[Peace-discuss] The Alams

[David Green]

M. Shahid Alam is an economics professor at
Northeastern University; his recent statement is
below. His son is M. Junaid Alam, a student at
Northeastern, and also a regular contributor to
Counterpunch, as well as involved with
www.lefthook.org.


Statement by M. Shahid Alam February 2, 2005


O'Reilly's Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews
Puts Me In Its Crosshairs 

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.

The emails to me and the University continued for
another two weeks, eventually tapering off. In the
meanwhile, I was speaking to people at the ACLU,
Boston, and the ADC, Boston. On the suggestion of the
ACLU, I contacted the campus police and the police in
my hometown to let them know about the death threats
posted against me.

I had a feeling this was not the end of the matter. So
yesterday, February 1, I received an email from Fox
News asking for a TV interview; they were producing a
program "on me." At this point, I spoke to people at
ACLU who advised me against going on the program. I
received the same advice from other friends. I wrote
back to Fox saying I could not do the interview but
would be glad to answer any questions. They did not
take me up on my offer. Clearly, this would not help
them in their designs against me.

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? [Northeastern Univ. contact info
listed above]


M. Shahid Alam, professor of economics at Northeastern
University, is a regular contributor to
CounterPunch.org. Some of his CounterPunch essays are
now available in a book, Is There An Islamic Problem
(Kuala Lumpur: The Other Press, 2004). He may be
reached at m.alam at neu.edu.