Word: emerson
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This past Wednesday, Steven Emerson, an award-winning investigative reporter, and in the words of the New York Post, "the nation's foremost journalistic expert on terrorism," was invited to deliver the Alisa Flatow Memorial Lecture at the Harvard Law School. Emerson screened his powerful PBS documentary "Jihad in America," delivered some prepared remarks and fielded questions for over an hour...
...Jihad in America" is a meticulously substantiated account of Islamic fundamentalist activity in the United States. And, anyone who came to Emerson's presentation with an open mind was confronted with a level-headed, informative and compelling exposition of the very real threat that Islamic militants pose to America and the world. Unfortunately, Emerson was met with a reactionary smear campaign organized by official representatives of this campus's Muslim community...
Outside the lecture hall where Emerson spoke, leaders of the Harvard Islamic Society and Muslim Law Students Association gathered to distribute flyers vilifying Emerson's character, accusing him of racism and seeking to tie him to the presumably nefarious forces of "Israeli intelligence." One woman distributing material informed me matter-of-factly, "Emerson's film has already been discredited." In fact, the film has been enthusiastically acclaimed in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and was awarded the prestigious George Polk Award for journalistic excellence...
...similar discrepancy with reality characterized much of the propaganda disseminated. Collections of inaccurate quotes attributed to Emerson and critical excerpts from publications such as the "Weekly Planet," were offered to attendees of the lecture. It is particularly telling that while it was students who distributed the defamatory leaflets, much of the material itself was compiled and provided by an off-campus group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR...
...Both Emerson and the students appreciated the question and answer time. Emerson said he was glad for an opportunity to clarify his views, while members of the Muslim community took advantage of the time to expose what they saw as a vast number of generalizations in both Emerson's film and statements...