ALL I know, as Will Rogers used to say, is what I read in the papers. In this case, the paper is The Cavalier Daily, and what I know about is David Horowitz‘s visit to Grounds.
Senior writer Stephanie Kassab covered the event. Columnist Prashanth Parameswaran commented on it. Rick Eberstadt and Keenan Davis, members of the executive board of The Burke Society — the group that invited Horowitz to speak — weighed in. So did Alla Hassan, president of the Muslim Students Association, and Omer Shaukat, whom The Cavalier Daily described as “a Muslim student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.”
Good for all of them — and for the whole University community.
From what I can tell, Horowitz is a provocateur, not a man prone to constructing calm, well-reasoned arguments.
“This is a very sick culture,” Kassab quoted Horowitz. That’s a pretty broad statement, and one that could arguably be applied to any culture. It’s all in how you look at it.
Horowitz, for example, calls for carpet bombing on the West Bank. Carpet bombing was first used by the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, when they firebombed Guernica. (Perhaps you’ve seen the painting.) It’s a tactic that ensures more than most that innocent bystanders will be killed and civilian targets will be destroyed. How sick is that?
“Women are second class citizens in Islam,” Horowitz said.
I am not a student of the Koran, but I know there are such people who disagree with that. And I know there are interpretations of Islam that line up perfectly with Horowitz’s generalization. And generalizations are always so accurate, right? Especially when you’re talking about religious sects. I mean, there’s no difference among Catholics, Unitarians, snake-handlers, Quakers and Southern Baptists. Right?
Parameswaran, who has written about Horowitz before, missed the commie-turned neo-con’s speech, but he wrote about it anyway. But that’s OK, because Parameswaran got The Burke Society to show him their video of the event. He didn’t think much of it. And he had some ideas about how people should respond: “... those protesting Horowitz’s hate-mongering sermons ought to focus their efforts on measured critiques and educational initiatives, rather than the blood-stirring denunciations or radical protests Horowitz hopes to elicit.”
Good advice. Who can argue against “measured critiques and educational initiatives”?
Parameswaran suggested turning to Americans for Informed Democracy, which strives “to shift the focus from merely responding to negative propaganda to ‘responding with alternative programming to promote U.S.-Muslim relations.’”
“U.S.-Muslim relations”? Aren’t there any Muslims in the United States?
Then Eberstadt and Davis weighed in: “The Burke Society invited David Horowitz to present his perspective strictly about Islamofascism, which we define as a manipulation of Islam by a terrorist elite for political gain, and to discuss why it is a danger to free peoples around the world.”
Those darned elitists again.
The Burke Society was just trying to create a discussion. They didn’t even like the ad Horowitz’s Freedom Center put in The Cavalier Daily — at least, it made them uneasy. So they asked him not to attack groups on Grounds, the way his organization has claimed ties among Muslim student groups and terrorist groups that claim to be acting in the name of Islam.
On the same page with Eberstadt and Davis, Hassan and Shaukat got their say. Horowitz’s statements betrayed him, Hassan and Shaukat argued, “... we’re sure that discerning students and audience members realized that this was a person who shouldn’t be taken seriously ... while it would be greatly appreciated if the Burke Society would host more credible, better-qualified and more experienced “experts,” we definitely respect their decision, as they are free to choose whomever they wish to choose, and they are free to believe in whatever it is that they want to believe.”
But that’s not all. Hassan and Shaukat want The Cavalier Daily to say something about that ad from the Freedom Center. They want “a public response from The Cavalier Daily.”
They should get it.
Horowitz and his speech; the story that covered the speech; the columns in response to the speech. All that is an easy call. The Cavalier Daily’s editorial page carries Mr. Jefferson’s declaration: “For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.” That is how it should be.
The ad is a slightly more complicated issue, because The Cavalier Daily accepted payment to publish it. (I’m assuming they didn’t run it for free, but I’m not privy to the paper’s finances.)
There’s a good argument for running the ad, even though some readers consider it insulting and fear it will spread intolerance. The Cavalier Daily’s readers should hear that argument, and they should hear how the decision to run the ad was made.
Tim Thornoton is The Cavalier Daily’s ombudsman. He can be reached at ombud@cavalierdaily.com.
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