TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2010 EUGENE ROBINSON


and professional victims? Or is it all just an act? The hysteria over plans for an in-


Whining on the right W


hen did the loudmouths of the American right become such a bunch of fraidy-cats


nocuous Muslim community center in Lower Manhattan — two blocks from Ground Zero, amid an urban hodgepodge of office buildings, eat- eries and strip clubs — is wildly out of proportion. It would be laugh- able if it didn’t threaten to do great harm to the global campaign against Islamic terrorism. It is by now firmly established


that the project, dubbed Park51, is promoted by a peacenik Muslim cleric whose sermons often sound a bit like the musings of new-age guru Deepak Chopra. It is also undis- puted fact that the imam in ques- tion, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is such a moderate that the U.S. government regularly sends him as an emissary to Muslim countries to preach peace, coexistence and dialogue. Yet right-wing commentators and politicians have twisted themselves in knots to portray the Park51 proj- ect as a grievous assault — and “the American people” as victims. Vic- tims of what? Rauf’s sinister plot to despoil the city with a fitness center, a swimming pool and — shudder — a space for the performing arts? The whole “controversy” is ridic- ulous. Yet conservatives who should know better are doing their best to exploit widespread ignorance about Islam by transforming it into fear and anger. They imply, but don’t come right out and say, that it was Islam itself that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, rather than an extremist fringe that espouses what the vast majority of the world’s Muslims consider a per- version of the faith. They paint Park51 as a “victory dance” over the hallowed ground where thousands of Americans died — never mind that there wouldn’t even be a sight line between the building and Ground Zero — and suggest that the project, even though it would be run by an imam who’s practically a flower child, could somehow serve as a recruiting center for terrorists. Message to anyone who will lis-


ten: You’re a victim. Be very afraid. In the process, this anti-mosque pitchfork brigade is surely recruit- ing terrorists left and right. As Ah- mad Moussalli, a professor at the American University of Beirut, told the Los Angeles Times: “Rejecting this has become like rejecting Islam itself.” All the Islamophobic rhetoric


RICHARD COHEN


nents nor far enough away for its op- ponents, the disturbing word “com- promise” is now being tossed around. It has been suggested by New York Gov. David Paterson, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan and, in Sunday’s Post, Karen Hughes, once an important adviser to George W. Bush. These are all well- meaning people, but they do not un- derstand that in this case, the differ- ence between compromise and de- feat is nonexistent. This is not a complicated matter. If you believe that an entire religion of upward of a billion followers at- tacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, then it is understandable that locating a mosque near the fallen World Trade Center might be upset- ting. But the facts are otherwise. Is- lam was not in on the attack — just a sliver of believers. That being the case, those people with legitimate hurt feelings are mistaken. They need our understanding, not our in- dulgence. If, on the other hand, you do not


believe that the attack was launched by an entire religion, you have a moral duty to support the creation of the Islamic center. Lots of people fall into this category — or say they do — and still protest the mosque. They include Newt Gingrich, New York Republican gubernatorial can- didate Rick Lazio and that Twitter- ing Twit of the Tundra, Sarah Palin. They indulge in a kind of pornog- raphy of analogy — a bit of dema- gogic buffoonery that is becoming more and more obvious. They pre- tend that they have a solemn obliga- tion to defend the (powerful) major- ity from the demands of the (power- less) minority and champion people whose emotions are based on a mis- reading of the facts. Those of us who are of a certain


age remember the days when Afri- can Americans and their champions were being cautioned to go slow, compromise. They were being told to consider the tender feelings of whites, no matter how ugly their racism, and protect their dewy Scar- lett O’Hara way of life. Leading poli- ticians espoused this course, Presi- dent Eisenhower among them. Wrong was somehow to become a little less so, but right would be painfully postponed. What was compromise? The middle of the


The mosque cop-out W


hen it comes to the mosque that’s neither too close to Ground Zero for its propo-


