Anger

I found it frankly disquieting and quite ironic that the Ithaca College Quarterly would choose to include the Asma Barlas article in its edition that also devoted much of its space to mourning the loss of those destroyed in the September 11 attack on the United States. Professor Barlas certainly has the right and obligation as a member of the academic community to profess her views, but that does not give her the right to distort the facts, cite evidence completely out of context, and take such liberties with interpretation of actions. The article’s indiscretions are so numerous it would be untimely to cite them all. Perhaps a few examples will suffice.

Barlas uses the phrase "Muslim world" and then states that "there is a tendency to think of us (Muslims) as one homogenous whole," when in fact every word, action, and intent of the current administration has demonstrated clearly that such is not the case. In the United States response to the attack the administration has stated clearly and consistently that it does not regard the Muslim world with disdain, but it does disdain the small group of terrorists that committed the act. Later in the article Barlas states that "not every country in which terrorists live is our enemy" as another attempt to misrepresent the stated policy, as though President Bush had said that every nation in which terrorists live is our enemy. This is a maddening distortion of the policy and position which have been consistently stated as against those nations who "harbor and support terrorism." Words have meaning.

Barlas quotes the New York Times report of a "top-secret memo" from the CIA to President Dwight D. Eisenhower as if it were proven fact. To make such an assertion requires two naïve suppositions: one, that the Times is completely unbiased and totally reliable; and two, that Eisenhower followed advice from the CIA without reservation or consideration. One could only imagine the shape of our world if any president followed the recommendations of the CIA without question.

Barlas cites the "Israeli brutalities against the Palestinians" with no mention of the reciprocal. She says that she is "not blaming the United States for all the ills of the world" but neglects to include any references to any other "oppressors," a curious and revealing omission. And then she contradicts her own thesis later in the article by stating that "surely we have created the enemy we once merely defined and imagined." Just who is the "we" in that sentence? Perhaps it is Professor Barlas and her like.

Perhaps the most alarming misrepresentation in the article is consistent with Chomsky and those who would canonize him. The technique is really simple. First, you state a position as a hypothesis, to wit, "this fundamentally repugnant philosophy" and extract from the nefarious CIA memo to Eisenhower. Readers accept the remark as being part of a hypothesis and therefore graciously accept the premise. Then the skillful Chomskyite uses the same remarks later in the article as an assertion, as if the hypothesis had been proven when indeed it was not. To wit, "Tragically, even though U.S. citizens had no role in creating this ‘morally repugnant’ [italics added] philosophy, they have now had to pay the price for having embraced it." What clever sleight of hand. Professor Barlas not only defines the moment in her own biased terms, but then has the audacity to assign the citizens of the United States as its adherents. Talk about hubris.

And, of course, the final irony. How many of the "oppressed" and "degraded" and "brutalized" nations in the world would allow Professor Barlas to speak so stridently without reprisal? The individual freedom that she enjoys comes at a price. There are times when the price may be debatable and even questionable, but it is a price well paid, her point of view being the point of fact. Perhaps the question should not be, Why do they hate us? or Why do we hate and oppress them? Perhaps it might be, Why does Professor Asma Barlas hate us and how does she dare to do so?

Gregory B. Rudgers ’70
Elmira, New York