Another Professor in the Crosshairs of Fox News-Ward's Not Alone

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.

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.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 Provost 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.htmlDean, 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

one brags about?
Used to these guys at least had the decency to hide behind sheets.

was once unacceptable. Now, it's high-fashion.

My note:
Dear President Freeland,
I understand that a few rabidly right-wing websites are targeting Professor Alam as supporting terrorism and being "unamerican." Please believe that thinking people know that free speech and scholarship are not only patriotic but also necessary for healthy discourse.
Thanks.

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(I really hate it when mouth-breathers go after professors.)

Air America woud counter with 'unAmerican' radio personalities on US airwaves. From now on Bill O'Reilly should be called the unAmerican.