Student Intimidation by Instructors in Higher Education

The quality of education a student receives is difficult to assess. What one learns depends on many factors, the individual's inherent intelligence, the effort they apply, the overall educational environment and their teachers.

My last article "Muslims Student Associations" (MSA) demonstrated the MSA's patterns of demands, incidents of disruptions and leanings toward Islamic extremism. With these groups in over 1000 universities in Canada and the United States it is reasonable to assume that there are universities that either condone or ignore their behavior thereby conceding to their demands. The quality of education non-Muslim students receive at these universities may well be impacted by the MSA actions. This article is concerned with the instructors, and therefore, their influence on students.

In October 2006, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that Kevin Barrett, a University of Wisconsin instructor, claimed that the U.S. Government is responsible for the 9/11 disasters and that America is equivalent to Nazi Germany. ADL states that Barrett also uses a textbook that equates President George W. Bush with Adolph Hitler and also bashes Israel. This appears to be the professor's personal bias beyond the scoop of the course.

Hatem Bazian, a professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religious Studies at the University of California Berkeley, is a Palestinian native. Which in itself does not cause concern. However his actions clearly lean to the extreme.

As a result of Bazian's biased and inflammatory remarks at a "cultural assembly" at the San Francisco's George Washington High School the administration sent a letter of apology to the public. Bazian's presentation included a song comparing Zionists to Nazis and had students run around with Palestinian flags. Do you think it possible that Bazain fosters such extreme behavior in his classroom?

Professor John Esposito of Georgetown University displays his leaning when defending individuals such as Azzam Tamimi, who told a crowd in the UK that dying as a martyr is right. Esposito also defends Esam Omeish M.D., who in a Washington D.C. rally stated, "you have known the Jihad ways the way to liberate your land." Omeidh has also been taped on videos defending radical Islam.

Then you have Professor Joel Beinin, of Stanford University, and historian who was a keynote speaker at a Muslim Student Association (MSA) annual conference. Professor Beinin blames America for 9/11 and bashes Zionism.

Other than sitting in a classroom to get a feeling of potential improper bias by an instructor, you need to talk to the students. This is exactly what the David Project has done. The Project has prepared a 40-minute documentary "Columbia Unbecoming."

"Columbia Unbecoming" shows interviews with fourteen Columbia University students and graduates describing their feelings of being subjected to instructor bias on the Arab--Israeli issue. All of the professors named by students are in Columbia's Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC.)

One student, a former Israeli soldier, claims Professor Joseph Massad asked how many Palestinians he killed. In another situation a woman stated that Professor Massad stated, "The Jews are not a nation. The Jewish state is a racist state and does not have the right to exist." To read a transcript of "Columbia Unbecoming." http://www.columbiaunbecoming.com/script.htm.

Another student reported that George Saliba, a professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University, told her she had no claim to the land of Israel, because-unlike him-she had green eyes, and therefore was "not a Semite."

We may disagree with someone's opinion however we should defend his or her right to be heard. However there needs to be limitations as to what extent instructors may force their personal bias. My opinion is that intimidation and insults should not be allowed.

There are many instances across the country where students have claimed they were subjected to biased intimidation by instructors. You may ask what can we do to correct such injustices? Well, when you identify an institution, notify them that you will not donate to any environment that allows intimidation by instructors.
Do you want to subject your children to intimidation? Remember. "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people do nothing."