Editorial: Challenging patriotism a low blow

Monday, Dec. 3, 2001 | 8:39 a.m.

"Ignorance breeds hate."

The phrase wouldn't seem capable of provoking a controversy. For that matter, the three-word sentence seems patently obvious. But don't tell any of that to the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a conservative think tank that suggests those who would make such a remark are somehow less than patriotic. Recently the conservative group released a list of 117 comments made by university professors that it contends were "morally ambivalent" about the U.S. war on terrorism. It just so happens that "ignorance breeds hate," No. 49 on the group's list, was spoken by a Las Vegas resident, Wasima Alikhan.

Alikhan isn't a university professor -- she actually is a sales associate for Wal-Mart. Somehow a column in Canada's National Post incorrectly identified Alikhan as being a member of the Las Vegas Islamic Academy, hence her mistaken identification as a professor by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Nevertheless, Alikhan acknowledges she made the remark during a discussion at a mosque's open house in September, and she hasn't expressed any regrets about it.

Unfortunately in wartime there will be people who will question the patriotism of their fellow Americans who oppose the government's policies. That's not to say that these opinions should go unchallenged -- some professors have made bone-headed statements condemning the United States government following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But their views should be weighed on their merits, and simply questioning the government's policies doesn't warrant an attack on someone's patriotism. Currently there is a spirited debate going on in this country over the wisdom of President Bush's support of military tribunals for foreign terrorists who are captured. Those who oppose the use of such tribunals, including some conservative commentators, do so not because they're unpatriotic, but because they genuinely believe that these trials would undermine due process prot ections in our Constitution.

Despite the American Council of Trustees and Alumni's implication that dissent should be dampened during wartime, it is the fact that we can openly debate such controversial matters that makes our nation strong and resilient. The conservative group should remind itself that the enemies in the war on terrorism are Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network -- not Americans who disagree with the Bush administration's handling of the war. The irony is that the American Council of Trustees and Alumni might actually learn something if it heeded the notion that "ignorance breeds hate."