Open Letter to President Roth

, by Martin Benjamin,

Dear Michael,

From your 9/10 blog: “On the faculty list serve this week Wesleyan’s Muslim Chaplain, Marwa Aly, sent a thoughtful, heartfelt message deploring the hate speech being directed at Muslims in many parts of the country. She asks for something as basic as it is important: that we act with care and understanding toward members of our community, and that we stand up to hate when it is expressed around us.” Michael, context being a Wesleyan mantra, let me lay a little context on you: according to FBI statistics, anti-Semitic hate speech occurs ten times more often than hate speech directed at Muslims.

Did Chaplain Aly’s “thoughtful, heartfelt message deploring hate speech being directed at Muslims,” deplore the hate speech directed by Muslims at the Infidel? Or did her message go along with the mainstream Muslim flow?  “…there have been no mass demonstrations in the capitals of what we now routinely call ‘the Muslim world’ to protest jihadism –  no crowd shouting: ‘Not in my name! Not in the name of my religion!’  We’ve seen instead protesters carrying signs saying, ‘Behead those who insult Islam!’” – Clifford D. May, in nationalreview.com, Sept. 16.

If “Behead those who insult Islam!” isn’t hate speech, what is? But, should you ever venture into the land of the un-elite (the land outside your postmodernist Mecca), you’d find that actions speak louder than words. What actions?  “…scores of terrorist attacks including the August 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid, the July 2005 suicide bombings in London, and the October 2005 suicide bombings in Bali. Also multiple suicide bombings in Iraq. Also: the videotaped beheadings of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg. (More recently) Maj. Nidal Malid Hasan and the massacre at Fort Hood, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and the attempted Christmas Day bombing, Faisal Shahzad and the attempted Times Square bombing….” – ibid.

Did Chaplain Aly take the occasion of 9/11’s commemoration to lament that day’s mass killing and offer words of comfort to the families of the victims? Under the Old Dispensation (before the Descent of the One We’ve Been Waiting For), our chaplains would dispense their stores of comfort on a “first come, first served” basis, regardless of race, creed, or religion. Under the New Dispensation, those of us not of the Tribe of Ishmael might well begin to wonder whether we’ve become the new underserved, “the other.”

And somewhere have I missed an expression of YOUR words of comfort? In your 9/10-dated infomercial for Chaplain Aly’s cri de coeur, there isn’t as much as a passing mention of 9/11; it must have been consigned to the dustbin of your mind.

Have you funded your program? Granted, you’ve halved the libraries’ budget for books (who needs ’em?) and pink-slipped a bevy of secretaries to pay for your toy, so, clearly, you’re off to a good start. However, the hobby-horses which your garden-variety robed and tasseled ideologue parades about are high-end entertainers – they rock.

No rocker, your global warming nag. Could be it’s caught a cold. No doubt you’ll be trying to warm it over, like yesterday’s mashed potatoes, via Old Faithful, your weekly spout.

However, don’t number me among the many who harbor a long-shot hope of finding a course of action (of course it would have to be foolproof) that would cap your spill. For, after the last of your few remaining readers have died of malnutrition, you’ll still have me, the diehard whose job it is to interpret the slippery entrails of your mind.

