An Exercise in Indoctrination: Cal Professor Requires Students to Tweet about 'Islamophobia'

An Exercise in Indoctrination: Cal Professor Requires Students to Tweet about 'Islamophobia'

by Steven Emerson 6 Feb 2014

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/02/06/An-Exercise-in-Indoctrination

A University of California, Berkeley professor is requiring 100 students to create Twitter accounts and post comments about "Islamophobia," anti-Islamist Muslim activist Tarek Fatah reports.

In his Toronto Sun column Wednesday, Fatah, a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, describes the "panicked message" he received from a Berkeley student taking a class taught by Hatem Bazian. Bazian directs the school's Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project.

Though the Twitter posts are a part of the student's grade, he wrote that it felt unethical because "he's basically using us as unpaid labor to work on his agenda."

Most of the students are not Muslims, Fatah writes.

The class has Islamophobia in its title, Bazian wrote in response to questions from Fatah. It "is designated as an American culture community engagement scholarship class… Students are asked to send at least one posting per week on something related to the course content, be it from the actual reading or anything they read or came across."

Bazian also serves as chairman of American Muslims for Palestine, a group which has repeatedly defended Hamas and featured speakers who say their ambition should be to challenge Israel's legitimacy as a state. During one conference, Bazian explained that universities are "the front line [for the Palestinian cause] moving forward, the front line. Why? Because this is the next generation."

Fatah points out that none of the student Twitter posts he has seen so far "challenged the validity of the term" Islamophobia. The term has been applied to everything from vandalism at mosques to terrorism-support investigations to criticism of American Islamist political groups.

Bazian widened the definition last summer, to cover Muslim political opponents. In a column for Al Jazeera, Bazian criticized the Egyptian army for forcing President Mohamed Morsi--the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for office--and for statements and imagery used to criticize the Islamist group.

The arm "unleashed a deliberate 'Othering' campaign against the Brotherhood and its supporters that was highly Islamophobic, deploying a barrage of anti-Muslim tropes to achieve the desired outcome," Bazian wrote. Millions of Egyptian Muslims took to the streets in the days and weeks before the military stepped in, demanding Morsi's ouster. Their criticism was rooted in policy failures and a perception that Morsi placed entrenching Islamist power above the needs of the masses.

Fatah remembers the flack Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes took in 2002, when he launched "Campus Watch" to document "the mixing of politics with scholarship." But Bazian's required Twitter assignment shows that Pipes, "the scholar of Islam, with a dozen books to his credit, was right to be concerned."

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera acquired Current TV.

Note: Current TV is a division of Current Media, LLC.

Albert A. Gore Jr. is the co-founder & chairman for Current Media, LLC, and the chairman for the Climate Reality Project.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Climate Reality Project, the Tides Foundation, the International Rescue Committee, and the Brookings Institution (think tank).

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a contributor for the Majority PAC, and a contributor for the American Bridge 21st Century.

The War Room is a Current TV program.

Jennifer M. Granholm was the host for The War Room, is a co-chair for Priorities USA Action, and a practitioner of law & public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

Priorities USA Action was a super PAC supporting the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign.

Stephen M. Silberstein was a contributor for the Majority PAC, a contributor for the American Bridge 21st Century, and is a benefactor for the University of California, Berkeley.

John A. Powell is a director at the Tides Foundation, and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Andrew S. Grove is an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and was a benefactor for the University of California, Berkeley.

Madeleine K. Albright is an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and a professor at Georgetown University.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding was a center at Georgetown University.

David H. Romer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and married to Christina D. Romer.

Christina D. Romer is married to David H. Romer, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the council of economic advisers chairman for the Barack Obama administration.

Michael L. Nacht is the assistant secretary for global security affairs at the U.S. Department of Defense for the Barack Obama administration, and was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

John P. Holdren is the White House science adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Professors:_The_101_Most_Dangerous_Academics_in_America

The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America is a 2006 book by conservative American author and policy advocate David Horowitz. The book contends that many academics in American colleges hold anti-American perspectives and lists one hundred examples whom Horowitz believes are sympathetic to terrorists and non-democratic governments.

Christopher Edley Jr. is the law school dean at the University of California, Berkeley, and a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society.

Open Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society.

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.

Gara LaMarche was the VP & director of U.S. programs for the Open Society Foundations, and a director at the White House Project.

Daisy Khan was a director at the White House Project, is an executive director for the American Society for Muslim Advancement, the developer for Park51, and married to Feisal Abdul Rauf.

Feisal Abdul Rauf is married to Daisy Khan, a co-founder for the American Society for Muslim Advancement, the developer for Park51, and the founder & chairman for the Cordoba Initiative.

Park51

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park51

Park51 (originally named Cordoba House) is a planned 13-story Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan. The majority of the center will be open to the general public and its proponents have said the center will promote interfaith dialogue. Plans for the center include a Muslim prayer space which, due to its location two blocks from the World Trade Center site,

Controversy

Opponents of the Park51 project argued that it is "a mosque", claiming that establishing a mosque a few blocks away from Ground Zero would be offensive because the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks were Islamic terrorists.