The continuing saga of Ahmad al-Qloushi's essay

On January 26, Heather and I wrote a long critique of that ridiculous essay by Ahmad al-Qloushi (follow the link if you don't know the background), in which we said:

You might be wondering why we're writing about this at all.  Well, despite the obviously shoddy quality of the essay and the obviously trivial nature of the incident, we have no doubt that Horowitz's group [Students for Academic Freedom (SAF)] will try to use this incident to try to promote its fraudulent "Academic Bill of Rights."  Furthermore, Horowitz's group claims to embrace academic standards; and when they really get behind something as bad as this, it should be hung around their neck.

We also said

We have avoided until now saying anything about the essay because, you recall, we had emailed Mr. Al-Qloushi to ask him for an interview.  This after having read a press release that said he was immediately available for interviews.  We figured the interviews thing was a publicity stunt, and we figured we'd call him on it.

Well, sure enough, al-Qloushi appeared on Hannity and Colmes the other night.  The transcript is available only on LexisNexis, and since there's no link you can follow, I'm going to reprint the whole thing here.  You need to read it to believe it.  It's pure propoganda.

HANNITY: Welcome back to "Hannity & Colmes." I'm Sean Hannity.

Still to come tonight, a shocking story of liberal bias in a North Carolina middle school. How would you feel if your seventh grader -- if you're a parent -- and your seventh grader was given the assignment of writing to the president about the soldiers coming home?

But first, a student in Foothill College in California says that his love for America got him a failing grade. Ahmad al-Qloushi says that Professor Joseph Woolcock told him to get, get this, psychological treatment because of the pro-American views that he expressed in his final exam essay.

Well, he now joins us. Ahmad al-Qloushi is with us.

How are you, sir? Welcome aboard. Thanks for being with us.

AHMAD AL-QLOUSHI, FOOTHILL COLLEGE STUDENT: Thank you for having me. It's a real honor, Sean.

HANNITY: Well, you actually came from Kuwait, which is fascinating to me. And what you have been saying here is that you owe America a debt of gratitude and that you feel, if it weren't for the U.S. intervention into Kuwait when you were younger, you wouldn't even have the opportunity to further your education. You've said that.

AL-QLOUSHI: I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I owe this country a lot. It saved my life. It saved my family. And I will never forget that, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. You wrote this essay defending America's founding fathers, upholding the principles of the U.S. Constitution. Tell us what happened from there?

No, that's not true.  Al-Qloushi's essay doesn't even quote from the Constitution, except in the one place where Al-Qloushi is quoting the question he's answering.  The words that the question quotes "ordained and established" and "the people."

AL-QLOUSHI: Well, from there, my professor called me into his office. He first started criticizing the technicalities of my essay. But then he went beyond that. He threatened me into seeking regular psychological treatment.

HANNITY: You wrote on Frontpage, you said he told you your views are irrational. He said you were naive for believing in the greatness of America. And he said that America is not God's gift to the world. He told you all of that?

AL-QLOUSHI: He criticized me in all of those ways. And I was, at that time, was appalled and shocked. It was amazing.

HANNITY: And he said you need to seek regular psychotherapy. You even went to get therapy, because he ordered you to.

AL-QLOUSHI: He ordered me to, by threatening my visa status, which is the most important thing I have today.

HANNITY: Well, let's talk about that. And, he, so, as a result of -- this has nothing to do with the way you wrote it and has everything to do with the content of this. And then he sends you to psychotherapy. You go get that. And he threatens to take your visa away. Explain that.

AL-QLOUSHI: Well, he told me that he'll go to the dean of international admissions who has the power to take away my visa to make sure that I receive regular psychological treatment. And I have been wanting to come to this great country to find opportunities, to get an education, for two years before I came here. And it's the last thing I want to do, is lose my visa, because I love democracies like America and Israel.

What Al-Qloushi and Hannity (and, for that matter, Colmes) don't mention is that the professor in question (Joseph A. Woolcock) disputes the al-Qloushi's telling of the story.  Media Matters helpfully has an excerpt (the whole thing is here) from the professor's acount:

When I read the paper, it became clear to me that it did not respond to the question. In late November, after grading all final papers, I asked Mr. al-Qloushi to come and discuss with me the grade. ... [H]e expressed in great detail, concerns and feelings of high anxiety he was having about certain developments which had occurred over ten years ago in his country. Some aspects of his concerns were similar to certain concerns expressed in his paper.

