Posted on 06/11/2002 5:33:56 PM PDT by Fzob
Commentary: Harvard loves jihad
By DANIEL PIPES
PHILADELPHIA, June 11 (UPI) -- Imagine the month is June and the year is 1942 -- just a few months after Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States. It's commencement time at Harvard University and a faculty committee has chosen a German-American to give one of three student orations at the festive ceremony. He titles his talk "American Kampf," purposefully echoing the title of Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf" --"My Struggle" -- in order to show the positive side of "Kampf."
The talk prompts protests but a Harvard dean defends the planned talk as a "thoughtful oration" that defines the concept of Kampf as a personal struggle "to promote justice and understanding in ourselves and in our society." The dean promises "the audience will find his oration, as did all the Harvard judges, a light of hope and reason in a world often darkened by distrust and conflict."
When it turns out that the student is past president of the Harvard German Society, a group with a pro-Nazi taint, the university administration is still not bothered. Nor is it perturbed that he praised a Nazi front group -- one shut down by the U.S. president, no less -- for its "incredible work" as well as its "professionalism, compassion and dedication to helping people in dire need," then raised money for it.
Sound far-fetched? It sure is. But exactly this scenario unfolded within the past month at Harvard. Just replace "German," "Nazi," and "Kampf" with "Islamic" "militant Islamic," and "jihad."
Faculty members chose Zayed Yasin, 22, past president of the Harvard Islamic Society, to deliver a commencement address. Yasin earlier had sung the praises of and raised money for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a militant Islamic organization closed down by President George W. Bush.
Yasin titled his talk "American Jihad," echoing Osama bin Laden's jihad against the United States. Curiously, both "Kampf" and "jihad" translate as "a struggle." Yasin declared an intention to convince his audience of 32,000 into believing that "Jihad is not something that should make someone feel uncomfortable."
Oh no? The authoritative "Encyclopedia of Islam" begs to differ, defining jihad as "military action with the object of the expansion of Islam" and finding that it "has principally an offensive character." The scholar Bat Ye'or explains for non-Muslims that this has meant through history "war, dispossession, dhimmitude, slavery, and death."
Jihad does indeed sound like "something that should make someone feel uncomfortable."
Sadly, this commencement episode is not an aberration but indicative of two important developments at Harvard.
"Apologizing for militant Islam." Hiding jihad's awful legacy of is standard operating procedure. A professor of Islamic history portrays jihad as "a struggle without arms." The Harvard Islamic Society's faculty adviser defines true jihad as no more fearsome than "to do good in society." All this is part of a pattern of pretending Islam had nothing to do with Sept. 11.
"Neutral in wartime." Harvard appears neutral in the current war, as Pat Collins points out. Take the example of Hamas: While Bush has called it "one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today," a Harvard spokesman replies "no comment" when asked if the group is a terrorist organization, and the university has allowed fundraising on its premises on behalf of Hamas. Even today, militant Islamic groups have full access to university facilities and the right to advertise their activities.
Oh, and Harvard has two fellowships endowed by Osama bin Laden's family, each worth $1 million.
Contrarily, the Reserve Officers Training Corps, a training program for the U.S. armed forces, is the only student group at Harvard to be prohibited access to university facilities. Students enrolled in ROTC must travel to another university for classes. It is disallowed from advertising its activities.
Unfortunately, Harvard's stance is typical of nearly all North America universities. Almost every Middle East specialist hides the truth about jihad and, as shown by a chilling report from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, "Defending Civilization," almost every campus drips contempt for the U.S. war effort. One typical statement reads: "The best way to begin a war on terrorism might be to look in the mirror."
"You are with us, or you are against us:" Harvard and other universities need to look hard into their soul and decide on which side they stand.
(Daniel Pipes -- www.DanielPipes.org -- is director of the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia. He received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard and taught history there.
--
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
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Here a Jihad
There a Jihad
Everywhere a Jihad
Old Mohammed had a sword ......
Boom
ee ii ee ii oh
And with this sword he killed some guys
ee ii ee ii oh
With Jihad here
And a Jihad there...
Ok, that ends NOW! I wonder if Harvard would be so open minded and diverse and all that crap had the Mohammedians killed the Klintoons or nuked Berkley, Kalif, USSA. Bet they'd declared "secular war" on Islam had that happened.
"Your supposed right to destroy yourself infringes on my right to pursue happiness, being sad at having to sit by and watch people needlessly suffer and die. When you abrogate the unalienable right to life, doing so abrogates my unalienble right to pursue happiness, being sad at watching people needlessly suffer and die." -The Forecastle
Welcome back tpaine. How are you doing after your recent bout with sobriety? We hope the dog's ribs are healing okay.
14 posted on 6/11/02 7:12 PM Pacific by Cultural Jihad
I see a delusional mention of my 'sobriety', & and the inference that I kicked my dog. -- Now, you are crazy, of course - we all know that, --- but are you this far gone ?
When a cannon ball is fired, science can accurately predict where it will land, how long it takes to get there, what impact it will have, etc. It can be replicated time and time again, and the same results can be derived. This ability of science does not carry over when studying people, though. The humanist understanding of human nature is not a hard science, but rather a soft science. It has little real understanding of the human condition. When the humanists try to fathom something as complex as human nature, they can be compared to modern chemistry back when it was called 'alchemy.' But we are not completely in the dark about human nature, though. Religion has been called the Science of the Soul, and has a highly developed understanding of human nature. The most ignorant of medieval peasant knew much more about the human condition than the most learned of modern professor who denies the existence of God and the devil. Modern science has no explanation for something so basic to human nature as why a child loves its mother, much less something as complex as the love between a creature and its Creator. Spare me the hubris which emanates from the so-called Doctors of the Soft Sciences!" - CJ
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