Martin Benjamin ‘57

22 Comments

  1. dr.music

    “RESEARCHERS LINK SCHIZOPHRENIA AND VIOLENT PSYCHOs DUE TO ISLAMIC VIELS AND BURKHAS”
    ‘Researchers say babies born with low vitamin D levels may have an increased risk of developing schizophrenia later in life.
    ‘The three-year study tested blood samples from babies in Denmark and found having low vitamin D levels doubles the risk of developing the disorder.
    ‘The findings could encourage pregnant women to get more sunshine or take a vitamin D supplement. {And NOT wear a burka or niqab! – dda}
    ‘Professor John McGrath, from the Queensland Brain Institute, says the study is further evidence of vitamin D’s link to brain development.
    “Many years ago we thought it was totally implausible to prevent schizophrenia, it seemed to be such a mysterious, poorly understood group of illnesses,” he said.
    “I think this new result suggests that maybe it will be possible to prevent schizophrenia.”
    Now, let’s think about it. Yemen. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Afghanistan. The more rigidly-Muslim Muslims, everywhere; generations of women totally covered-up whenever they go outside.The likelihood that many or most of those women are Vitamin D deficient is high; and if they’re Vitamin D deficient during pregnancy, then their babies’ brain development may be seriously compromised.
    It should be noted that at the end of a news report on women being forced to wear hijab in Gaza University
    the following information was included:
    ‘Lack of Vitamin D because of veils”
    ‘A Jordanian study published this week asserted that 87% of women between the ages of 18 and 70 in Jordan suffer from a lack of Vitamin D as a result of insufficient sun exposure and not enough milk consumption.
    ‘The researchers linked this phenomenon to wearing the hijab. ‘According to the findings, **92% of women who wear a hijab suffer from a lack of Vitamin D** ‘This figure increases to 96%, according to the survey, when it comes to women who cover their faces as well with a niqab.”
    Put that information together with the results of the Danish study and it appears that those who wear the Muslim female slave rag, whatever form of it they wear, stand a very good chance of scrambling their babies’ brains. SO THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE A WOMAN IN A BURKHA REMEMBER THE CULT OF ISLAM IS FORCING WOMEN TO LITERALLY BREED VIOLENT PSCHYCOS.
    MUSLIMS ARE SLOWLY REALISING THAT ISLAM IS HARAM.
    ——————————————-
    PURE MUSLIM IS A TERM FOR A VERY VERY EVIL HUMAN BEING.
    INDIA PIONEERED MATHEMATHICS AND GAVE THE WORLD THE NUMER ZERO AND NOW INDIA HAS PIONEERED MOSQUE DEMOLISHING AND SHOWN HOW ISLAM SHOULD BE DEALT IT’S FINAL BLOWS……IT’S A SMALL START BUT A GOOD START. THE KHYBER PASS WAS INDIA’S CURSE. ANYWAY…. LET THEM BUILD MORE MOSQUES….AND MORE MOSQUES…. THE BACKLASH WILL BE SAVORY AND FIERCE…ISLAM IS IN IT’S DEATH RIGORS…HENCE ALL THIS SHOUTING AND KILLING AND BURNING…HAS TO HAPPEN….MECCA IS THE HEAD-QUARTERS OF ISLAM THE MAFIA CULT STARTED BY DON-MOHA-MAD….AS THE NAME SUGGESTS…A TOTAL LUNATIC.
    MOSQUES ARE JUST BUILDINGS …WE WILL SOON TEAR THEM ALL DOWN .
    KORANS ARE JUST WORTHLESS toilet-PAPER…WE WILL SOON BURN THEM ALL after using them to wipe out our you know what from our you know wheres.
    ISLAM IS JUST A NEW SMALL-POX….WE WILL SOON STAMP IT OUT AND ERRADIATE IT FROM OUR PLANET. BLOOD WILL FLOW…BUT WHEN HAS IT NOT SINCE ISLAM WAS INVENTED IN THE CRASSNESS OF THE DESERT.
    THE ERRADICATION OF ISLAM SHOULD BE CALLED OPERATION DESERT-GLASS.

  2. dr.music

    READ SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY… THE FOLLOWING IS ALSO ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN….COPY AND PASTE AND READ OFTEN AND GET PEOPLE TO READ IT TOO…
    A short list of MANY murderous verses in the filthy koran:
    “Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them.” Koran 2:191
    “Make war on the infidels living in your neighborhood.” Koran 9:123
    “When opportunity arises, kill the infidels wherever you catch them.” Koran 9:5
    “Any religion other than Islam is not acceptable.” Koran 3:85
    “The Jews and the Christians are perverts; fight them.”… Koran 9:30
    “Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam” Koran 5:33
    “Punish the unbelievers with garments of fire, hooked iron rods, boiling water; melt their skin and bellies.” Koran 22:19
    “The unbelievers are stupid; urge the Muslims to fight them.” Koran 8:65
    “Muslims must not take the infidels as friends.” Koran 3:28
    “Terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an.” Koran 8:12
    “Muslims must muster all weapons to terrorize the infidels.” Koran 8:60
    Mohammed couldn’t read or write, so illiteracy is Sunna. And as he was a violent warlord, violence is Sunna. Sunna : Generally applied term in Islam, denoting what is the customary practice. Article in the LookLex / Encyclopaedia.
    FARSI QUOTATION FROM KOMEINI’S BOOK, TITLED “TAHIR-OL-MASAEL”.
    The innocent people of all races, religions, and cultures are at war with Islam. This is the hardest and most difficult concept for people to understand. The same materials being studied by Hamas, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Taliban are the exact materials being distributed across America and INDIA and everywhere that muslims reside…. and provided to innocent young Muslim children to study in order to be ‘Pure Muslim’. PURE MUSLIM IS A TERM FOR A VERY VERY EVIL HUMAN BEING.

