The Mind of Mamdani

The DePaul "Town Hall Meeting", was filmed for NPR's upcoming series, America at a Crossroads. (April 15-20 on WFMT Ch 11 in Chicago, and around the country). (Previous post here with details on the participants.) The room was full, people were well-behaved, and Bill Kurtis moderated.

I credit NPR and DePaul with good intentions, but why this panel? It was not representative, for those who claim to be concerned about such things, and was not surprisingly very disappointing from the standpoint of a good debate. The subject was Islam: Image and Reality. There wasn't too much discussion of that, it was pretty much 2 of the other 3 (Atwan and Mamdani) panelists taking potshots at America and at Richard Perle, revolving around Iraq. Toward the end they started blaming Israel and lauding Hamas. Sherman Jackson, Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at U. of Michigan did not say much and was fairly mild. He at least seemed to have come prepared to discuss the subject, though his assertion seemed to be that Sept. 11th had nothing to do with Islam.

Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of Al Quds, didn't have too much to say other than suggesting that while Saddam was a bad guy, America has made everything worse, but he went on at length. Neither he, nor Mahmood Mamdani, the Columbia professor, seemed to have heard of or acknowledge the UN Oil for Food scandal, still citing bogus numbers of Western sanctions starving Iraqi children, when it was Saddam who had diverted money for food and medicine to arms and his palaces.

Professor Mahmood Mamdani was the real disgrace. Columbia University continues to place its reputation in jeopardy as a respected institution of higher learning by having someone on its faculty who spouts such lies and threats. Here are a few choice quotes:

"9/11 was carried out by America's proxies" (since we helped the mujahedeen fight the Soviets, we were responsible for Osama) Read: It's all our fault.

"America is in a freefall since 9/11. [your battle should not be with Iran and Iraq] "America is fighting a war within itself" Read: It's all in our heads, we are the ones screwed up.

On the future: "Take a step back from the Middle East. The world dominated by the West since 1491 (1491?) is coming to an end". America stands for "guns and gangsters".

"You will pay dearly."

"Those who were moderates have now become extremists. They are the majority" (ah yes, one of his books is predictably called When Victims Become Killers)

"The US militarized the maddrassas" (Huh?! This is a new one to me. Denied the Wahhabist Saudis had anything to do with it.)

This guy is a professor who lives in NYC and teaches at an Ivy League university. Parents are paying for the privilege of having their kids listen to his hate-filled rants.

Richard Perle acquitted himself well, I think his arguments would be familiar to most conservatives so I won't go through them.

We listened to the first few questioners, but most of them were essentially Democrat talking points directed at Perle, so we left.