Based on the nature of the concerns and the feelings of high anxiety which he expressed, I encouraged him to visit one of the college counselors. I neither forced nor ordered Mr. al-Qloushi to see a counselor; I have no authority to do so. My suggestion to him was a recommendation he freely chose to accept and which he acknowledged in an e-mail message to me on December 1, 2004.[...]

In my conversation with Mr. al-Qloushi, I did not make any reference, explicitly or implicity [sic], to the Dean of International Students or to any other Dean. In my conversation with Mr. al-Qloushi, I did not make any reference, explicit or implicit, to Mr. al-Qloushi's status as an international student. At the time of our conversation, Mr. al-Qloushi was still enrolled in my class, but after he met with the counselor, he never returned to the class.

Wow, that's quite different isn't it?  You'd think that in the interest of being... what's that phrase?... "fair and balanced"... our friends at Fox News would report the professor's side. 

HANNITY: And what's fascinating to me -- he did file a grievance against you, as well.

AL-QLOUSHI: He filed a grievance against me. To this day, I don't know what the grievance is. I have asked for copies of it, but the dean of students says it's irrelevant. To this day, I do not know what the grievance is. And at that time, I felt attacked by Foothill College.

COLMES: Ahmad, this is Alan Colmes. Thank you for doing our show tonight.

It's been reported in the press that the grievance is about you going to the press, mentioning his name. He feels he is harassed because you have gone public with this and have gone after him. That is what the grievance is about.

AL-QLOUSHI: Well, I don't know exactly what it is about, because I haven't received a copy of the grievance. If I had received a copy of the grievance like I asked, I would have known what it is about.

COLMES: All right, let me ask you this. What was the assignment? What was the actual assignment? Now, we have put a call into him. I would love to hear his side of the story, which we have not heard. But what was the actual assignment you received?

AL-QLOUSHI: Well, the assignment was too analyze the U.S. Constitution and its formulation, and that the U.S. Constitution, according to Diane Ziegler, the writers of the book assigned by the professor, that they thought that the U.S. Constitution was not ordained or established by the people and for the people, and our assignment was to criticize the U.S. Constitution, to analyze the U.S. Constitution, and show that it was not a document ordained or established for the people and by the people.

COLMES: Right. Now, I don't understand the context. I wasn't there. So I don't know. Was this a debate class? Is it a rational thinking class?

AL-QLOUSHI: We weren't allowed to even debate this question. The question said that we had to agree with it. We had to contend with it. We weren't given a choice to argue the question, which was unfortunate.

Well, first of all, it's not clear that that's true; if you look at the essay on the link, the number "3" appears before the question, which suggests that there were more than one.  And the professor's account makes it even clearer.  Woolcock says:

He had failed to write the mid-term assignment and had chosen to write his final paper on a topic we both agreed would be a challenge for him. Recognizing that he would have difficulty completing the assignment, I offered him the opportunity to write his paper on a less challenging topic from the mid-term assignment list of topics. We agreed that should he take up the offer, I would not only discount the points he failed to earn at mid-term, but I would also work with him on the outline, and on the review of a draft copy of the paper before he submitted it for grading. Mr. al-Qloushi agreed to do that. However, he turned in his final written assignment without returning for the assistance which we had agreed on earlier.

So, clearly, al-Qloushi had a choice of topics.  This is an important point, given that Al-Qloushi tries to deny it. 

COLMES: All right. Could there be a situation in the class where you're asked to take a particular position to argue that position as an exercise in thinking?

AL-QLOUSHI: The question itself didn't even give us a choice, which is what basically what is happening in political science classes in America today. We don't have a choice. Students don't have freedom of speech. They cannot express themselves in the classroom.

But it's not just that Al-Qloushi appears to be lying about whether he had a choice in answering the question.  My guess is that if Al-Qloushi had written a thorough essay disagreeing with the question, he wouldn't have failed.

