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Fifth Column
YIKES!
2003-11-07
More about the Fund Haman, Hang Esther conference. Hat tip LGF.
On November 7-9, Ohio State University is planning to host the Third National Conference On Palestine Solidarity.
Ohio State? You mean they do something besides play football?
The second conference held at the University of Michigan last year featured Sami al-Arian as its honored keynote speaker. Al-Arian is one of three founding heads of Palestinian Islamic Jihad – a terrorist organization that is responsible for the suicide bombings of 99 innocent, men women and children, including several Americans. Al-Arian, who is a hero to the organizers of the Ohio State conference, cannot attend this year because he has been indicted and arrested for his crimes and is in federal lockdown.
In the clink? Good.
Fadi Kiblawi, head of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), the sponsor of the Michigan Conference declared in a Michigan student publication his desire “to strap a bomb to one’s chest and kill . . . . The enemy is not just overseas, the enemy is also amongst us.”
"Heil!"
The organizer of this year’s Ohio State event is the Palestine Solidarity Movement, which is a shadowy organization allied with the International Solidarity Movement, an active collaborator with terrorists in the Middle East (an Islamic jihad terrorist militant was even arrested hiding in ISM offices in Jenin). The ISM supports the terrorists’ political agendas, including their opposition to the peace process and their call for the destruction of the state of Israel. One of the three founders of ISM is Ghassan Andoni, whose tour company made the travel arrangements for two London-based Islamic suicide bombers who killed three innocent civilians at a music bar in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2003. The conference is scheduled to open with a panel called “Towards A Global Intifada,” in other words a global terrorist war.
These people only know one song, don't they?
Questions for Members of the Academic Community at Ohio State
  • Is a recruiting rally for terrorists and their solidarity supporters an appropriate event for sponsorship by an institution dedicated to higher learning?

  • Would members of the Ohio State community, for example, consider it appropriate for the university to host a Ku Klux Klan conference on race relations?

  • Does Ohio State University have a responsibility to its students, which would preclude the hosting of events that support terrorism and hate?
    "Anyone?" *crickets*
One of the prime tenets of academic freedom is respect for the uncertainty of human knowledge and human truth. Civility and respect for all people and a dispassionate examination of all ideas should be the hallmark of an academic institution. Therefore it is a vital task of institutions of higher learning to make sure that all propositions in an academic setting be subject to examination and questioning, and that diverse intellectual viewpoints be present, especially in matters that are inherently controversial.
Of course, that would kind of show the students the truth about the WoT and the way the world works, so intellectuals need not appear.
The Third National Conference On Palestine Solidarity does not meet these criteria. It is not an academic conference. The charade in which the university participates by hosting the event is destructive to the academic atmosphere at Ohio State and a disservice to its student community.
Not to mention pro-Holocaust.
A university is not a political party, and an education should not be an indoctrination. A university should be a place for examining ideas not hectoring students into submitting to them. Universities like Ohio State need to defend the integrity of their educational mission by drawing a sharp distinction between the university as a place of questioning dialogue, and the political arena with its sound-bite mentality, vitriolic address and (as in the present case) often violent agendas.
Posted by:Atrus

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Posted by: somewherenorth   2003-11-7 11:28:02 PM  

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Posted by: tu3031   2003-11-7 4:52:00 PM  

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Posted by: remote man   2003-11-7 4:06:30 PM  

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Posted by: mojo   2003-11-7 3:47:10 PM  

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Posted by: Charles   2003-11-7 3:39:55 PM  

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