Christian Action Network picks up on Bassam Frangieh story, joining the ranks of StandWithUs, FrontPageMag, YAF, among others.
Alumni continue to email me asking how to get in touch with Claremont McKenna College after the revelations that Bassam Frangieh supports Hezbollah and Hamas. Here’s how you can get in touch with them.
- John Faranda (John.Faranda@cmc.edu)
- Richard Rodner (Richard.Rodner@cmc.edu)
Here’s what they will likely tell you based on what I have heard back from some alumni:
- That Frangieh is beloved by the students which is why he won a prize for teaching. They will leave out that no students knew of his radical views and that he’s known on campus for being a very easy grader, which might explain why the program has grown so quickly. Since then, a lot of students have told me that they would reconsider voting for him in light of these charges. You might also bring up what relevance his charm has with his radical views. If anything, it’s evidence that he is duplicitous -- saying one thing in Arabic and saying another in English.
That Frangieh doesn’t support terrorism. If Frangieh believes, as he has stated that Hezbollah and Hamas ought to be legitimate governments of Lebanon and Palestine, respectively, it follows that he doesn’t not view their targeting of civilians as terrorism. This is a common dodge that supporters of these terrorist organizations have used in the past. Terrorism is a tactic, not a goal. What we really want to know is does he support those organizations’ ends: the extermination of Jews world-wide; denials of the Holocaust; the obliteration of Israel. Will Frangieh act on boycotting Israel has he has promised? That Frangieh is not a Muslim. I’m not sure why this is coming up over and over again, especially given that I have written repeatedly that he is a Christian, but I have a few plausible theories. First, it is meant to discredit me sub silentio. If Frangieh is a Christian and not a Muslim as some have thought, then it follows that I must have other facts not in order. Of course I do have all my facts in order, but the college wants to wiggle out of this, so they’ll dissemble if they need to, especially given the close relationships that the college is developing in the Middle East. I wonder, though, if, as the college has implausibly claimed -- that Frangieh was vetted before he arrived on campus -- does this mean that someone who was a Muslim and held these views would not be hired by the college? If so, isn’t this some kind of double standard? If so, isn’t that a form of bigotry? That I am “obsessed,” “just some conservative kid,” or on a “crusade” (funny choice of words, no?) against Frangieh. (These are various things that have been relayed back to me by various alumni or parents.) Unfortunately, the college wants to make the story about me, rather than the really serious charges I am leveling and the support for terrorism that I have exposed. This is too bad because this ain’t a usual “Charles C. Johnson story” as I have heard it dismissed. This is a story with wide-legs and I still have more information to release.
I happen to think that the truth will win out. Spin doctoring, as the college persists in doing, will only hurt the college more, with more and more alumni refusing to donate to the college they otherwise love. In turn, this will hurt the school, but it seems to be the only thing that Claremont McKenna College understands.