KLMNO


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tends to reinforce the jihadists’ main argument, which is that the United States and the West seek to destroy the faith held dear by more than 1 billion souls. The thing is, though, that the manufactured brouhaha over the Park51 project is part of a larger pat- tern in which the far right embraces victimhood and stokes fear. The fac- tion that likes to portray itself as a bunch of John Waynes and “mama grizzlies,” it turns out, spends an awful lot of time cowering in the corner and complaining about how beastly everyone else is being. Witness the frequent eruptions over instances of reverse racism — real or imagined. The Shirley Sher- rod affair was the most recent example of how eagerly the far right wants to sell the false narrative that African Americans, once they achieve positions of authority, will use their newly acquired power to punish whites for historical dis- crimination. The facts of the Sher- rod case, as they finally emerged, ar- gue persuasively against this fic- tional tale of longed-for revenge. But it will be back. And look at the hysteria over ille- gal immigration. Facts don’t matter — for example, that the flow of un- documented migrants has de- creased, or that border enforcement under President Obama is much tougher than under George W. Bush, or that illegal immigrants are not responsible for any kind of crime wave. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R- Tex.), has gone so far as to sound the alarm about alleged “terror babies.” The idea is that undocumented pregnant women would cross the border so that their children could have U.S. citizenship, then take the babies away to be raised as terror- ists — who would be able to come back in 20 years or so, with legiti- mate U.S. passports, and presum- ably wreak untold havoc. No, I did not make that up. Is the far right really afraid of its own shadow? Do these people really have so little faith in our nation’s strength, resilience and values? I hope this is all just cynical political calculation, because there are genu- ine threats and challenges out there. We’ll be better off meeting them with a spine, not a whine.


The writer will answer questions at 11 a.m. today at


www.washingtonpost.com. His e-mail address is eugenerobinson@washpost. com.


A model for open-access


education Judge universities on merit, not funding


by Robert S. Silberman BAZ RATNER/REUTERS


An Israeli soldier directs a crane lifting part of a concrete barrier separating the Jewish settlement of Gilo from the West Bank town of Beit Jala this month.


Talks to look forward to? Quiet progress in the long quest for Mideast peace


by David Makovsky


met with an outpouring of enthusiasm. Yet progress on security and other issues suggests there is reason to believe peace talks can produce results. There has been a surge in cooperation


T


between Israel and the Palestinian Au- thority (PA) ever since Hamas ousted se- curity officials and the mainstream Fatah Party from Gaza more than three years ago. I recently spent five weeks in the re- gion, where I met with more than four dozen Israeli and Palestinian officials, in- cluding President Mahmoud Abbas. Co- operation is increasingly evident in sever- al areas. Security cooperation between the PA


bus? From that era I exhume a term:


moral suasion. Repeatedly, civil rights activists urged Eisenhower to use the bully pulpit to guide the country on a moral course, to set an example. For the longest time, Ike refused to budge. The hero of Nor- mandy somehow forgot how to lead until Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus forced the president to literally call out the troops. The era remains a huge blot on Eisenhower’s other- wise exemplary record. Now something similar is hap-


pening. It’s not merely that unscru- pulous politicians are demagoguing the mosque issue, it is also that most others have kept their mouths shut. The Post editorial board suggested that Bush, who has always shown great leadership on interfaith is- sues, speak out. Hughes, who ar- gued the case for the mosque and then advocated building it else- where, should have followed her own logic. And the archbishop, in- stead of urging compromise, should have urged his congregants to show tolerance. He’s not a labor mediator. He’s a moral leader.


Over the years, thousands of priests have abused many thou- sands of children. This is a lamen- table fact. Yet no rational person can possibly believe that all priests are pedophiles and that a plan to erect a church should or could be opposed by victims of priestly pedophilia. We know the difference between the acts of individuals — even many of them — and the dogma or beliefs of an entire religion. I am a Jew, but do not judge me by Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 murdered 29 Muslims in Hebron.


Appearing on ABC’s “This Week


with Christiane Amanpour,” Daisy Khan, a founder of the mosque (and the wife of the imam), rejected any compromise. She was right to do so because to compromise is to accede, even a bit, to the arguments of big- ots, demagogues or the merely unin- formed. This is no longer her fight. The fight is now all of ours. It has become something of a cli- che, I know, but no one ever put this sort of thing better than William Butler Yeats in his poem “The Sec- ond Coming.” “The best lack all con- viction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Some passionate intensity from the best is past due. cohenr@washpost.com


and Israel has substantially improved. In 2002, 410 Israelis were killed by suicide bombings and other attacks emanating from the West Bank; in the past three years, Israel has suffered one fatality from one such attack. Speaking in Washington this year, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the situation on the ground “is better than any time in the past.” Israeli charges that the Palestinians have a “re- volving door” approach of releasing ter- rorists after quick arrests — rampant dur- ing the Arafat era — are no longer heard. A Palestinian nonviolent protest move- ment has been born. For its part, the PA no longer attempts to hide its daily security cooperation with Israel. In recent months, the PA even hosted Israeli senior security officials in Jenin, Tulkaram and Jericho. During the Gaza conflict of 2008-09, the PA kept the West Bank calm. Because of the improved security, Israel has reduced the number of major manned checkpoints in the West Bank from 42 in 2008 to 14. The check- points that remain include more passage lanes, resulting in substantially reduced wait times. And the improved security and other efforts by reformist Prime Min- ister Salam Fayyad have resulted in a West Bank economic growth rate of 8.5 percent.


