• home
• about
• shop
• archive
• tumblr
• photos
• contact

What Bollinger Could Learn From Edward Said (And Berkeley!)

by HijabMan :: posted 12 October 07

So as many of you already know, a couple weeks ago the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at Columbia University. Prior to giving his speech, however, the University President, Lee Bollinger . (If you haven’t already seen it, here is Part 1 & Part 2 )

While many applaud Bollinger’s tearing into Ahmadinejad, I, along with many others think it was quite silly of him, to first invite a speaker, and then use that opportunity to basically throw eggs at him. In the words of my dear friend Sajida, it’s like saying “We believe in free speech, but we will, in our own way, silence you before you even start because we don’t agree with you.”

Needless to say, I think he could use some wisdom from the late Edward Said:

“I dont think universities are places where social and political problems can be solved, I’ve never believed that, I’ve never taught the Middle East in my own life but i think they are an important place for the open and free discussion of ideas and where controversy ought not to be shied away from. I think its a very good thing to debate matters in a polarized and polemical way so long as it’s understood that it’s still within the community of learning and investigation. But the idea of not listening to somebody because we don’t like their ideas or not having a speaker because he or she doesn’t say the right thing, or not wanting to hear unpopular opinions. All of that, I think, is the worst thing for a university and very often our universities have been shy; not Berkeley.”

- Edward Said @ UCBerkeley, 2/19/03

To make matters a little more interesting, there have been several incidents of racist graffiti as well as reports of a noose hanging from an African-American professor’s door at Columbia this past week. The fascinating thing is, in two separate incidents, there appeared to be both Anti-Semitic & Anti-Muslim graffiti.

President Bollinger only responded after the anti-Semitic graffiti appeared, a couple weeks after the anti-Muslim stuff, and didn’t mention anything about Islamophobia. Sajida Jalalzai thought this was kind of peculiar, and has sent a letter to President Bollinger:

Dear President Bollinger,

Thank you for your E Mail. I am deeply troubled and saddened by this incident of intimidation, and am thankful that you have responded so quickly and adeptly.

However, I am deeply incensed that you did not send out a similar E-Mail two weeks ago when anti-Muslim graffiti was found on a
bathroom stall at SIPA. According to the Muslim Student Association, you were asked to submit a statement regarding this incident, yet you did nothing. This act was just as “destructive” and offensive, but your silence, (especially after MSA requests for a statement) ignores the pain of every Muslim at Columbia. Not only was the graffiti a hate crime, your (lack of) response is all the more worrying and destructive. In fact, the attempt to cover up the incident may be construed as supporting the crime.

Your immediate response to the incidents of yesterday and today
leads me to believe that you do not care about hate crimes against
the Muslim community, and that we do not count. Do the Muslims at Columbia need to stage our own rally to get your attention?

I went to the rally yesterday to demonstrate against the hate crime committed against Professor Constantine. I would be happy to demonstrate against this act of anti-Semitism. A hate crime is a
hate crime, no matter which community is victimized. However, I am hurt by the fact that the crime against my community was not even acknowledged by you or any officials at Columbia. This makes me feel that the Muslim community is either invisible, or worse, unimportant to you.

I hope my allegations are unfounded and that you will respond to
issues addressed in this E Mail.

Regards,

Sajida Jalalzai

I hope her allegations are unfounded too. And just in case it ain’t clear, I, like Sajida, as a Muslim, condemn all racism, whether it be targeted towards African-Americans, Muslims, Jews, or even Purple people.

Update: 1. Controversy also surrounds Columbia’s participation in Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. The main event of this series will include a speech by conservative author, David Horowitz. IFAW is being held in protest of the idea that “Anyone who links Islamic radicalism to the terrorist campaigns that are being waged against America, Europe and Israel and against non-radical Muslims in places such as Darfur, is automatically labeled an Islamophobe.

2. And in other news, the Empire State Building will be lit green tonight to commemorate Eid-ul-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

3. Sajida Jalalzai, mentioned above, will be the Muslim-A-Day, tomorrow, God willing.

What a funky little world we live in!

| share on delicious | digg | reddit | facebook | stumbleupon |

Related Articles
Being Conscious/Grateful on Valentine's Day
KG: Iran?
White, Non-Muslim Terrorists? What a Preposterous Idea!
Ellison to Use Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an
ABCNews messes up map of Israel & The Occupied Territories

1. Zeynab at 13 October 07 :: #

   Thank you for posting something about this! I wrote something about this for Racialicious, and I too thought it was not just silly, but incredibly disrespectful and offensive, to invite a government official and then call him names! I thought it just made Columbia look bad and boosted Ahmedinejad’s image to those who idolize him for “standing up” to “the West” (and/or Bush).

2. baji at 14 October 07 :: #

   eid mubarak, hijabman!