April 09, 2007

Terror Website Calling it Quits? Al Jazeerah Folding

Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjar claims in a statement today to be quitting his post as editor-in-chief of his website, al Jazeerah.info. Why? Because of you, the Jawa Report readers. Al Jazeerah:

I have concluded that it's not safe for me any more to continue editing Al-Jazeerah.info in this atmosphere of intimidation, which abridges freedom of speech and freedom of the press. I believed that, as an American citizen, I have these sacred rights as a given. I acknowledge now that I was wrong.

Until I'm assured of these Constitutional freedoms and rights, I'll stop editing news reports and opinion editorials about US wars and the Israeli occupation of Palestine, hoping that the campaign against my employer stops.....

The campaign seems to have started by a person called Rusty Shackleford in http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/ , then echoed by other websites and media, several of which urged people to write letters to officials in the State of Georgia, particularly in the institution I work with.

Let's not get too excited, though. His website will still remain up, although he claims it will no longer discuss the war on terror. He also claims he will no longer be editor, but that readers will be free to post. Which may just be a way of disclaiming his readers' support for terror. You know, the it wasn't me that claimed 9/11 was an inside job, it was one of my readers defense. Which is a legitimate defense, if it wasn't for the fact that any comments published at al Jazeerah are still going to have to go through El-Najjar. In other words, he's not really stepping down as editor, only as a writer.

So, good riddance. If it really is good riddance.

Let me just say a few things in response to Dr. Hassan A. El-Najjar's claims he makes in the statement.

1) Al Jazeerah is not a 'peace' website, as he claims. Dr. El-Najjar's website openly supports terror organizations. For instance, Shaikh Ahamed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, is called a 'martyr' on it. Hamas is a specially designated terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

2) He claims he is being censored. The Constitution may give him the right to spin all sorts of conspiracy theories (such as one in which he suggests that there is no Muslim on Muslim violence in Iraq, rather it is Coalition forces intentionally killing civilians to make Muslims look bad), but it also give me the right to speak out against him. That same First Amendment guarantees the right of petition, which is exactly what we are doing when we demand that Dalton State College fire this terror supporter.

Further, the First Amendment protects neither sedition nor support for the enemies of the United States. The latter is called treason. And sedition and treason is exactly what Dr. El-Najjar engages in every time he supports the Iraqi 'resistance'.

What may be the most ironic about his crying 'censorship' is that his website explicitly endorses groups such as Hamas which wish to impose Islamic law. Groups which would impose state sanctions on any who would dare criticize Mohammed or who would make it illegal for a Muslim to convert to Buddhism.

They suppport the First Amendment as long as it protects their incitements to violence, but wish to ditch its principles the moment they come to power.

3) While he may not openly discuss his antisemitic conspiracy theories in class, or try to recruit students for suicide-bombings between lectures, when Dr. El-Najjar encourages his students to visit his website (which I am told he does), he has crossed a line. Dalton State College cannot try to distance itself from the fact that they are paying the salary of a man who supports terrorism outside the classroom. He is now using his position as a professor to encourage that terrorism. The state of Georgia is then, de facto, supporting terror!

So, forcing him to stop publicly endorsing terrorism doesn't exactly seem all that draconian to me. Call me sentimental, but I recall a time when those who supported our enemies during a shooting war were put in prison.

Good work Team America, but more work remains.

Previous:

Terror Supporter and Antisemitic Conspiracy Theorist Teaches at Dalton State College, Georgia
Georgia College in Denial over Terror Supporting Teacher
Terror Supporting Georgia Professor: Students Speak Out