  3. dr.music

    Islam is a cult and mosques are meeting halls for evil designs. Islam has no prayers …islam has just a bunch of slogans that slander the rest of the planet’s people who are not muslim and never will be. The mafia cult of islam was started by don moha-mad in the heat and dust of the arab desert. Don moha-mad was an uneducated evil man who must have been really evil and loony to frighten the half assed arabs. Islam is an evil cult masquerading as a religion.
    Soon the world court judges will call it’s bluff.
    Relax.

  4. dr.music

    True Muslims consider evil-Mohammed the most honourable of all men, and see nothing wrong in emulating his evil activities.
    This is but one major reason, why Islam must be stopped in its infiltration of our Humane and Spiritual Society.
    Since evil Islam upholds this type of dogma, not one evil Mosque should be allowed in any self respecting society.
    Presently since many Muslim’s are Indians .Americans etc..and follow Mohammed’s Words, they should be levied a Poll Tax, for the Security costs needed to protect our Society and Citizens. Mosques should also have a special Tax and Subject to Closure, if found guilty of inciting by using Mohammed’s words.
    A guaranteed IMPURE DEATH PENALTY instituted, for those who plan and activate mass slaughter in our society.
    No Bordello in Paradise reward as per their belief.
    Islam is not a religion and mosques are not prayer halls.
    Islam is a cult and mosques are meeting halls for evil designs. Islam has no prayers …islam has just a bunch of slogans that slander the rest of the planet’s people who are not muslim and never will be. The mafia cult of islam was started by don moha-mad in the heat and dust of the arab desert. Don moha-mad was an uneducated evil man who must have been really evil and loony to frighten the half assed arabs. Islam is an evil cult masquerading as a religion.
    Soon the world court judges will call it’s bluff. Relax.
    They are all burning the koran…..thank god…listen you muslim idiots…islam is not a religion….it just wants to be one ..desperately…hence all these threats to be taken seriously or else…islam is a cult…started by a mad man for men to become mad and live madly….look how it treats women and children…to be born into islam is very bad luck but to get an education and yet stay in islam is just plain cowardice… Don’t you agree? If the clause in the evil-master document of evil (the koran that should always be burnt) that states “kill those who leave islam” was not there or was removed today how long do you think islam would survive? A week …2 weeks..maybe.. Get real muslim boy s and girls… We’re all reading the translations of the koran …. The arabs have you by the balls…they are the only ones who profit from the mafia of islam…. And don moha-mad’s hot climate rants. Get a grip on your life…and on your family and exit the mafia -cult you dick-heads. Don’t worry we’ll sort out the arabs for you soon enough. But first have some guts.
    Want some more good advice…mafia boys and girls?

    In Islam .. There is nothing else better than money .. “Favors”

  5. dr.music

    ISLAM MUST BE DESTROYED!!!
    HOW WILL YOU CONTRIBUTE ?
    A “phobia” is an irrational fear. Thus, “homophobia” is an irrational fear of homosexuality.
    Which, of course, is silly on several levels. ISLAMOPHOBIA REFERS TO AN IRRATIONAL FEAR.
    BUT FEAR OF ISLAM IS TOTALLY RATIONAL.
    SO THE TERM ISLAMOPHOBIA IS NOT JUST SILLY, BUT IT IS MISLEADING, IN A HAZARDOUS WAY.

