I’d like to discuss an opinion Humza Chowdhry expressed in the Mustang Daily on May 18. I suppose that, although I don’t agree with it, he does have the right to express it. It is unfortunate that his leadership only prevents people from understanding the plight of both the Palestinians and Israelis. With every action he takes, he loses credibility as a reasonable person attempting to make a rational argument.
Personally, my favorite game of his is that of equivocation. His latest round featured equivocating the practices of the Israeli government with Nazism. Since he doesn’t seem to be able to sort the facts like the rest of us, I will try to explain his ridiculousness by using his own technique. Mind you, this is my first time playing equivocation as I usually take the approach of justifying what I say.
The statement he made is equally ridiculous and uniformed as statements such as blacks didn’t get such a bad deal out of slavery, Native Americans should thank the first Europeans for how they developed their land, and the victims of Sept. 11 in some way deserved what they got.
Here is why. In making such statements one distorts the truth. In this case the truth is that while the Israeli government has its critics, both in practice and in ideology it has nothing in common with Nazism. Distorting the truth takes away from the plight of the victims. It also prevents us from understanding history and most importantly preventing such atrocities as the ones that happened to African Americans, Native Americans, everyday Americans and, in the case of the statement Humza made, the victims of the Holocaust.
Michael Holan
Business administration senior