Taliban at Yale

So much has been written about the New York Times' flattering piece on Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, the "Roving Ambassador for the Taliban" turned Yale Student, that I do not have much to add.

My friend, Jamie Kirchick, writing for the Yale Daily News takes Hashemi to task:

There is little evidence to show Hashemi's beliefs have changed much; indeed, available information indicates his views on world affairs hardly differ from ignorant conspiracy theories so common today in the Muslim world. In an article posted on the Web site of the organization sponsoring his stay in the U.S., he writes, "Seemingly, like the poor Taliban, common Americans are ignorant of the fact that their franchise state of Israel in the Middle East is serving as an American al-Qaida against the Arab world."

While some members of our elite may agree with Hashemi, I don't recall Israel's call for jihad "against the Arab world," its desires to impose sharia, or its decision to brutally murder thousands of innocent civilians. To Hashemi, I must be yet another common, ignorant American ...

And then, in a detailed piece on the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal, John Fund has the goods on Hashemi, unveiling both his failure to repent for serving one of the world's most brutal regimes and Yale's warm embrace of the Taliban apologist. Meanwhile, the university keeps ROTC (officer training for the United States military) seventy miles from campus. One cannot help but doubt where lays the allegiance of many in the university.

Taking that cue, Flagg Youngblood, my former colleague at McMaster-Carr Supply Co., delivers a knock-out punch to Yale's supposed "support of those [of] those who wish to make such a commitment [to ROTC] and [its belief that] the leadership these students provide." Never mind ROTC's absence,

Yale also filed a friend of the court brief in 2004 supporting the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights' failed bid to keep military recruiters off campus. Fortunately, the Supreme Court rejected Yale's logic on March 6 with an 8-0 decision in Rumsfeld vs. FAIR. If this is support, I cannot imagine disapproval.

And yet out of this debate, one can find reasons for optimism. Now that he is here, Jamie Kirchick recognizes that:

We should welcome Hashemi, in hopes that American pluralism -- eating in a kosher dining hall, taking classes alongside girls and gays -- will help him liberalize his homeland. Rahmatullah Hashemi has much more to learn from Americans and Yale than we do from him.

Hashemi's presence has also heightened the public's awareness of the Ivory Tower's prevelant moral relativism, anti-Americanism, and antipathy to service. In fact, his acceptance might promt calls to reform academia, and even hasten ROTC's return to campus.