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McCarthyism and The Jewish Week
2007-11-21
What's interesting about today's article in the Jewish Week is that the writer, Larry Cohler-Esses, uses the same tactics that he decries in his recent article, The New McCarthyism, criminalizing Debbie for her association at the November 19th event with "radical" allies like AWAAM, Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) NY, which has endured an slanderous attack claiming that it supports violence and terrorism, and Councilman Charles Barron. Meanwhile, Carol Horowitz of Brooklyn for Peace in her letter to the editor asks:
Where are the words in your article from Rabbi Matalon?
Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor Of Psychology and reknowed
eduator? Steve Questor from UFT? Gladys Sotomayor, Latina member of
the KGIA design team? Councilmember Robert Jackson, Chair of the
Education Committee? Abdeen Jabara former President of the Arab
American Anti Discrimination League? Bill Henning, Vice President of
the Communication Workers of America? Donna Nevel, Center for
Immigrant Families? and so many others from so many ethnic, religious,
and racial backgrounds and walks of life in support of Ms.
Almontaser's stellar educational background and fitness for the
position of Prinicipal of KGIA?
Cohler spoke with a coalition-member the day before the article's release to warn him that the angle was mainly his editor's doing, and that he had to cater to his readership. Well, guess what Larry, you're a big boy and an experienced journalist. If you were also an ethical journalist, you would have killed the story when your editor suggested changing the whole tone of it to cater to a supposedly racist and prejudiced readership. It is the responsibility of journalists to present the truth without bias. Any respectable newspaper makes positive assumptions about its readers' ability to question and analyze issues. Luckily, the mainstream Jewish community, to which the Jewish week claims to cater, has stood strong with us and with Debbie in our efforts to hold Chancellor Klein, Randy Weingarten, and Mayor Bloomberg accountable for their shameful actions against not the just New York's Arab and Muslim communities, but against all of us who seek quality education for our kids and safety on our streets.*
Mona Eldahry
Founding Director
AWAAM
*FBI and community reports show that hate crimes increase in realation to media campaigns that "have hyped the dangers of Islamic radicalization, seeing Muslim or pro-Arab radicals everywhere they look, and targeting academic freedom in the name of patriotism and the "War on Terror." From "Jeffery Wiesenfeld, Islamophobia, and the Madrassa", The Advocate.
Listen to our young women's first-hand experiences of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab interactions on the street.