Joseph Massad, Academic Freedom
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Dear President Bollinger,
We, professors, scholars, teachers and students at universities world-wide are shocked by the slanderous campaign long launched in the New York media against our colleague Assistant Professor Joseph Massad. Conducted at a time when, following September 11, basic academic and political freedoms have been increasingly weakened, when individuals speaking up and voicing their dissent have been personally threatened and when Middle East Studies have come under attack, this campaign is fed by false and baseless accusations on the part of self-appointed individuals and organizations who claim for themselves a legitimacy or a representativity they never gained. More importantly, it participates in a massive accumulation of means of intimidation and harassment aimed at teachers and intellectuals, and at young scholars whose professional future is even more fragile due to their unprotected status as non-tenured faculty. These means include the use of threats by donors of financial retributions against the university, calls for the dismissal of an academic colleague based solely on political rumors and, most alarmingly, the intervention of a member of Congress with ambitions for higher office. The attacks come from sources who have no role to play in making assessments about academic matters such as professional standing or tenure decisions.
These attacks, moreover, grossly misrepresent Professor Massad's teaching and scholarship. Hence, it is essential that a sharp distinction be made between the caricature that is being drawn of Professor Massad as anti-Semitic, and Professor Massad, the public intellectual, who has courageously written in Arabic and in English against anti-Semitism and anti-Semites. The attacks on Professor Massad's teaching rely, at best, on a few unsubstantiated students' complaints, unscrupulously solicited and deployed by politically motivated actors. They ignore his distinguished teaching record and the significant support he enjoys from the vast majority of students who have, in fact, taken his classes.
The means used by these attacks endanger nothing less than the very basics of academic freedom, the protection of intellectual integrity, and the protection of the classroom as a site of engaged reflection and unsettling debate. What such campaigns aim at is to frighten, and ultimately silence, the courageous voices of public intellectuals, and those of committed teachers and professors, who seek to publish and speak freely. They threaten the very ideal of a university as a place of open and vigorous intellectual exchanges. They threaten the very ideals upheld by Professor Massad and by the faculty of Columbia University. It is these ideals and these commitments, this intellectual work that needs to be protected. We call on President Bollinger to rise to the occasion and issue a categorical statement in defense of Professor Massad and against this! campaign of defamation, to ensure that teachers and professors be allowed to teach without intimidation from within or without the university.
We, professors, scholars, teachers and students at universities world-wide are shocked by the slanderous campaign long launched in the New York media against our colleague Assistant Professor Joseph Massad. Conducted at a time when, following September 11, basic academic and political freedoms have been increasingly weakened, when individuals speaking up and voicing their dissent have been personally threatened and when Middle East Studies have come under attack, this campaign is fed by false and baseless accusations on the part of self-appointed individuals and organizations who claim for themselves a legitimacy or a representativity they never gained. More importantly, it participates in a massive accumulation of means of intimidation and harassment aimed at teachers and intellectuals, and at young scholars whose professional future is even more fragile due to their unprotected status as non-tenured faculty. These means include the use of threats by donors of financial retributions against the university, calls for the dismissal of an academic colleague based solely on political rumors and, most alarmingly, the intervention of a member of Congress with ambitions for higher office. The attacks come from sources who have no role to play in making assessments about academic matters such as professional standing or tenure decisions.
These attacks, moreover, grossly misrepresent Professor Massad's teaching and scholarship. Hence, it is essential that a sharp distinction be made between the caricature that is being drawn of Professor Massad as anti-Semitic, and Professor Massad, the public intellectual, who has courageously written in Arabic and in English against anti-Semitism and anti-Semites. The attacks on Professor Massad's teaching rely, at best, on a few unsubstantiated students' complaints, unscrupulously solicited and deployed by politically motivated actors. They ignore his distinguished teaching record and the significant support he enjoys from the vast majority of students who have, in fact, taken his classes.