  6. dr.music

    DOES ANY MUSLIM KNOW WHY OTHER CULTURES DON’T NAME THEIR KIDS MOHA-MAD ? I’LL TELL YOU…IT’S BECAUSE MOHA-MAD IS THE DIRTIEST NAME ON THE PLANET. THE DIRTIEST DIRTIEST DIRTIEST. NOW YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT ISLAM THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE YOU READ THIS….AND YES YOU’RE WELCOME. ANYTIME LOOK AT THE BEAUTY AROUND YOU MADE BY THE KAFFIRS THAT ISN’T MESSED UP. WITH DICK-HEAD ARABIC AND THINK…. IF ISLAM CONTINUES YOUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN WILL BE SLAVES TOO AND THERE WILL BE NO KAFFIRS LEFT AND ALL YOU’LL HAVE IS POVERTY ALL AROUND YOU AND THE ARABS WILL ALWAYS BE YOUR MASTERS AND YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING BECAUSE THEY OWN THAT STUPID KORAN AND IT TELLS YOU THAT YOU HAVE TO NOT HAVE A LIFE OTHER THAN ISLAM BECAUSE ISLAM SAYS SO. MOSQUES LOOK STUPID ANY WAY YOU SEE THEM SO A THOUSAND MOSQUES LOOK A THOUSAND TIMES STUPID AND ALL THEY TEACH IS STUPIDITY BECAUSE THE STUPID BOOK SAYS IT IS SO. THERE WON’T BE PEOPLE LIKE ME AROUND TO GUIDE YOUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN’S CHILDREN TO GET OUT OF THIS EVIL CULT OF ISLAM STARTED BY AN EVIL EVIL AND DEMENTED MAN WHO HATED WOMEN AND CHILDREN BUT PEPPERED HIS LANGUAGE FLOWERFULLY WITH WORDS LIKE HUMANITY ETC, WHICH HE’S TWISTED SO BADLY AND CRUELLY THAT THE SIMPLE ARABS JUST FELL FOR IT. BUT…. YOU DON’T HAVE TO…SORRY ABOUT THE CAP LOCKS …. BUT I THINK ISLAM HAS DEADENED YOUR LOGIC TOO MUCH. LOOK AROUND YOU …READ THE KORAN…MOHA-MAD WAS A CERTIFIED VERY EVIL MAD MAN….WHAT DO YOU THINK…JUST READ THE KORAN…JUST READ THE CRAP IN IT AND MAKE A JUDGMENT FOR YOUR KIDS….REMEMBER…THE KORAN SAYS YOU CAN’T QUESTION IT ….BALLS….NO ONE CONTROLS YOUR MIND…NO ONE…DEFINITELY NOT A LONG DEAD MAD MAN AS YOU’LL SEE… USE LOGIC…YOU KNOW ENGLISH… THAT’S A SUPERB START….. COME ON MAN …THINK !!!

  8. John deWills

    I think dr.music is completely and totally right.
    This PC nonsence with islam has to stop and people like dr.music have to be heard because he is totally right. His comments are true. Can you not see the truth?

  10. Rubina Khan

    I’m a muslim and i can’t get out of this lifestyle because of male pressure and death threats all sanctioned by the koran and islam.
    Dr.music is right on all counts. Thank you for speaking up for us women who are slaved by islam.

  12. alumna '07

    Every time I see a stream of hate in the Argus I don’t have to look, I know it’s Martin Benjamin. Batshit insane? Yes. Bigoted? Yes!! Painfully ignorant in a way that completely belies his Wesleyan education? YES!! But he sure is consistent about it.

    Martin, on the off chance you read this text on the newfangled series of tubes known as the internet, you don’t seem to love Wes, and I have yet to encounter a single current or recent student, alum, professor or administrator that claims to really love you, so why don’t you give it a rest? I assure you you’re not winning hearts or minds, you’re just that weird old guy who hangs out in the computer labs and who writes Wespeaks that angrily lash out at Wesleyan and/or that are completely at odds with what the majority of the Wesleyan community believes.