I say this because I've done it before.  When I was an undergrad, I took a whitewash of a history class with a professor who had a propogandistic and conventional wisdom-filled take on 19th-century history.  The final assignment was some sort pablum-filled "compare and contrast some bullshit to some other bullshit" kind of activity.  One of the questions involved Nietzsche, and so I wrote an essay on how even asking such a question is an inherent misunderstanding of Neitzsche.  I took on the premise of the class in fairly strong language.  I got an A.

There was another class that I took on 20th century intellectual history, in which the teacher said that for the entire semester, we were going to be referring to a chart that she had made, and that she thought reflected the two opposing intellectual trends in 20th century.  Each student in the class was supposed to give a presentation on a topic, and mine turned out to be Deconstruction.  So for my presentation I deconstructed her chart.  I got an A.  It was a lot of fun. 

My point is that if Al-Qloushi had convincingly argued his case, I'm guessing the professor wouldn't have failed him.  Instead, Al-Qloushi's essay is filled with platitudes, right-wing talking points, and doesn't answer the question.  It doesn't really answer any question at all. 

COLMES: All right. I just want to understand what the assignment was.

Now, you have written about this, and you have said about the Constitution, "A document which is contributed to extraordinary freedoms in America, yet other corners of the world, including my corner in the Middle East."

Now, I understand how you feel about the United States bringing you freedom. But what in the United States Constitution addresses us going elsewhere to change governments, change regimes, or bring democracy outside of the United States?

AL-QLOUSHI: The United States Constitution is the foundation for what America is today, a nation which spreads freedom and liberties in America itself...

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: But outside of America, where does it say that in the Constitution?

AL-QLOUSHI: Well, it doesn't say it in the Constitution, but that is what the Constitution is the foundation of.

So it's just about to get interesting, right?  Any guesses what happens now?

HANNITY: Ahmad, if you get in anymore trouble, and he tries to run you out of this country, you call us and we will bring more attention to this case. Because that's outrageous. We wish you all the best. Welcome to the country. Thanks for your kind words and appreciation for the things, I guess, we often take for granted. And we wish you all the best, sir.

AL-QLOUSHI: Thank you, Sean.

HANNITY: We check in now with Greta Van Susteren who's standing by for a sneak peek at what's coming up in 23 minutes from now when she goes "On the Record" -- Greta?

Propoganda.  It's amazing, isn't it?  Just when the kid gets through telling his story and Colmes is starting to reveal that he's full of shit, Hannity interrupts and ends the segment. 

So there are several shockingly unshocking things about this story now: 1) the kid wrote an incredibly terrible essay and claimed he was discriminated against because of his pro-American views; 2) the professor who graded it claims that he didn't harrass the student like the student claims; 3) the professor says that the kid wasn't forced to write on the topic; 4) the professor says, in fact, that he offered al-Qloushi extra help.

So what we're looking at here is not just the fact that the essay is awful -- and that Students for Academic Freedom took up the wrong cause -- but that the kid is actually lying about most aspects of his story.  Which is really embarassing.  I'm sure my friends colleagues on the right will join me in condemning this kind of shamefulness. 

On a more hopeful note, if the cards are played right, this sort of thing could really damage David Horowitz's and SAF's credibility; after all, it's not just that they defended a shitty essay; it's that they had to rely on what appears be a series of lies to make the claim.  Let's hope more people on our side start paying attention to it.

-- Michael

Comments

[Bruce Small]

For what it is worth, I once made a politically incorrect statement on an essay, and it came back with a D- and a suggestion that I needed remedial English.

The same week the head of the department stopped me in the hallway and congratulated me on my exceptionally high score on the English portion of the GRE. He said it was rare to see a score that high. He also said he had heard I had been invited to apply at Harvard.

Retribution for conservative views does occur on campus.

[Musing Michael]

Stupid things do indeed happen on campus: just as anyplace else. But it's funny how anarcho-conservacons, who are ordinarily quick to pooh-pooh bias claims suddenly forget their alleged principles when they can get some attention by jumping up and down and screaming "anti-conservative bias" a lot.

Some students have no business being in college. Others are too lazy to bother reading the assignment. Others just want to know what to regurgitate to get the best grade. A very few actually think and turn in outstanding work--and my experience is that they get appropriately rewarded for that.

