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The Phyllis Chesler Organization |
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Dear Friend and Reader:
I have decided to send you an edited and
expanded version of the article I first published at Israel National News. It
is the one I would like you to read and forward. There are so many burning
issues that call out to me but I am writing my new book and am trying to
publish only once or twice a month. The discipline is working. I have
generated 50,000 words. I may not keep them all. I may replace many of them.
But such progress would not be possible if I also blogged two to three times
a week.
I appreciate your support and your patience.
Phyllis
Studying Antisemitism on Campus
  Be the first of your
friends to like this.
A very gallant Dr. Charles Asher Small just
delivered an important lecture at the 92nd St Y. in New York. Yes, this is
the same Dr. Small who, in 2004, founded the Institute for the Study of
Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), which he housed at Yale University
from 2006-2011—until the Yale Corporation decided that the Center's work on
Islamic Judeophobia and specifically on Iranian genocidal Judeophobia
threatened Yale's "scholarly commitments" in the region.
Who could make this up?
This was the first time that Dr. Small spoke
about this publicly.
Dr. Small is Canadian and grew up in
Montreal. He speaks in a restrained and reasonable way about outrages and
injustices. He is a gentleman and a scholar.
I was privileged to have met him in 2003 and
to have worked with him while he was at Yale. I have also written about his
work and its tragic demise at Yale.
This time, Dr. Small named names.
But, he first wondered why Israel, which is
blamed for every conceivable wrong, is also to blame for whatever problems
American Jews are having in terms of communal identity or renewal. He
wondered how different American Jews and Jewish leaders are today when compared
to the American Jewish leaders in the 1920s and 1930s, as economic problems
worsened and a virulent antisemitism arose. "Sound familiar?", he
asked.
Dr. Small noted that antisemitism is
different from all the other 'isms' such as racism and sexism. "It is
inherently genocidal," he said. It was "genocidal during the
religious era when Jews were the wrong religion" and were accused of
holding back the Messianic age by both "refusing to convert to
Christianity" and for having committed "deicide." And it is genocidal
today. But there is a taboo today at work that impedes any rational search
for the truth.
Small went on to say that no one is examining
radical Islamic ideology No one is questioning the dominant world view.
Instead, everyone is into postmodernism, cultural relativism and politically
correct non-judgementalism. He defined anyone who has been formerly colonized
as being a victim whose customs and traditions cannot be judged.
Charles and I agree on this new and clever
form of racism and paternalism. Universal rights for me and thee – but not
for the female victims of honor killing, forced child marriage, female
genital mutilation, and forced veiling. Religious rights for Muslims in the
West, but the lethal persecution of Christians, Hindus, and Jews in
"Muslim lands."
Meanwhile, Charles' Institute at Yale was
vibrant, dynamic and thriving. About 3 and a half years ago, a philanthropist
offered Charles and his Institute five million dollars if Yale would raise
15-20 million dollars. Dr. Small delivered a strategic business plan. The
development office said it was "wonderful."
But the environment changed when the current
Iranian regime suddenly listed Yale as an "enemy of the
revolution." Small and his Institute were blamed by some for having
gotten Yale in trouble, resulting in Yale's telling Small to stop dealing
with radical Islam, radical Islamic Judeophobia, and Iran. Absent his dealing
with those topics, he was told, he could enjoy a long and happy career at
Yale.
But Radical Political Islam, not Islam the
religion, not the Muslim people, but Radical Political Islam, the genocidal
movement, is a key part of the irrational hatred against Jews and Israel in
today's world. When Charles convened in August of 2010, the largest academic
world conference on global antisemitism to have ever been held, Radical
Political Islam was part of the discussion. It couldn't be ignored. It was
not the focal point of the conference. It wasn't even mentioned by most of
the speakers. But it was included in some presentations by a few of the 107
speakers from 23 countries who made up the program.
What was to come was signalled when the
assembled conference attendees were welcomed rather sourly by associate Yale
Provost, Frances Rosenbluth. Before a word was spoken or paper presented, she
warned that the scholarship to be presented needed be constrained and she
pre-emptively labeled outcomes when she said presenters were "not to
engage in Islamophobia."
A young Palestinian actively blogged throughout
the conference and in real time characterized speakers as "racists"
and "Islamophobes." Instead of measured analysis, dialogue and
prudent deliberation, his name calling reverberated across the internet
kicking off a firestorm which resulted, three days later, in the newly
appointed PLO "ambassador" in D.C. writing to Yale President Levin
charging Yale with "racism."
Here's the thing. Tell the truth about
Radical Political Islamism and you will be branded a racist. Dare expose the
Muslim practice of slavery, imperialism, colonialism, religious intolerance,
and gender apartheid and you will find yourself branded a "conservative
racist" and therefore demonized.
It happened to me early on, between
2003-2005.
It has happened to every single truth teller
ever since, including Dr. Charles Small.
Small and his colleagues were attacked
irrationally. National Public Radio chimed in and a Yale Professor accused
the Institute of being similar to Black Panthers. The chorus grew and Yale
had its excuse to end its relationship with the Institute and Charles Small.
In so doing, Yale confiscated the film of the conference, framed a report
which it marked 'confidential' (something they'd never done before in this
kind of circumstance) and didn't allow Charles Small or any of his colleagues
at Yale to see it. These actions could hold the record for abruptness and
lack of considered process extended when compared to all other departures.
Adding insult to injury, with several week's notice, Yale asked Charles Small
to leave.
But it is now a year later and this quiet
talk to a hushed audience at the 92nd St. Y marked the beginning of a new
chapter in the struggle to tell the truth and expose the deception that is
going on behind the curtain in academia today. The whole episode at Yale was
instructive and underlines the urgent need for an independent institution
that studies antisemitism in real time, and not merely as an historical
artifact and novelty. Antisemtism is as virulent, threatening and genocidal
as it has ever been and the need for a Charles Small and an organization like
ISGAP, that is not afraid to seek the truth, is more pressing than it has
ever been. If not now, when.
Related Topics: Anti-Semitism
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