"Going Muslim"

Seems an NYU professor, Tunku Varadarajan, has written a column where he refers to "Going Muslim," meaning:

“This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American–a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood–discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans.”

This implies that some how being Muslim is inherently violent and anti-American. Daily Kos has an article discussing this bigoted article and recommending writing NYU President John Sexton to express disgust at the bigotry of this NYU professor.

Since I work for the NYU medical center, and since I have published with a wonderful, brilliant and caring Muslim colleague, I feel honor bound to write a personal rejection of Tunku Varadarajan’s bigotry. Here is my letter to John Sexton:

As an Associate Research Scientist at the NYU School of Medicine who has worked closely with Muslim scientists, I am disgusted by the statements made on Forbes.com by NYU Stern professor Tunku Varadarajan suggesting that all Muslims are inherently violent and dangerous. I am Jewish, but among the people I most respect and trust is a Muslim colleague who, on 9/11, immediately rushed to Ground Zero, despite all danger, to render assistance. I would trust this Muslim colleague far more than I would trust a bigot like Tunku Varadaraja. Varadaraja has a Constitutional right to say what he said, but there is no question that his views reflect poorly on NYU as a whole and makes our Muslim colleagues feel unwelcome and unappreciated. Had he referred to all Jews as greedy or all blacks as lazy I am sure the outcry would be far greater. Yet because his attack was on Muslims the outcry is muted. That doesn’t make his bigotry any less disgusting or damaging than bigotry against blacks or Jews.

I hope that the NYU administration reject the bigotry of Tunku Varadarajan in very clear and obvious ways. How else can we look our Muslim colleagues in the eye?

Sincerely,

Dr. David Michaelson
NYU School of Medicine

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