A Taliban Past, and a Cloudy Yale Future

NY Times ^ | July 6, 2006 | ALAN FINDER

[Pharmboy]

A student at Yale University who was once a roving ambassador for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been denied admission to a degree-granting program at Yale, one of the student's financial supporters said yesterday.

The student, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, apparently can continue to take courses at the university as an untraditional student in a non-degree program, as he did during the past academic year, said Tatiana Maxwell, the president of the International Education Foundation, which was created to raise money to send Mr. Hashemi to Yale.

It was uncertain yesterday whether Mr. Hashemi, who is 27, will do so; he is in Pakistan visiting his family and could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Hashemi became the focus of a contentious political and cultural debate this spring, after an article about his experience at Yale appeared in The New York Times Magazine on Feb. 26.

Yale was sharply criticized by conservatives in opinion articles in The Wall Street Journal and in other newspapers and magazines, as well as on cable news shows and blogs, for opening its classrooms to a former representative of the Taliban, who harbored Al Qaeda and are trying to destabilize the government of Afghanistan.

At the same time, a number of Yale students and professors supported Mr. Hashemi's presence at the university. They argued that he would benefit from a Yale education and from the culture of tolerance and open inquiry that prevails at a university in the West; they also said they would benefit from having him at Yale.

Yale officials declined to comment yesterday on the decision on Mr. Hashemi's application.

They indicated in a prepared statement, however, that admission into the degree-granting program for untraditional students had been made much more rigorous this year, more closely mirroring the difficulty of gaining regular

[Pharmboy]

Good...public opinion and pressure from within CAN make a difference. Even at Yale.

[E Rocc]

I never understood the big deal. He wasn't using US tax money. If the guy does convert to our ways of thinking, he becomes a powerful weapon against the Islamist nuts.

During the Cold War, many of the most effective anticommunists were disillusioned ex-reds. Think Whittaker Chambers, or Morris Childs.

-Eric

[jocon307]

Yeah, agreed, but are we going to let this idiot back in the country now? To loll about New Haven and get up to who knows what "mischief"?

[Pharmboy]

You do make a point, but these true believers are different than the commies. Very few of these radical muzzies wind up coming over to our side...

[Taiku]

"We hope he will come back and continue to do what he was doing," she said. "We really still feel strongly about the bridge he can be between two cultures that desperately need to understand each other."

All we need to understand is how to defeat them. Period.

[Carl LaFong]

He's always got a job waiting for him at the Quisling (N.Y.)Times.

[Night Hides Not]

They argued that he would benefit from a Yale education and from the culture of tolerance and open inquiry that prevails at a university in the West

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

The left is more tolerant to the Taliban and al Qaeda than they are to conservatives.

Can you imagine the uproar if he wanted to join ROTC?

[NewHampshireDuo]

They argued that he would benefit from a Yale education and from the culture of tolerance and open inquiry that prevails at a university in the West; they also said they would benefit from having him at Yale.

OK, by extension then Yale should also admit a few felons, KKK members, etc. so that they can also benefit.

[pikachu]

Yale should also admit a few felons, KKK members, etc. so that they can also benefit.

I was under the impression they were already admitting Democrats /sarcasm-mild-off

[CertainInalienableRights]

Yale should also admit a few felons, KKK members, etc. so that they can also benefit.

I think they have - they call them "faculty".

[george76]

Yale is a place that forbids ROTC from training on campus on one hand, but at the same time welcomes an unrepentant high official of one of the vilest regimes in recent history.

In 2002, Yale turned down an opportunity to admit a group of academically qualified Afghan women, but a couple of years later they admit their oppressor.

There’s something culturally wrong with a place that tolerates that sort cognitive dissonance...


http://hotair.com/archives/top-picks/2006/07/05/breaking-decision-reached-on-yale-taliban/

[george76]

One would think the Left would celebrate this as a victory for liberal values. They won’t.

Everyone hates the woman-beating, finger-chopping, head-hacking, gay-smashing, terrorist-abetting Taliban, right?

Apparently, not as much as they hate Fox News and John Fund.


http://hotair.com/archives/top-picks/2006/07/05/breaking-decision-reached-on-yale-taliban/

[george76]

Yale has politicized its admissions process ...when they first admitted a high official of an evil regime we are still at war with, one that is still killing our troops in Afghanistan.

If they couldn’t see the country being outraged, they’re unspeakably naïve.

Second, they’ll say that Hashemi was just a poor little lamb who had gone astray, and he has repented of his Taliban service. ...

I challenge anyone to show me anything he’s done or said to prove he’s repented of his service to the Taliban... Hashemi has done far less to oppose the Taliban than…

…well, than The New York Times’ Eric Lichtblau and James Risen have done recently to assist them.

http://hotair.com/archives/top-picks/2006/07/05/breaking-decision-reached-on-yale-taliban/

[george76]

Talibanned.

[Grampa Dave]

The power of money from graduates and parents can be a great equalizer at some of these left wing universities.

[nutmeg]

Connecticut ping!

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