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January 14, 2005
U.S. Prof Attacks Arab Muslim Student's Pro-Americanism
Topics: War on Terror - the issues.Note: Don't fail to read the updates in the extended post!
Here, in yet another example of liberal academic bias, a Calif. college teacher(Professor Joseph Woolcock at Foothill College) equates a Kuwaiti youth's love for the U.S. with mental iIllness. From the sound of it I believe that it is the good professor that needs counseling, starting with anger-management. How do you spell the sound of goose-fraaaah-baaaah?
(...) The Kuwaiti-born student has filed a school grievance against Woolcock and is urging Foothill College to adopt an Academic Bill of Rights that would prevent such ideological discrimination on the campus in the future. Meanwhile, in a strange turn of events, the professor has filed a school grievance against Al Qloushi, charging him with intimidation and harassment for mentioning his name to the media.
(AgapePress) - A Kuwaiti Arab Muslim student at a California community college says his political science professor pronounced him deranged after he wrote a paper expressing his love for the United States. According to the student, his instructor told him he needed psychiatric treatment -- all because he turned in a pro-American essay as his take-home final exam.
Ahmad Al Qloushi, a 17-year-old Foothill College freshman, says his essay defending America's founding fathers and the United States Constitution so offended Professor Joseph Woolcock that the teacher would not grade it. He says Woolcock went on to critique his ideology, telling the Kuwaiti-born youth that his native country is the 19th province of Iraq and calling his pro-American views "irrational." Read more...
UPDATE: It turns out that this 17 year-old freshman wrote the original media story himself and it appeared in FrontPageMag on Jan 6. The essay that he wrote is here. The following excerpt is from the FrontPageMag. article:
(...) "Professor Woolcock didn't grade my essay. Instead he told me to come to see him in his office the following morning. I was surprised the next morning when instead of giving me a grade, Professor Woolcock verbally attacked me and my essay. He told me, "Your views are irrational." He called me naïve for believing in the greatness of this country, and told me "America is not God's gift to the world." Then he upped the stakes and said "You need regular psychotherapy." Apparently, if you are an Arab Muslim who loves America you must be deranged. Professor Woolcock went as far as to threaten me by stating that he would visit the Dean of International Admissions (who has the power to take away student visas) to make sure I received regular psychological treatment."
(...) "This scared me. I didn't want to be deported for having written a pro-American essay, so as soon as I left his office I made an appointment with the school psychologist. She let me go with a comment that I don't need regular therapy. As I left her office, I couldn't help thinking that even my Palestinian high school teachers had never tried to silence me or put me in therapy."
If you care to voice your opinion about this matter, here is the information on Foothills College. My guess is that they would really like to hear from a lot of readers around the blogosphere:
Foothill College
12345 El Monte Road
Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
(650) 949-7777
(Maureen Chenoweth - International Student Admissions and Information)
Warren G. Hurd, Ed. D.
Dean of Faculty and Staff
Office: 650-949-7090
Fax: 650-948-4244
Email: hurdjr@fhda.edu
UPDATE 2: I spoke with Dr. Hurd this afternoon, and he was willing to share only that the student's story had begun to touch people's sense of patriatism. He offered that a formal statement from the college could be obtained from the college's PIO, Kurt Hueg. I called Mr. Hueg but was unable to reach him.
Update 3: You can e-mail Ahmad at ahmadalqloushi@sbcglobal.net
InTheBullPen and My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy are also covering this story, as is Say Anything.
Update 4: You can email the kind Professor Woolcock here:'woolcockjoe@foothill.edu' (Thanks to Carnivorous Conservative/Riehl World).
Update 5: California Yankee has applied his legal mind to review, analyze, and summarize the story in an excellent post - an important read!
The Washington Times has picked up on the story. It looks like all the blogosphere attention has finally caught the attention of the MSM.
Posted by Hyscience at January 14, 2005 3:01 PM
Hey guys, I go to Foothill and I can tell you that there are some blogger phone callers and emailers who are the ones needing "anger management". Because the college is constrained by privacy guidelines, they cannot at this time offer their side of the story, but without hearing both sides, people reading your blogs are actually sending life THREATENING calls to college offices! Please use some restraint and patience (wait for more complete information) so we conservatives are not justifiably equated with racists and harassment. This is a good college. Why haven't you attacked Berkely's intifada with such vehemence? It has been far more dangerous to the country (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=12997) .
Posted by: flugel at February 8, 2005 1:56 PM
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- U.S. Prof Attacks Arab Muslim Student's Pro-Americanism - Jan 14, 2005
