[lit-ideas] Re: Brigitte Gabriel again supporting Israel
- From: Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 18:53:52 +0100 (BST)
Thank you, Helen.
Because my parents and I suffered the consequences
> of WW II
Yes. And thank you for the interpretation
Judy Evans, Cardiff
--- Helen Wishart <hwishart@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> In March of 2005 Brigitte Gabriel was invited by the
> Political Studies
> department of Queens University (Canada) to give her
> perspective on the
> Middle East conflict. My son is doing PhD in history
> at Queens and he is my
> source of information.
>
>
>
> After she spoke, there was an extended discussion
> among the Queens' students
> about her ignorance of ME history, her sweeping
> generalizations about the
> evil, lazy, dishonest "Arabs" and "Muslims", and
> her characterization of
> the Israelis as the embodiment of generosity and
> good.
>
>
>
> Most students allowed that she had the right to
> frame the conflict in the
> context of own personal tragedy but that did not
> make her expert on the
> larger issues. According to my son, much of the
> discussion centered whether
> her opinions could be considered "hate speech".
>
>
>
> In a discussion board sponsored by the Political
> Studies department, a
> member of the group who had invited her said the
> following:
>
>
>
> "Having attended the speech, I will say that it was
> about as close to hate
> speech as you can get. I am a member of Hillel, who
> brought her to Queen's
> along with the Queen's Israeli Peace Initiative, and
> to be frank I am
> disappointed that the Hillel leadership did not do
> better research before
> inviting Ms. Gabriel to this campus.
>
> The saddest part of Ms. Gabriel's speech, was that
> having heard her recount
> her childhood experiences, you understand where all
> that hateful language
> comes from. I am in no way justifying what she said,
> but I think this is an
> important thing to take out of this mess. We need to
> realize just how
> prevalent this kind of raw hatred is in the middle
> east, from Jews, Muslims
> and Christians like Ms. Gabriel."
>
>
>
> My son said there was an editorial in the student
> paper that generated
> numerous letters to the editor about the speech but
> I couldn't find it
> online.
>
>
>
> Here is a link to the political studies discussion
> board:
>
>
http://www.queensu.ca/politics/pols110a/discus/messages/346/567.html?1112978
> 254
>
>
>
> Because my parents and I suffered the consequences
> of WW II does not,
> perforce, make me an expert on the issues. But it
> does give me a
> perspective through which I filter other
> information. In my case, I think
> it made me susceptible to fundamentalist Christian
> teachings of divine
> retribution against those who refuse the truth.
> When your childhood is
> spent in chaos, there is something very comforting
> about the vision of an
> angry God who fights on your side against all who
> oppose you. That's also
> my interpretation of the rhetorical appeal of
> militant Muslims like
> Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Iran's Supreme
> Leader Ayatollah Ali
> Khomeini. Mix in the lust for political power and
> you have a lethal
> combination.
>
>
>
> Now that I I've and teach in the South, I see
> similar problems with the
> conflation of religious fervor and American
> politics. Please do not
> immediately assume that I think the American system
> is equivalent to the
> social vision of militant Muslims. But Jerry
> Falwell's vision is pretty
> creepy too. And here are many Americans who
> subscribe to that vision .
>
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