Religious and education reforms have


started, including a major effort to identi- fy those imams who agitate for suicide bombings. PA Religion Minister Mah- moud Habbash told me, and Israeli secu- rity officials confirm, that such imams have been removed from all Palestinian mosques under PA jurisdiction. “Hamas has been running our mosques for 30 years, and we are trying to take the mosques back so they are used only for prayer,” Habbash told me. The PA has begun reshaping the cur-


riculum of Palestinian institutions that accredit imams, and screening is also be- ing conducted to weed out schoolteachers who support Hamas radicalism. PA secu- rity officials say 1,100 of the 28,000 Pales-


he announcement Friday that Mid- dle East peace talks would be launched Sept. 2 was not exactly


tinian teachers in the West Bank have been replaced. Incitement would be fur- ther reduced if, among other things, the practice of naming town squares and camps after the killers of yesteryear end- ed.


The Israelis have also demonstrated


change. Prime Minister Binyamin Netan- yahu publicly endorsed a two-state solu- tion last summer, and his 10-month mora- torium on settlement activity in the West Bank has demonstrated more restraint than any of his predecessors. It is unclear whether the moratorium, scheduled to expire next month, will be extended — a question that could derail the nascent ef- fort. And whereas former prime minister Ariel Sharon sought to retain control over large chunks of the West Bank, to prevent attacks from the east, Israeli officials sug- gest that Netanyahu is far more con- cerned with effective security measures around the West Bank border, to prevent the sort of smuggling that exists from Egypt to Gaza, than with annexing land. Negotiators want to begin peace talks with the issues of security and borders, as each side knows well what the other side wants. Even differences over territory are unlikely to be insurmountable. The last time the parties tried to hold quiet talks, in 2008, they differed over just 4 percent of the West Bank. Abbas has said he knows that Israel will keep West Bank set- tlements adjacent to Israeli cities, and Is- rael is likely to provide the Palestinians an offsetting amount of land within the Israeli border. There are two issues that are not about


quiet policy shifts but will require condi- tioning of the populations: Jerusalem and refugees — the narrative issues of the con- flict that cut to the self-definition of the parties. The difficulties surrounding these issues have led some to question Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s call to complete the talks in one year. But the hope is that progress on security and bor- ders will facilitate political traction on these thornier topics. If, however, that does not happen, the


parties need to find ways to grapple with these final issues in a manner that does not cause other progress to unravel. Are there risks to talks? Of course. Ab- bas told me that Iran gives Hamas $500 million a year, and it is likely that Tehran will try to upend negotiations. Yet inaction also poses risks. Fayyad’s


efforts at Palestinian institution-building and security cooperation are succeeding because they are packaged as part of the effort to build a state. A bottom-up push focused on security and economic institu- tions will not be sustainable unless it is joined by a top-down effort.


David Makovsky is a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he directs the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. He co-authored, with Dennis Ross, “Myths, Illusions, and Peace.”


LOCAL BLOG NETWORK Excerpts from The Post’s local opinions blog : voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/


Cuccinelli gets the ball rolling — again


Sometimes politics is like a Rube Goldberg machine. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli usu- ally sets Virginia’s ball in motion, triggering a predictable chain of events. The sequence goes like this: 1. Cuccinelli issues an opinion or files a law-


suit.


2. Right away, Republican Del. Bob Marshall strongly and publicly supports it. 3. Democrats such as Sen. Creigh Deeds and


Del. David Englin spread their frustration all over Twitter. 4. Later, Gov. Bob McDonnell issues a cau- tious and qualified statement that sounds as moderate as possible while still supporting Cuc- cinelli. Looks like that cycle started again after Cucci- nelli issued a legal opinion last week saying that the Board of Health has the authority to treat abortion clinics the same as hospitals when it comes to equipment and space regulations. Now, the clinics fall under rules similar to those for offices where patients receive oral or plastic surgery, The Post reported. What’s the precedent for more restrictions?


