U.S. Prof Attacks Arab Muslim Student's Pro-Americanism
by Jim Brown
January 14, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Kuwaiti Arab Muslim student at a California community college says his political science professor pronounced him deranged after he wrote a paper expressing his love for the United States. According to the student, his instructor told him he needed psychiatric treatment -- all because he turned in a pro-American essay as his take-home final exam.Ahmad Al Qloushi, a 17-year-old Foothill College freshman, says his essay defending America's founding fathers and the United States Constitution so offended Professor Joseph Woolcock that the teacher would not grade it. He says Woolcock went on to critique his ideology, telling the Kuwaiti-born youth that his native country is the 19th province of Iraq and calling his pro-American views "irrational."
But Al Qloushi has his own opinions and holds to them, despite his teacher's reactions. "Thirteen years ago," he notes, "Iraq took over Kuwait for one of the worst seven months of my life," he says, "and if it wasn't for the United States, I wouldn't be around here getting the education many would be praying for today. I owe America a lot of gratitude and debt, and I refuse to bad-mouth this country in any way."
Still, the 17-year-old says his professor accused him of being foolish for believing in the greatness of the United States and even threatened to visit a dean of the college to ensure that the youth received psychological intervention. "At 7:30 in the morning I entered his office," the student recalls, "and he basically said that I needed mental treatment for emotional needs and a failure to critically think."
Al Qloushi recalls a long list of personal critiques that Woolcock made: "I was too naïve, and I needed to see a therapist to control my emotions," he says, "and I need to critically think and reason. And he didn't stop there. He threatened to go to the International Dean of Admissions to make sure I get the treatment -- and the International Dean of Admissions has the power to revoke students' visas."
The Kuwaiti-born student has filed a school grievance against Woolcock and is urging Foothill College to adopt an Academic Bill of Rights that would prevent such ideological discrimination on the campus in the future. Meanwhile, in a strange turn of events, the professor has filed a school grievance against Al Qloushi, charging him with intimidation and harassment for mentioning his name to the media.