Some years ago, I sat a graduate course in the philosophy of religion. I am a theist. The professor who taught the class, not so much (though he never, ever came out and said so). I argued--rationally, I might add--in favor of my side of the debate in every paper or assignment I ever turned in for his class (one of several I've taken from him). Not only was I not penalized, I consistently scored the highest in the class, and I'm not even a philosophy major (almost all of my fellow students were).

Not-me Michael has it exactly right. If al-Qloushi had bothered to write a decent paper, he'd have gotten the A. But "paper," in college, does not mean "half-baked regurgitation of wingnut talking points gleaned from Faux News, asserted as fact and without evidence adduced in support thereof." Oh, and it generally does help if one answers the question that was actually asked, not the one for which one has a handy-dandy digest of bullet-points and taglines prepared.

[Cheryl]

One thing about his essay is that it was incredibly short. This was to make up for having missed the mid-term exam??? What kind of class would allow a student to substitute 3 paragraphs for a midterm exam?

[Incertus]

The more I hear of the professor's side of the story, the more convinced I am that he's giving the more accurate version. The clincher for me was actually the idea that he was willing to go to such lengths to allow the student to pass the class with a decent grade.

There's intense pressure not to fail students these days, or even to give them grades below C. When I taught at Arkansas, you had to practically beg for an F, even in an introductory composition. The Fs I handed out were invariably for cheating or for failing to complete a considerable number of assignments.

al-Qloushi sounds like so many of my college freshmen who either failed or didn't get the grade they thought they deserved--it's never their fault. I'd have been far less polite about it if they'd tried to pillory me in the press over a grade.

[d]

i'm not a teacher in any sense, but that essay was dumbfounding. whether is was a feeble attempt to mask not having studdied, a misread assignment, or an off-track misunderstanding of the topic, i've been in the unfortunate situation where i have not answered the question posed in an essay. and while in most cases my professors were more lenient than they should have been in retrospect, i never felt entitled to a better grade. i was outright embarassed, thankful when i passed and angry with myself when i did not. as this student should be.

BUT, if the professor did in any way threaten this student (which i am disinclined to believe considering hoopla over a plainly bad essay), then he should be held to task. just not for failing the student.

[the exile]

I still think the question was loaded, as I argued a long time ago, but the more I hear about the case, the clearer it becomes that the question was asked in a one-sided way because the prof knows from experience that weak community college students can't handle open-ended questions that really do demand original thought and argument. He set up the easiest assignment he could, to do a favor for the student, and he gets Horowitz in return. No good deed goes unpunished.

[the exile]

By the way, Bruce's story is almost impossible to believe. Never in my life have I run across a department where the Dept. Chair would have any knowledge of a student's GRE score, and if he did he would not likely bring it up in conversation. GRE scores are confidential. How unprofessional can you get? Nor does Harvard "invite people to apply." NOR is there an "english portion" of the GRE. It's "verbal", "math", "analytical." Sure, maybe he meant "verbal" rather than "English," but why would anyone who actually took the exam use a nonstandard term to describe it? How many unlikely assertions can you fit into five lines? What motivates trolls to simply make up stuff to score political points? There's something truly pathological going on here, and I'm not talking about Bruce in particular, I'm talking about the Rush and Hannity crowd in general. It's the kind of hatred of educated people that fueled the violence of Mao's Cultural Revolution.

[Musing Michael]

Exile: At least as far as knowing the scores go, it's not entirely implausible. My research director (I'm working on my third M.A., in history) also happens to be serving as the director of graduate studies in the department. As such, she has access to my application files, which of course include a copy of my GRE scores. At least in our department, applicants' files are passed around to members of the faculty in the same area as the prospective student. So if the chair in question had served as DGS at some time, s/he might have gotten to see the student's scores and possibly remembered them. Same if s/he'd been on the admissions committee or was asked to evaluate the candidate's potential.

[flugel]

Someone named Denis Hiller has set up Ahmad. This whole thing began with "press releases" that all had this Hiller name attached to it. Check out this URL:

http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/archive/2005/February2005/FoothillAhmadcomptohitler021005.htm

It's all fake. Hiller sets himself up as some kind of advisor to the Foothill Republican Club, but that is false. The FH Repub. Club never endorsed any press releases. Can somebody do some research on this guy?

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