The Controversy Surrounding Dnesh Dsouza

Everywhere he goes, Dnesh Dsouza has been a lighting rod for controversy. In April, he came to the Binghamton University campus in upstate New York where he was faced with an army of protesting students who repeated chants of him being racist. Police were needed at the event to make sure that the protesters didn't get out of hand. Dnesh Dsouza is by no means a crackpot. He is in fact one of the most intelligent people in the nation, having served in President Reagan's cabinet as a foreign policy advisor and he has written 6 books, not to mention spoken on college campuses and cities throughout the country.

The event on the Binghamton University campus was oddly enough sponsored by the school's Arts and Science College, whose dean is a sociology professor and whose views are perhaps the exact opposite at Dsouza. However, when the College Republicans organization on the Binghamton University campus brought the speaker event to the school's attention, the money was provided for the event so that a different set of opinions could be expressed on the college campus, which is one of the more liberal schools in the country.

Dsouza gets so much attention because of his views on the Muslim word and the Islam religion which he speaks so prevalently about. Dsouza is not one to bite his tongue on what he says, outright admitting that we are in the Iraq war for their oil. But Dsouza will also tell you that we are in Iraq not for the commonly stated reasons of fighting terrorism or making the world safe for democracy. Dsouza believes, and thoroughly backs up his claim with mountains of evidence, that our presence in Iraq has deterred Iran's nuclear program, stating that our Iraq invasion occurred in 2003, the same year that Iran stopped their nuclear program. Dsouza will also tell you that if the United States were to leave Iraq, that the al Queda presence in Iran would take over Al Queda and turn it into a radical fundamentalist state, much like Iran is today. He cites President Carter's blunder of lettering Iran become a fundamentalist state and says that the problem with the Middle East is not the American presence there, or the fact that we want their oil, or our support of Israel, or even the spread of democracy. Dsouza points to the American "liberal" culture as he describes it, as the reason for the 9/11 attacks, and the previous attacks on America with the USS Cole and embassy bombings.

Dsouza claims that America's popular culture that the Muslim world sees and hears with cursing, nudity, celebrity life, material wealth, etc is the one that infuriates the Muslim world; one that they see as a threat to their way of life. As Dsouza says, its not that the suicide bombers believe in their cause or hate their life so much as it is that the suicide bombers hate America more. Dsouza points to America's culture, which has been spreading throughout the world as the reason for the hatred against America more so than any other country in the world.

Dsouza spoke in length about bringing democracy to Iraq as a way of combating Al Queda and Islamic extremism. Citing statistics, that less than 20% of the Iraqi people are fighting the U.S., Dsouza believes that the U.S must stay in Iraq until the country can govern itself.

Perhaps Dsouza is most famous for the line, "Some cultures are better than others," stating that America has the best culture in the world, a claim that has angered many people. Dsouza is himself an immigrant and states that the biggest thing an immigrant can do is leave his or her home country, leaving their friends and family behind, to permanently move to another country for a better life. It is the action of moving to another country which explains why America is the best culture, having the world's biggest immigrant population. Dsouza also explains that it is the American culture in which a person can do anything and be anything that they want which is why it is also the best; as he compares the arranged marriages and caste system he had in India to his life in America.