Harvard’s decision to drop courses by Subramanian Swamy, a welcome step says Indian American group

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Indian American Muslim Council (http://www.iamc.com) an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos, has applauded Harvard University for dropping courses taught by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy over his exercise of hate-speech and demonstration of intolerance and bigotry, in an article for an Indian publication named DNA.

In the article published in DNA on July 16, 2011, Dr. Swamy spewed venom against Indian Muslims, by attempting to associate the entire Muslim population with acts of terror and calling for restraints on their freedom of religion, besides calling for anti-Constitutional measures such as declaring India a “Hindu Rashtra.” The article also called for the destruction of 300 mosques as retribution for what Dr. Swamy perceives are goals of “Islamic” terrorism.

Harvard University

“Mr. Swamy’s extremist and hate-filled views can be gauged from the fact that he has proposed various methods of profiling an entire population of 150 million Indian Muslims as a solution to the problem of terrorism in India,” said Mr. Shaheen Khateeb, President of IAMC, in a letter addressed to Harvard President Dr. Drew Faust, expressing IAMC’s profound appreciation for Harvard’s decision to drop courses taught by Dr. Swamy. “History bears witness that when such ideologies of hate have been allowed to be propagated without corrective action it has led us to confront various evils like slavery, genocide, systematic segregation, extreme poverty, public humiliation and racism,” the letter added.

Dr. Swamy wrote in the article: “The first lesson to be learnt from the recent history of Islamic terrorism against India and for tackling terrorism in India is that the Hindu is the target and that Muslims of India are being programmed by a slow reactive process to become radical and thus slide into suicide against Hindus. It is to undermine the Hindu psyche and create the fear of civil war that terror attacks are organized.” Besides this kind of fear-mongering, Dr. Swamy sought to undermine the very basis of India’s Constitution, by calling for disenfranchisement of Muslims who refuse to acknowledge their Hindu ancestry “with pride.”

While Dr. Swamy is entitled to his bigoted views, in his individual capacity, his public pronouncements of hate against the Muslim population, and attempts to sow the seeds of strife and discord among people of different faiths cannot be allowed to go unchecked. Harvard’s decision to drop courses by Dr. Swamy, is in keeping with Harvard’s standing as an institution of higher learning where the faculty and students are held to high standards of responsible public behavior.

IAMC has called upon people of all faiths not to allow Dr. Swamy’s inflammatory rhetoric to adversely impact communal harmony and to work towards strengthening India’s pluralist society where people of all faiths can live together on the basis of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.

Indian American Muslim Council is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with 10 chapters across the nation.

For more information please visit our new website at www.iamc.com.

RELATED LINKS:

There is no room for hateful rhetoric at Harvard
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/12/12/swamy-racism-dismissal/

Harvard Drops Subramanian Swamy
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/12/08/harvard-drops-subramanian-swamy/