O'Reilly and the wing-nuts are on the hunt for any professors who aren't sufficiently "patriotically correct," as M. Shahid Alam writes on Counterpunch:
Full details and contact info in extended entry.
February 2, 2005
O'Reilly's Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors
FoxNews Puts Me In Its Crosshairs
By M. SHAHID ALAM
I published an
essay, "America and Islam:
Seeking Parallels," in Counterpunch on December 29, 2004.
A day later, I began to receive nasty and threatening emails,
all at once. These were orchestrated by a www.littlegreenfootballs.com.
Shortly thereafter, other right-wing websites got into act,
posting excerpts from the essay; these included
jihadwatch.org, campuswatch.org, frontpagemag.com,
freerepublic.com, etc. The messages posted on these websites
were equally vicious, and some of them, containing explicit
death threats, were 'kindly' forwarded to me.
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What did I say in this essay? I made two points. First, that
the 9-11 attacks were an Islamist insurgency: the attackers
believe that they are fighting--as the Americans did, in the
1770s--for their freedom and dignity against a
foreign occupation/control
of their lands. Secondly, I argue that these attacks
were the result of a massive political failure of
Muslims to resist their tyrannies locally. It was a
mistake to attack the US.
I followed the first essay with a second one, "Testing Free Speech In America,"
where I elaborate on the points I had made earlier. This too
was published in Counterpunch.Org on Jan 1/2, 2005.
The emails to me and the University continued for another two
weeks, eventually tapering off. In the meanwhile, I was
speaking to people at the ACLU, Boston, and the ADC, Boston.
On the suggestion of the ACLU, I contacted the campus police
and the police in my hometown to let them know about the
death threats posted against me.
I had a feeling this was not the end of the matter. So
yesterday, February 1, I received an email from Fox News
asking for a TV interview; they were producing a program "on
me." At this point, I spoke to people at ACLU who advised me
against going on the program. I received the same advice from
other friends. I wrote back to Fox saying I could not do the
interview but would be glad to answer any questions. They did
not take me up on my offer. Clearly, this would not help them
in their designs against me.
It appears that Bill O'Reilly is doing a series on
'unAmerican' professors on US campuses. Last night, my wife
tells me, he did a piece on Ward Churchill. Tonight will be
my turn. I expect he will make all kinds of outlandish
accusations that will resonate well with the left- and
Muslim-hating members of his audience. This will generate
calls and emails to Northeastern and to me -- containing
threats, calls for firing me, and threats to withhold
donations. I am not sure how well NU will stand up against
this barrage.
If we can generate a matching volume of emails, letters and
call to NU supporting my right to free speech, it might be
helpful.
What else can we do?
The contact information for President Richard Freeland is
available
at:
http://155.33.227.141/president/letters.nclk
Contact for Provots and Senior VP for Academic Affairs:
Ahmed Abdelal
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
112 Hayden Hall
(617) 373-4517
a.abdelal@neu.edu
The contacts for the leading people in the President's office
are
available here:
http://www.president.neu.edu/cabinet.html
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
James Stellar
100 Meserve Hall
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
ja.stellar@neu.edu
(617) 373-3980
M. Shahid Alam, professor
of economics at Northeastern University, is a regular
contributor to CounterPunch.org. Some of his CounterPunch
essays are now available in a book, Is There An Islamic
Problem (Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press, 2004). He may
be reached at m.alam@neu.edu.