One of UK’s top professors is speaking out against accusations that were made last February when he was labeled as one of the most dangerous professors in America by a New York Times best-selling author.
Professor Ishan Bagby, a professor of Islamic Studies at UK, was one of the 101 professors across the U.S. named in David Horowitiz’s book “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.”
Bagby wants people to know that the accusations were made by a man whom he describes as having a narrow mind when it comes to the freedoms and liberties in the academic world.
“This is a man who has a very divisive agenda,” Bagby said. “Basically he views any professor that is pro-Palestinian, pro-Islam, pro-women as being dangerous.”
Because of this, Bagby describes the list as being an honor to those professors who teach students to think for themselves.
“Most of the people listed (in the book) considered it a badge of honor to be considered in the company of these people,” Bagby said. “I myself do not think I’m extreme in any of those categories, and some of those people that were listed I consider to be some of the greatest scholars that America has, so I was very honored to be in that company.”
Horowitz paints a disturbing picture of Bagby in his book, accusing him of having connections to a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The accusations by Horowitz are based on his affiliation with the Muslim Alliance of North America and his alliance with its leader, Siraj Wahhaj.
Wahhaj in 1995 served as a witness in the blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman’s trial that found him guilty of a conspiracy to overthrow the American government. In that case, the prosecutor labeled Wahhaj as being one of the hundreds of “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in the sheikh’s conspiracy, according to excerpts from militantislammonitor.org.
Bagby was very adamant in his defense of Wahhaj, who Bagby calls a close friend and colleague.
“The prosecutor in that case basically had a long list of about 200 names that had association with Omar Abdel Rahman and just lumped them all together as co-conspirators,” Bagby said.
The prosecutor’s reasoning for grouping all of these innocent people together because of their affiliation with Rahman was unfair and unjust, Bagby said.
“Her logic seemed to be that ‘I can’t look at all these people, but let’s put all of these people on the radar screen,’” Bagby said. “But a co-conspirator - legally it doesn’t mean anything. They’re not accused of anything and there is no indictment.”
Wahhaj later agreed that Rahman was too extreme, Bagby said, at which point Wahhaj completely separated himself from Rahman.
In his book, Horowitz also criticized a report Bagby created in April 2004 titled, “A Portrait of Detroit Mosques: Muslim Views on Policy, Politics and Religion.”
Bagby had interpreted the findings of a survey conducted by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, writing, “The vast majority of Muslim Americans hold ‘moderate’ views on issues of policy, politics and religion.”
Horowitz wrote that these results were misinterpreted. He claims that Bagby’s findings show that two-thirds of Muslims believe that America is immoral and four-fifths support Shari’a (Islamic law) in Muslim-majority nations.
Bagby doesn’t shy away from the results he produced in 2004, because he said most Muslims do disagree with some American morals. Bagby said they disagree with social morals that go against Islamic beliefs, such as the view on pre-marital sex.
However, Bagby did make clear that most Muslims strongly agree with the foundation that America stands on and said that democracy is the reason they’re here in the first place.
“The same people (that disagree with the sexual morals of America) would say that politically and economically, this is a very moral country,” Bagby said. “Especially when you compare to their own countries back home, they view this as a very moral country in terms of the business side of things.”
Among other complaints about Bagby’s “extreme” associations, Horowitz said that Bagby is a board member on the Council of American-Islamic Relations, which in 1998, co-sponsored a rally where militant speakers characterized Jews as “pigs and monkeys.”
Bagby has never been reprimanded by the university for the acquisitions made against him, because Bagby has never spoken on behalf of the university in a negative way, and more importantly, provokes his students to think for themselves, which should never be punished, said UK spokesman Jay Blanton.
“I think the thing to keep in mind is that academic institutions - institutions of high learning - are premised on the idea of having a free exchange of ideas and thoughts,” Blanton said. “We should be celebrating folks that contribute to that, and that’s what the academic enterprise is about. That’s what scholarship is about.”
Blanton said he doesn’t see where Horowitz would have any type of set agenda against a certain group of people, but he hopes Horowitz’s accusations don’t discourage thinking amongst academic institutions.
“I think we need to be really leery of folks who write with the notion to discourage thought or discourage ideas or participation,” Blanton said.
It’s important to distinguish between content and behavior, and Bagby has never behaved in an unfair manner, Blanton said.
To Bagby’s students, the image of having a dangerous professor is very unfitting of a man they call “peaceful” and “easy-going.”
“I can’t even imagine him being considered that dangerous,” biology junior Yahya Ahmed said. “He doesn’t really impress his views on anyone or try to manipulate anyone’s mode of thinking.”
Biology sophomore Mabruk Quabili agreed.
“He’s so easy-going,” Quabili said. “He jokes around all the time in class and just doesn’t seem dangerous at all.”
Ahmed and Quabili, who both have had multiple classes with Bagby during the last two years, said Bagby is very objective in everything he teaches and don’t see where anything Bagby teaches would be considered dangerous.
“I think a lot of people think that because they’re Muslim educators they’re always trying to push their religion and they’re always trying to preach - which definitely isn’t true,” Ahmed said. “He’ll tell you all the good that is going on with Islam as well as all the bad stuff that is going on.”
Ahmed believes there’s a general misconception on Islamic educators whenever they decide to voice their opinions.
“I think he’s considered one of the most dangerous professors just because he says some things that are against the norm as far as Islam,” Ahmed said. “If he finds something wrong with society he’s going to say it. But because of the fact that he is Muslim, and he is saying things that he finds wrong with America, they consider him dangerous.”
Horowitz’s book has been called a McCarthy-like blacklist, an assessment with which Bagby agrees.
“What he’s challenging is academic freedom,” Bagby said. “He’s challenging the fundamental right of a professor to seek the truth to wherever it leads and to speak the truth as they so see it. That’s fundamental to academia.”
There are certain lines that you can’t go over such as racism and discrimination, but Bagby has never crossed those boundaries, Blanton said.
Bagby said he hopes students and faculty realize he’s not dangerous at all and hopes they didn’t take Horowitz’s book too literally.
“It’s laughable,” Bagby said. “And if there were really people that were listening to that man and taking his ideas to heart, I would be scared. But thank God, America is not to that point yet.”
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