Letter to McCranium

Jim@McCranium.org

Dear Jim.


Not sure if you remember but we have met at DL in Seattle.

I have a problem that you may be able to help with. For reasons I do not understand, Lee Rosenberg has set out on a campaign of character assassination against me. He has even threatened to mount some sort of campaign to have my UW tenure removed.

He claims to have discussed this with you and that you share his feelings on this. That bothers me a great deal.

The specific issue has to do with Mr. Haq, At the time of his arrest , I was distressed by the effort at mass murder and wrote about my concerns that tolerance not extend to tolerance of bigotry.

FWIW, this was two years ago but somehow it has stuck in Lee's craw. Now he claims I have been on some sort of an effort to vilify the Tri Cities Muslim Center. He claims that I blamed them for Haq's actions. If you read the blog you will see this is simply far, far from the truth,

For what is worth (and you are welcome to read my blog) the blog never mentioned any specifics about Mr. Haq's education. I did talk and write about the issue of wahabiism and the fact that we should be concerned that wahabi ideas are being taught in the US . I provided links to a very good study of Muslim curricula at that time and to effort in the Muslim community to reform.

Lee equates this with an attack on the Tri Cities Muslim community. Frankly I know far to little about the community to make such an assertion. I do know is that Haq received a Muslim education there and his view of Islam led to a terrible decision. Obviously that should raise concerns about how Islam is taught in any school, not just the one Mr. Haq attended. I have written that I see this as a warning flag, hardly the sort of hate speech Lee Rosenberg is spreading.

FWIW, I have made similar comments about other sources of bigotry. I am, unfortunately aware, that the Roman catechism prior to John XXIII, did contain a lot of bigotry vs. the Jews. In my own childhood, students studying these horrid texts stoned me in retribution for the murder of their God. The Dutch Reform Church of South Africa, the WWII Japanese Shinto religion, and the Kach movement in my own people are more than enough examples of this sort of thing.

My bottom line is that I value my reputation of integrity. If you know of anything I have actually done that was wrong or anything lee is saying about my beliefs, I would appreciate constructive feedback.

SeattleJew.

Anyhow, Lee has for reasons I do not understand tried to paint this as bigotry on MY part.