Word: gharavi
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Thank you for publishing the op-ed by Johnny F. Bowman ’11, Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, and Abdelnasser A. Rashid ’11 (“On Kramer’s Statements,” Mar. 11, 2010) that was addressed to me, Professors Jeffrey Frieden and James Robinson, and President Faust. I am replying on behalf of myself alone. Their letter gives voice to their sincere reactions to Mr. Kramer’s statements, reactions that many of us feel those positions deserve. Their words are statements of resistance to attitudes that can easily be taken...
...Weatherhead Center for International Affairs cannot and will not take the specific actions that Mr. Bowman, Ms. Gharavi, and Mr. Rashid call for in their letter. This does not constitute support for Kramer’s positions—far from it. It constitutes an unswerving commitment to the principles of academic freedom and free speech, even when the content of that speech causes us institutional and personal embarrassment, which, I will be frank, it has done in this case. But please do not make the mistake of concluding that the Weatherhead Center has defended Mr. Kramer?...
...cannot indulge in Professor Walt’s speculation about “what if” the target of Kramer’s policies had been different. The WCFIA has never excommunicated an affiliate for political or policy views. We cannot go in the direction Mr. Bowman, Ms. Gharavi, and Mr. Rashid suggest—vetting associates for such positions, even on something as distasteful as racism. What we can and must do is screen our affiliates for the highest possible scholarly qualifications, and then let them burnish or ruin their own reputations by non-scholarly utterances...
...bottom line is Mr. Bowman, Ms. Gharavi, and Mr. Rashid have set an excellent example of exactly what responsible and conscientious people should do: expose and oppose views that offend them and many others. That is a much better response to the Kramer affair than a system of vetting for views on sensitive issues...
Johnny F. Bowman ’11 is president of the Undergraduate Council and a sociology concentrator in Pforzheimer House. Maryam Monalisa Gharavi is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature and co-founder of GSAS Capoeira Angola. Abdelnasser A. Rashid ’11 is president of the Harvard Islamic Society, board member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, and a social studies concentrator in Dunster House...