RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/04/29/qatars-propaganda-efforts-find-allies-at-georgetown-university/

Qatar’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Lolwah Rashid Al-Khater used intellectual relativism to assuage fears of Islamic absolutism while speaking last month at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS). “There are always narratives and counter-narratives” and “multiple versions of the truth. That’s why we have different religions,” she proclaimed, in a clever bid to mask Qatar’s role as a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) bastion.

Packed into a conference room, the mostly student audience of about 50 people included John Duke Anthony, the Hamas-apologist founder of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, and Yahya Hendi, a Georgetown Muslim chaplain and former CCAS professor. CCAS Director Rochelle Davis, who supports an academic boycott of Israel, introduced Al-Khater’s lecture on “Defining the Narrative: Media and Politics in the Middle East.” Davis pointed out that Al-Khater is a board member at the Institute for Palestine Studies, an anti-Israel outfit based in Washington, DC.

Al-Khater’s talk resembled a Western academic’s analysis of the modern media — a sad commentary on contemporary academia. Discussing the “public sphere” theories of German sociologist Jürgen Habermas, she noted that modern technology, such as smartphones, allows for “excessive access to information” and means that “all of us can be producers of knowledge.” But “who verifies; who does the fact-checking?” she asked, although she warned not to make combating “hate speech” a trade-off between preserving free speech and fighting prejudice.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-charter-school-principal-wont-go-to-prison-11556663629

When Ben Chavis became principal of the American Indian Public Charter School in 2000, it was among the worst middle schools in Oakland, Calif. The building was a mess. There were broken windows and holes in the walls. The gymnasium was carpeted and cluttered with garbage, while food wrappers, cigarette butts and empty beer bottles lined the curb outside.

Truancy was rampant at AIPCS, and the students who did show up spent more time in the corridors than in class. They had sex in the bathrooms and underneath stairwells and got high in a nearby toolshed. Fights broke out regularly, and it wasn’t uncommon for students to sneak out of school midday and then return to class drunk.

AIPCS was founded in 1996 with the goal of promoting Native American culture and improving the academic performance of American Indians, who had the highest dropout rate and lowest attendance and graduation rates of any ethnic group in the city. But as Mr. Chavis explains in his 2009 memoir, “Crazy Like a Fox,” by 2000 it was clear that the school was “a failed social experiment in multiculturalism and touchy-feely educational practices.”

https://quillette.com/2019/04/28/like-the-campus-thought-police/

Smith College police chief Daniel Hect was put on administrative leave after becoming an object of campus hate. Chief Hect’s crime was ‘liking’ (not writing) tweets that fall outside of academia’s ever shrinking zone of toleration. Behold the offending tweets:

“Stay the course Pres. Trump”

“BUILD THAT WALL!!”

“The National Rifle Association wishes you and your family a very Merry Christmas!”

The tweets express opinions that most Trump voters would likely support. And the chief stands accused not of originating these tweets, but of merely liking them on his own personal Twitter account. If you are not familiar with Twitter, know that liking doesn’t always imply support.

The official reason given for Chief Hect’s suspension was, as Smith’s President wrote, because “members of our campus community have voiced a lack of trust” in him. Given the protests, “lack of trust” is quite the understatement. Interpreted in the most favorable light, the students might be worried about the chief’s views on immigration.

Smith College is devoted to the spirit of the sanctuary campus movement within “the limits of federal law” meaning that if anyone in the Smith community determines that a student is in the U.S. illegally we should not tell the immigration authorities unless required to by law.