Cuccinelli cites a 2002 case in South Carolina, in which an appeals court — and then the U.S. Su- preme Court — upheld a law allowing tighter regulations on clinics performing first-trimester abortions. If the Board of Health follows the AG’s recommendation, 17 of 21 abortion provid- ers in Virginia may have to close their doors. Cuccinelli’s opinion came Friday. Monday morning, Marshall sent a letter to the governor in support of more regulations. “I hope that you will do what you can to ensure that the women of Virginia are protected from dangers such as out-of-state physicians whose licenses are sus- pended or revoked elsewhere . . . and sending women to hospitals in private vehicles and oth- er unsafe conditions which compromise public health that occur at some abortion clinics in Vir- ginia,” Marshall wrote. The South Carolina lawsuit was upheld be- cause clinics were committing serious health vi- olations. Whether or not that’s the case in Vir- ginia, it’s probably not what prompted Cuccinel- li’s opinion.


But, as with everything Cuccinelli does, the opinion will drive conversation — and tweets — in Virginia. And it will give McDonnell another response to carefully craft.


—PAIGE WINFIELD CUNNINGHAM, Old Dominion Watchdog


higher education and that, alarmingly, the United States has slid from first to 12th in the world for percentage of adults with a college degree. Amid the continuing bad economic news, higher education is critical to our nation’s strategy for economic recovery and growth. Clearly, we need to address America’s deficit in higher education. The government has aimed to make


P


college more affordable for more peo- ple, but access to higher education is as much about availability as about affor- dability. Each year, universities reject tens of thousands of qualified appli- cants. Community colleges are facing cutbacks just when demand is at its highest. This is where universities whose capital is provided by investors, as opposed to governments or wealthy alumni, can be helpful. Taxpaying, investor-funded universities can pro- vide underserved students with high- quality education and prepare them for personal and professional success. Recently, some policymakers and commentators have questioned the value of investor-funded educational institutions. They claim that such in- stitutions are systemically incapable of meeting their academic missions. In fact, regionally accredited, investor- funded universities that offer bach- elor’s and master’s degrees are already a critical part of our nation’s higher education fabric. Students at these universities expect the same high- quality education as students at tradi- tional nonprofit institutions. In 1892, Strayer was founded as a


college to educate adults and provide qualified professionals to work in the nation’s growing industries. Today, Strayer University educates more than 55,000 adult students who work full time and attend school part time. We accommodate their schedules by of- fering evening and weekend classes at 84 campuses and online. Strayer University is regionally ac- credited by the Middle States Commis- sion on Higher Education, which also oversees Georgetown University, Princeton University and the Univer- sity of Maryland. This means that Strayer’s instructional methods, cur- riculum, faculty and academic policies are subject to extensive scrutiny. Our degree programs are challenging, credible and respected. We proudly serve adult students


who have been traditionally shut out of higher education. More than half of our students are African American or Hispanic, and two-thirds are women. Our applicants must have completed high school, show specific college-level competencies in math and English, and demonstrate sincere commitment to higher education. To us, access does not mean entitlement. Our students must complete rigorous study over several years before they earn the right to call themselves Strayer University graduates. Notwithstanding our open-access


policy, Strayer University has consis- tently experienced student loan de- fault rates that are well below the rates for all universities and are in line with public, four-year universities. Our alumni survey of the Class of 2009 found that more than 90 percent of Strayer graduates were employed, at an average annual salary of over $60,000. That compares favorably to any university, including the most prestigious Ivy League institutions. Our graduates include small-business owners, executives, medical profes- sionals and even leaders such as four- star Gen. Robert Magnus, who served as assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and Tola May, general secretary of the National Bank of Cam- bodia. For more than 100 years, Strayer


University has provided high-quality post-secondary education to thou- sands of hardworking, successful peo- ple. The track record of our alumni is the most eloquent testimony of the fal- lacy of those who over-generalize about the flaws in investor-funded education. Undoubtedly, there are some investor-funded universities that fail in their academic mission, just as some traditional nonprofit universi- ties do. But such failure is the fault of the administrators and governing bod- ies of those institutions, not the source of their capital.


All universities should be judged on the merits of their educational models and the success of their graduates, not discriminated against on the basis of their funding structure. Otherwise we risk reducing a necessary flow of finan- cial capital into our education system that neither governments nor wealthy alumni would be able to replace. And as a nation, we need more investment in quality education, not less.


The writer is chairman and chief executive of Strayer Education Inc.


resident Obama noted this month that by the end of this dec- ade, eight in 10 jobs will require


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