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| Jihad at Manchester Community College |
| 2005-05-02 |
| 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 |
| #3 The best way to get to the people responsible for the Leftist indoctrination rampant on America's campuses is ---- financial. 1) Don't donate - and send the Chancellor a letter saying so, and why. 2) Don't send your kids there - pick a school that shows some balance. 3) For public institutions, write your politicians and newspapers and complain about how your tax dollars are being mis-spent. 4) When you see a college doing the 'right' thing (e.g. Widener University with it's scholarships for children of soldiers KIA), send THEM the funds you would normally donate to higher education, and tell them why. Word will spread. Do NOT sit idly by. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2005-05-02 6:55:35 PM |
| #2 Go hyper! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-05-02 2:25:59 PM |
| #1 Think Globally, Ridicule Locally. Yes there are many big problems in the world, and as individuals we are generally too small to address them as a whole. But you can chip away at important bits around the edges, by going on campus and shouting down these screech monkeys at Manchester Community College. These Islamists are no different than any other bunch of Leftists: unaffiliated, decentralized individuals or small groups, doing local "actions" that a) when added together with many other decentralized, individual actions forms a seemingly larger movement, and b) gives the appearance to regular folks that the issue is too big to do anything about locally, as an individual. The individuals perpetrating these actions MUST be shouted down, derided, ridiculed, and called out. Allowed to shout and seethe and make angry demands, without adequate levels of contradiction from the public (THATâS YOU AND ME), these Leftists and Totalitarians get emboldened and call for ever increasing levels of compliance and subjugation from us. Stop looking on in horror at the âmarch of the Leftistsâ and DO something about it. NOW. It is up to YOU, as individuals, to take back your universities and communities from those who work in little local groups to destroy it. Don't leave it to professor-peer groups. Don't leave it to the university administration. Don't leave it to the students who are either Leftists already, or young adults who just want to get through this craziness and somehow get an education. DON'T LET THEM SCARE YOU! THEY AREN'T RIGHT, THEY ARE SIMPLY LOUD AND ON THE OFFENSIVE. Take on the local Leftist scumbags. Go to your local campus and make sure they âgetâ as good as they are âgivingâ. I've been fighting fire with fire by shouting down and calling out Chief Yakking Ward Churchill in personal demonstrations on the University of Colorado, Boulder campus, being published in the Denver area newspapersâ Opinion Pages, and sending e-mails directly to the University President, Chancellor, Regents, and Colorado State Senators. Is he gone yet? No. Has he been suspended? Not yet. Have I failed? Hell no! I have, IN PERSON, put in the faces of the responsible university authorities that these freaks are not going to be tolerated, and pushed down their throats that employing these scum, and allowing intimidation of reasonable educators, the Regents, Chancellor, President and professorship of any given University WILL be held accountable for allowing these radicals to flourish in their midst (they didnât like my in-your-face methods, but told me my protest message had been a topic of discussion in Regent meetings. I told them I donât like leftists calling for the death of my family from their campus, and Iâll stop my protests when they jettison cancerous parasites like Churchillâ¦). Little by little my point is being made, and heard. Does protesting sound too silly for a reasonable adult? Are you too busy to be bothered to get in the faces of University administrators today where your children will be educated tomorrow? Are you too embarrassed to go to meetings of the administration and, to their faces, demand action against these freaks? Then look in the mirror and see who is REALLY allowing the expansion of the power of Leftist scumbags in America. |
| Posted by: Hyper 2005-05-02 1:38:53 PM |