I personally do not intend to write about Michael Dawson on my blog or to his school's student newspaper, but, as a matter of fact, any posting here is of necessity open to the public view, and, both for better and worse, we have no way of knowing how many people read what we post here and who they are.
>But getting back to your letter to LBO: you drew a connection
>between Michael's unwillingness to sign a petition that begins "In
>the name of God the most merciful..." and overtly anti-muslim
>discrimination at the campus where he teaches.
>
>I don't know, I think there's enough shit going on right now without
>stuff like this added to it. Yoshie, do you really think that
>Michael is anti-Muslim? I was also uncomfortable signing that
>petition precisely because of the religious umbrella under which it
>is offered. If someone offered me a petition in the name of "Jesus
>Christ" I would also be reluctant to sign it.
>
>I work with a muslim engineer. If you really think that my
>reluctance to sign this petition is evidence of my anti-muslim
>stance, I'll give you his email address. You can write him and warn
>him against me.
I said to you, "do what you wish." It's just a petition that the Muslim Student Association will deliver to the Department of Homeland Security and Members of Congress, which may or may not have any impact on Professor Tariq Ramadan's visa denial problem in particular or a larger problem of increasingly restrictive border control. What I am objecting to is not Michael Dawson's or anyone's refusal to sign the petition but some of the gratuitously hateful statements made by Michael Dawson that show his ignorance and unwillingness to learn.
Dawson claims in response to a posting about the MSA petition: "Muslims have a small problem of fundamentalist intransigence" (at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040920/021097.html>).
That's a very odd thing to bring up, out of nowhere. What does the MSA petition have to do with "fundamentalist intransigence"? Nothing.
Moreover, I've already explained that we (the least of all, young people, mostly 18-22, who belong to a student organization like the MSA!) cannot be automatically held responsible for the words and deeds of intransigent fundamentalists who happen to claim to share our religion (or lack thereof), whether our belief is Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or any other religion (or atheism).
I happen to be an atheist, but I cannot be held responsible and made to apologize to all every time some atheist commits a crime, even if the crime is motivated by his atheism, and the same goes for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and other religionists. I may use my status as an atheist to condemn an atheist's crime, but my use of it has to be voluntary, rather than explicitly or implicitly compelled by others of different persuasions who insidiously tell me that "atheists have a small problem of fundamentalist intransigence" or something like that.
Dawson asks rhetorically: "Do they [the Muslim Student Association] recognize that co-habitation and even collaboration with infidels is necessary, that the whole world is never going to become Muslim? One reason I won't sign their petition is I don't want to risk supporting religious fascists, here, there, or anywhere. The opening line smacks of that" (at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040920/021056.html>). And he goes on the same theme: "And it's at least ironic that anybody would send around a petition for academic freedom and preface it with boilerplate fundamentalist phraseology" (at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040920/021097.html>).
Putting "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" at the beginning is hardly "fundamentalist phraseology," much less "supporting religious fascists"! It is common for Muslims -- including the most liberal and secular among them -- to use it as part of stationery, and it doesn't seem to mean much more than saying "God Bless You" when someone sneezes or saying "Amen!" when you hear a particularly cogent speech. As for Dawson's suggestion that the MSA fails to "recognize that co-habitation and even collaboration with infidels is necessary, that the whole world is never going to become Muslim" (at <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20040920/021056.html>), it's simply bizarre. People of various religious faiths (from political leaders of such towering stature as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X to ordinary people becoming newly politically active) have and will invoke God or use religious phrases on various occasions, including in public political discourse, but that doesn't necessarily mean any intent to refuse to cohabit and collaborate with atheists and believers in other religions, much less a belief that the whole world is going to be converted to their religion.
To sum up, even though Dawson is a college instructor on a campus where Muslim students exist, many of whom probably belong to the MSA or attend its functions, he seems unembarrassed about making all manner of horrible insinuations about Muslims in general and the MSA in particular in public.
BTW, when I signed the petition today, I was the 200th person to do so, and by now, it has 343 signature, from people of diverse religious and political backgrounds. So, those who refuse to sign it have nothing to worry about. The petition is making rounds without their help. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>