Jordan Watch : Freedom of Expression: The American Way!

When angry ordinary muslims took to the streets to protest the silly and insulting cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllandes Posten for the prophet of Islam and the spiritual inspiration of almost 1.0 billion people, Mohammad (PBUH) we heared an endless list of lectures on "freedom of expression" from European and American writers, politicians and intellectuals.

I have to admit, I am sure they are right. We have to respect freedom of expressiopn, especially when it is based on genuine facts and figures, and academic research. The problem is, some of the Europeans and Americans preach what they do not practice. In Europe around 13 countries legally prohibit any negative comments or skeptisism on the nature of the Holocaust and do not tolerate any freedoms of expressions in that particular issue. It is almost completely prohibited to ignite the feelings of Jews. Well, I do agree that we should not question a horrific historical fact, but why is it OK to insult billion muslims with silly drawings?

Crossing the Atalantic Ocean to the USA we find a more provocative system of double standards. Last week, a furious pro-Israeli lobby was active to exert enormous political, economic and even personal threats to Harvard University and one of its most respected researchers, Stephen M. Walt, academic dean of the Kennedy School for publishing a well-researched study on the impact of the Israeli lobby on the USA foreign policy.

The study is still found on the internet here and it consists of 83 pages based on 211 references. The study makes it clear that the Israeli lobby in the US, particularly the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has helped exaggerate the importance of making the protection of Israel a key part of US foreign policy.

Once the paper was released, huge pressure was exerted by pro-Israel lobby groups to the extent that Harvard took-off its logo from the paper, while one of the authors Stephen Walt resigned as Dean of Kennedy School.

In an interview with co-author Prof. John Mearsheimer, he said that the pro-Israel lobby is so powerful that he and Stephen Walt would never have been able to find an American publisher for their paper. He went on to say:

"I do not believe that we could have gotten it published in the United States," Mearsheimer told the Forward. He said that the paper was originally commissioned in the fall of 2002 by one of America's leading magazines, "but the publishers told us that it was virtually impossible to get the piece published in the United States." Most scholars, policymakers and journalists know that "the whole subject of the Israel lobby and American foreign policy is a third-rail issue," he said. "Publishers understand that if they publish a piece like ours it would cause them all sorts of problems." ...

Asked if the study may have been initially rejected by the American publisher because of poor research, Mearsheimer said that the "evidence in the piece is just the tip of the iceberg," and that the study's observations are supported by a large body of evidence.

In an nutshell, any disclosure of information, or statements of facts, or researched studies criticising the Israeli impact on US policies, and any voices that condemn the exploitation of American resources for the sole benefit of the state of Osrael is considered to be anti-semite not by ordinary people but also by felow academics, politicians and hournalists in the USA who are afraid of the Israeli lobby.

In this case, any notes we hear, as muslims and arabs, from the Americans regrading the "need to support freedom of expression" is a complete jargaon. Although I personally believe in the need for reform and more freedoms of expression in the muslim world, I will not accept any lecture from an American and European writer or researcher until he/she fully supports the freedom of expressing criticism for Israeli impact on the US policies".