The means used by these attacks endanger nothing less than the very basics of academic freedom, the protection of intellectual integrity, and the protection of the classroom as a site of engaged reflection and unsettling debate. What such campaigns aim at is to frighten, and ultimately silence, the courageous voices of public intellectuals, and those of committed teachers and professors, who seek to publish and speak freely. They threaten the very ideal of a university as a place of open and vigorous intellectual exchanges. They threaten the very ideals upheld by Professor Massad and by the faculty of Columbia University. It is these ideals and these commitments, this intellectual work that needs to be protected. We call on President Bollinger to rise to the occasion and issue a categorical statement in defense of Professor Massad and against this! campaign of defamation, to ensure that teachers and professors be allowed to teach without intimidation from within or without the university.
4702 Signatures
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As`ad AbuKhalil
- Comments
- It is important that we reject all attempts of political intimidation, especially when they come from political forces intent on silencing free debates and exchange of ideas.
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Amer Mohsen
- Comments
- Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley
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Sener Akturk
- Comments
- Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley
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Tamar Szeps-Znaider
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Bob Tamaddon
- Comments
- Please Preserve the Academic Freedom of Your College's Faculty!
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'Adnan A. Naseemullah
- Comments
- Department of Political Science, Univ. of California, Berkeley
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Claire Perez
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Osamah Khalil
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Annelieke Dirks
- Comments
- Phd student Modern American History, The Ohio State University
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Mayssun Succarie
- Comments
- UC Berkeley
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Antone F. Sayegh, Ph.D.
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Dick Fitzgerald
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Nico Pitney
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David Milton, Professor Emeritus University of Oregon
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Nancy Harb Almendras
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Brian Wodarek
- Comments
- The use of the charge of anti-semitism is a form of intellectual terrorism. The very use of the term "anti-semitism" to silence any criticism of the state of Israel is invalid. The word semite is defined as "a member of a group of Semitic -speaking peoples of the near east and North Africa, including Arabs and Jews." The use of the volatile charge of anti-semitism to silence any debate on the policies of the state of Israel must not be allowed to succeed. The American public needs more debate and dicussion of American foriegn policy and the ramifications of the policies of supposed allies, not less. Mr. Massad is a valuable contributor to a discussion that is long overdue. I wish to thank the author of this petition for standing with the principle of free speech and against the use of unfounded and intellectually terroristic charges meant to silence public discourse.
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Ali Durrani
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Amina Sa'id
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Seham Fare
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Leila Yavari
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Curt Joy
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Gabriela Andrea Frank geb. Doelschner
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David M. Brown
- Comments
- Please respect, protect, and honor academic freedom.
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Rania Sweis
- Comments
- Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Stanford University
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Hanin
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Mirvat Abu-Khalil
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Tara Alkhalisi
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karim helal
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Peter
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mohamad el-asmar
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bennis mehdi
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embakry
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Sam Kosari
- Comments
- God bless
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Francois-Xavier Sarrazin
- Comments
- I think this has something to do with intolerance being a symptom of tyrany. Or is it it's cause?
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Nisreen Salti
- Comments
- Princeton University
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Valerie Zink
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MOUNZER SLEIMAN, Ph.D
- Comments
- Education is the progressive discovery of our ignorance-Bill Durant, Ignorance is the ultimate weapon against Academic Freedom
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Elie Bou-Zeid
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Charlotte Kates
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Jane Murphy
- Comments
- Department of History, Princeton University
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Ahmed Janabi
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Francoise Bedoya Dimapouplas
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Rick Miller
- Comments
- Fire his ass. He's a terrorist supporter.
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kitami,shihadeh
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Benjamin Goldfrank
- Comments
- Department of Political Science, University of New Mexico
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Rima Qasim-Taha
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nachoua
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Lisa Wynn, Office of Population Research, Princeton University
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achraf fayez
- Comments
- where is YOUR academic freedom Mr. Bush?
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gisиle halimi
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4702
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