A student journalist has discovered that the director of Claremont MCKenna College’s Middle East Studies Department is a vocal supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. Charles C. Johnson of The Claremont Independent found that Dr. Bassam Frangieh, though not a Muslim, is on record supporting the terrorist groups.
The student found that Dr. Frangieh said in 2006 that he “view[s] Hamas with great pleasure” and also signed a petition opposing Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s attacks on its citizens, which Frangieh called a “heroic operation.” The petition said Israel is motivated by a “racist supremacist ideology” and praised Hezbollah.
Frangieh has also written an essay in 2000 praising a radical Islamic poet named Abd al-Rahim Mahmud that is idolized by terrorists.
“For real change [in the Middle East] to come about, thousands of people will have to die; thousands must martyr themselves. It appears that only massive revolution will succeed in overturning the corrupt regimes of the Arab world,” Frangieh wrote.
The College has issued a statement saying that Frangieh does not support terrorism and that it respects his freedom of speech. One top official also deleted references to Frangieh’s support of terrorist groups from his Wikipedia page.
“Endorsing the murder of civilians ought to be grounds for dismissal. It is not academic freedom to support slaughter,” Johnson wrote.
