November 17, 2012

M. Shahid Alam: Northeastern University's Historical Hoaxer

By Stephen Schwartz
What need be said of a professor at a large American university who declares that to be called an anti-Semite is "a sign of distinction" for an academic or an activist? That he is crudely and arrogantly heedless in his biased declamations? That the American academy manifests a profound sickness in dealing with Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, and Arab issues? Muhammad Shahid Alam, a tenured economics professor at Northeastern University in Boston, has professed openly his belief that accusations of Jew-baiting are evidence that he is "working for the right side, for the just cause." Alam has followed a path that combines teaching in his recognized field from a leftist posture, which is unsurprising, with an exaggerated sense of grievance against the United States and Israel, and outsized intellectual pretensions. Away from the classroom, his main platform is a radical periodical, CounterPunch. The year Bangladesh was freed from Pakistan, in 1971, Alam received his baccalaureate degree from...(Read Full Article)