990). In 2000 Pipes wrote of African-American Muslims, "black converts tend to hold vehemently anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic attitudes" (Commentary, June 2000). After the universally condemned rapes and tortures in Abu Ghraib prison came to light, Pipes felt it appropriate instead to explain that "Fear of Western erotic ways ends up constraining Muslim peoples in the political, economic, and cultural arenas. Sexual apprehensions constitute a key reason for Islam's trauma in the modern era" (New York Sun, May 2004)...

The first quote is so badly out of context and mischaracterized that someone should check the academic credentials of the people who signed on to this letter. In fact, Pipes, in that quote, is rendering a description of European attitudes, not a prescription for what they should be. You can read the entire article here. It is as fresh today as it was when it was written 15 years ago, reinforcing the fact that Pipes is someone to seek out, not to shun. The second two quotes are hardly even controversial, are they? Describing the truth is no longer acceptable speech at the modern Canadian University, it appears.

The best is saved for the wrap-up, of course:

...Genuine academic debate requires an open and free exchange of ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect and tolerance. We, the undersigned -professors, librarians, and students-are committed to academic freedom and we affirm Pipes' right to speak at our university. However, we strongly believe that hate, prejudice, and fear-mongering have no place on this campus.

Can anyone translate that for me? Are they trying to silence Pipes or not? We believe in freedom of speech and affirm Pipes' right to speak, but hate, prejudice, and fear-mongering - all of which they are presumably ascribing to Pipes - have no place here. Huh? They excoriate Pipes for supposedly trying to silence views he finds objectionable, and the fact is that they'd like nothing more than to silence him, but of course, they can't come right out and say that. The entire contradiction and dishonesty in their own position leaves it bearing no substance and no sense. These are politicians with axes to grind and turf to protect, not academics.

If you're in the Toronto area, go give the guy your support.

Posted by Solomon at 4:52 PM on Tuesday, Mar 29, 2005 | Comments (3)
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3 Comments

#1 Larry | March 29, 2005 6:31 PM

Going to see him in a few in NYC.
You need to eliminate the indent on the left side, it makes the middle way to narrow. Move everything indexed over to the top and the right side.
Also, you owe me a hat tip for the Glick article.
I also emailed the Schick article in that email. What did you think of his piece?

#2 Solomon | March 29, 2005 6:47 PM

Yeah, hat tip to you. And sorry, I like my blog like my women - with a narrow body...bwahahahah (for now, till I get sick of it - like my women...bwahahahaha). I thought the Schick piece was good, although I only had a chance to skim it.

#3 celestial blue | March 30, 2005 12:08 PM

drat! too bad I saw this a day late.. I could have gone to this.