  13. Dick Rider (LOL), nah but i'm a current sophomore

    racism is prejudice with power. jews (broadly speaking) have power in that APAC cripples any American president who tries to get Israel to obey international law and stop the settlements and divide the capital. furthermore, anti-semitism is deplored in the mainstream american discourse, when not in a humorous, Woody Allen sort of way. the chaplain’s letter was responding to a permeation into the mainstream of dehumanizing islamophobia that implicitly suggests that Muslim’s are 1. all responsible for the actions of 19 people 2. not real americans. why should our chaplain, just because she is muslim, feel the need to personally pay respects to 9/11 victims just because she wrote the week of the anniversary? it was 9 years ago, and tragic, but we need to stop letting it define our geopolitics and our nation debate. think about how many muslims have been killed by america, directly or indirectly since. i gotta do work so i’m gonna stop venting, but that letter makes me really angry. jews don’t have their synagogues burned or protested against. thats the difference. and if you don’t see moderate muslims condemning extremism, you’re not looking.

  14. Dick Rider (LOL), nah but i'm a current sophomore

    also, that racist poster before, dr. music:

    i’m not going to respond to your entire assinine arguement (don’t have the mettle to read it), but quoting objectionable quran verses isn’t a valid arguement against islam. there are disgusting parts of the old and new testaments as well. that is an arguement against biblical (or quranic) literalism.

  16. Soph

    LAWL WE”RE ALL GON* DIE I H8 RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IT IS SO UNAMERKAN.

    Seriously though, nice organized trolling. Good thing extremist Christians have never killed anyone. I’m glad the Tiller family has been kept whole. I’m glad Eric Prince didn’t defend killing civilians on the lines of religious warfare.

    Oh wait…

    But yes I agree with dick boy, Dr. Music brings up a good point that if these sacred texts are taken at face value, we can make any religion seem CRAA44AA4ZZZ2ZZY. Perhaps the nice Doctor has done this all in satire?

  17. Melody Moezzi, 2001

    As a Muslim-American Iranian writer and commentator and the Executive Director of an interfaith organization, I frequently write and speak out in the media against intolerance and injustices of all kinds–against Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Blacks, Gays, whatever. This isn’t a competition. We’re not trying to push you out as a minority that experiences discrimination and win the prize for most discriminated against minority (which I think EASILY goes to the lgbt community–which I don’ t think wants that prize).

    If anything, we should all be working together. And I encourage you to take a look at the kinds of things I write and say–along with MANY of my other Muslim colleagues in the media. Just like Judaism and all the other great faiths of the world, Islam is neither a monolith nor an entity that acts on its own. PEOPLE act, and people are flawed. You can call yourself a Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist or Baha’i, but you may not in fact ACT like one.

    And by the way, you might want to learn what jihad truly means. I write a blog for Ms. Magazine from the perspective of a feminist jihadist and proudly claim the term b/c what it refers to is a person who fights oppression of all kinds.

  18. I believe

    Dr. Music is simply combing things that have been said on the internet already. It’s to make a point of the hate that exists out there.

  19. heyluka trolle

    I’m a racist bastard and I definitely agree with dr. music. He’s right on all counts. Also, I was once muslim and a woman and back them I agreed with him too.

    I would post many times under different pseudonyms, agreeing with myself, but I just don’t have time. I have to go and demonize and stereotype and entire religion and it’s very time consuming.

    —

    Mr. Benjamin, in your letter, before your grammar deteriorates and you stop speaking coherent English, you were making a point about hate speech. Unfortunately, you completely missed President Roth and the Chaplain’s purpose.

    There is hate speech in the world. It is all bad. Condemning one bit of it does not condone the rest. If I say “anti-semitism is bad”, I am not saying “but any opinion any Jew anywhere holds, no matter how bigoted, is okay by me.”

    So yes, “Behead those who insult Islam!” is hate speech and the terrorists who say these things are regularly condemned by Islamic people in countries where it is safe to do so (http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1009/08/lkl.01.html). So no, you don’t get people in Iraq protesting as such, because they have a survival instinct.

    Finally, your letter was open and still addressed to someone. Might I suggest USPS next time? And did you know that in fact, *no one uses secretaries in Academia, practically anywhere, anymore*?

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