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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
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January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
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Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
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Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
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David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
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Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Nov. 7, 2003
/ 11 Tishrei, 5764
The death of a New York jihad hero
By
Zev Chafets
|  Doing his part for the jihad: Said throwing a stone at Israeli soldiers |
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
As far as we know, Saddam Hussein is on the loose in Iraq, Osama Bin
Laden is hiding somewhere in the tribal lands of Pakistan and Sheik
Ahmed Yassin is still dodging Israeli bombs in Gaza. But the jihad just lost a
hero right here in New York City. Edward Said, Columbia
University's famous warrior-scholar, is dead, felled at age 67 by
leukemia.
Columbia mourns. "This death is an irreplaceable loss to the realm of
ideas," said President Lee Bollinger.
Bollinger's grief is shared by many. CounterPunch, a journal of the
radical left, has run a series of fervid tributes to Said's life and work. The
Saudi government-controlled Arab News has extolled him in almost
glowing terms. Not since the Soviet-Nazi nonaggression pact of 1939
has there been such ideological harmony.
Said not only united fascists and Communists, he also served as an
ecumenical bridge. He was the rare Episcopalian admired by Hamas,
whose goal of eradicating Israel he shared; Hezbollah - which was his
host in southern Lebanon on his famous rock-throwing expedition -
and other pillars of Islamic orthodoxy.
This is not as incongruous as it might seem. Said was a dapper fellow,
known in the salons of New York for his fine piano playing and nuanced
appreciation of Jane Austen's novels. But beneath the foppish exterior
beat the heart of a martyr. His most famous book, "Orientalism,"
published in 1979, did more for the jihad than a battalion of Osamas.
Like all great polemics, "Orientalism" rests on a simple thesis:
Westerners are inherently unable to fairly judge, or even grasp, the
Arab world. In fact, any attempt to do so amounts to an act of
intellectual imperialism.
This idea was seized upon by American students of the Middle East as a
liberating insight. If they couldn't understand the Arab world - if,
indeed, studying the subject was tantamount to colonialist aggression -
then they could skip class and go out for hummus. All they needed to
become qualified Arabists was a humble attitude and a mastery of the
orthodoxies propounded by Said and other experts.
"Orientalism" made Said a hero not only in the mosques of Gaza, but in
the halls of ivy. Not since CliffsNotes has a work so simplified
scholarship. Since 1979, a generation of Saidists - professors,
diplomats and foreign correspondents - has dominated polite discourse
on the Middle East. Their animating principle is politically correct
simplicity itself: see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil about the
Arab world.
Of course, Said allowed himself to criticize Arab regimes - usually on
the grounds that they weren't sufficiently revolutionary. But he
carefully remained within the bounds of acceptable Arab opinion. He
was until his death a valued contributor to Al Ahram, the house organ
of the Egyptian government.
Said wasn't responsible for the depredations of Hosni Mubarak's regime
or any other Arab tyranny. He didn't blow up Marines in Lebanon in
1983, ignite the Palestinian intifadeh or send Wahhabi missionaries to
preach violence against infidels. He certainly didn't fly a plane into the
World Trade Center. What he did do was jam America's intellectual
radar. He wasn't the architect of 9/11, but he was the father of the 9/12
inability to comprehend it.
Ah, well, Said is in paradise now. As an Episcopalian, he's ineligible for
the customary 72 virgins, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's honored
with a couple of female doctoral candidates. No one deserves it more.
Meanwhile, the legacy lives. Like George Steinbrenner, Bollinger has
recruited a new superstar for Columbia's "realm of ideas." Rashid
Khalidy is now the enforcer of Arab authenticity in Morningside
Heights, and he's got the title to prove it: Edward Said professor of
Middle Eastern studies.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
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JWR contributor Zev Chafets is a columnist for The New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
© 2003, New York Daily News
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