FINER MIND CONFUSED

Federal Labor MP Michael Danby is critical of Australian academics he sees as displaying anti-Israel bias:

Mr Danby said Dr Vincent was the only person he knew to join the prime minister's Muslim reference group in demanding that Hizbollah be delisted as a terrorist organisation.

He also said that Israel possibly murdered former PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

Mr Danby said Dr Saikal had last year accused Israel of using disproportionate force to contain terrorism, which included suicide bombing.

"I don't know how many people outside the august halls of academy at the ANU regard suicide bombing anywhere as other than terrorism," Mr Danby said.

Dr Saikal also said Iran had developed a sort of democracy that may not accord with western ideas but provided a degree of mass participation, political pluralism and assurances of certain human rights.

One of the left's finer minds opposes Danby's calling it like he sees it:

What he really wants, of course, is blindly pro-Western, pro-US and pro-Israel propaganda pumped into the classroom from dawn until dusk. Thankfully, many finer minds don’t share Danby’s ignorance of plurality. His concern for graduates is touching though his utopia, already occurring in the US, should be vigorously opposed.

Someone's dictionary must be broken.

Update: He of the "fine mind" is frightened of old, white men who speak out – the old bastards must be silenced!

The evening proved that many Western conservatives have a strong desire to replace one “evil” - communism - with a 21st century version. Enter Islam. Steyn and his fellow travellers speak eloquently about Western civilisation on the verge of collapse, but the kind of world they imagine is not one that I either recognise or want. Thankfully, his “vision” is likely to die with the Bush administration. Likewise the elderly types at last night’s event probably still fondly remember the White Australia policy. They’ll be dead soon enough.

Hey, let's turn the old fuckers into Soylent Green and feed the world's poor.