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Jihad at Manchester Community College
Earlier this year, Michael Abdelmessih was hired by Manchester Community College (MCC) in Connecticut to teach a noncredit course titled ''Understanding Militant Islamic Fundamentalism.'' As of last Friday, however, Abdelmessih, a Coptic Christian who holds an MS degree in Political Science from Southern Connecticut State University, is out of a job, replaced by a Muslim professor.That MCC moved so quickly to replace Abdelmessih reveals the disturbing effectiveness that apologists for radical Islam are having in stifling opposing viewpoints on college campuses across the United States. Six students originally signed up to take the course. Two of them were Muslim women serving on MCC's faculty. In an interview with Frontpagemag, Abdelmessih identified one of the women as Fatma Antar and the other as Dianne Hussein. "Two months ago both faculty members asked Anne Bonney, the director of non-credit courses at MCC, to change the title of the course," Abdelmessih told Frontpagemag. "Bonney explained the situation to me, and we agreed to make some changes in the proposal. Instead of just being a course in understanding Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, it was to deal with Christian and Jewish fundamentalism also. This was due to the personal involvement and exchanges with Anne Bonney and the two Muslim faculty members. I have the original proposal with the changes made by Anne Bonney as my evidence." Abdelmessih says that by the time he began teaching the course on April 9, 2005, the problems had already began. "My academic supervisor contacted me the week before I started the course and told me she will send police for protection,'' said Abdelmessih.àThe room assignment was also changed and he was instructed on how to call the police. "This was if I had any problems from the Muslim community or from both Muslim faculty members," he said. "When I started talking about jihad, I was constantly interrupted because these two faculty members, Fatma and Dianne, claimed that jihad doesn't mean attacking non-Muslims, but means 'protecting Islam' Then, in the middle of the class, in Arabic no less, I received threats from Fatmaââ¬ÂŠand she made it clear that she would 'contact the Egyptian government.' She said, 'believe me, you will not continue this course.'" And she did not stop there. Abdelmessih says Fatma also threatened his family in Egypt, where Copts are brutally persecuted. He says that Anne Bonney, in turn, told him she feared for his and his family's safety so much that she decided to station campus police at the classroom door to admit only enrolled students. "I asked Fatma in class if she intended to do the course work and homework in the class I had prepared before criticizing the course. She replied, 'No, I'm only here to watch you, '" Abdelmessih said. "A week later, after the MCC class was over, I went on a trip to Washington, D.C. and while eating dinner was called by Anne Bonney of Manchester Community College,'' he continued. ''I was told I no longer will teach the course because of 'a few grammatical errors in the notes' (Abdelmessih was born overseas) I handed out to students." Abdelmessih says his academic supervisor told him he would be paid for the course in full per his contract (at taxpayer expense) but not be allowed to teach it. In his place, Manchester Community College was having a Muslim faculty member teach the course. That professor, Colleen M. Keyes, from another community college, is a Muslim convert. "We all know why I was replaced,'' said Abdelmessih. ''To present a sanitized view of Islamic fundamentalism to MCC students and to prevent any negative academic discussion about terrorism. Aside from violating tenets of freedom of speech, this is a gross violation of academic freedom. I would have taught different points of view in my course and now it will be a cheering section for Islam." Manchester's administration and Anne Bonney were unavailable for comment. Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-05-02 |
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