Report Indicates No Degree Plan Permitted for Taliban Rep at Yale
by Jim Brown
July 12, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A former spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban regime will reportedly not be allowed to earn a degree at Yale University, but can continue studying at the Ivy League school.Yale's decision to allow Rahmatullah Hashemi to enroll prompted widespread outcry against the university's administration. Now one of his financial supporters claims the school has denied Hashemi admission to a degree-granting program. One Yale alumnus calls that apparent decision only a partial victory for critics of the school.
Former U.S. Army Captain Flagg Youngblood is a Yale graduate who works for the Virginia-based Young America's Foundation. He says denying Hashemi admission is only a partial victory because, he says, Hashemi never should have been in the country in the first place.
"When Yale went out to recruit Ramatullah Hashemi, they were doing so thinking he was a prize catch -- and only in the mindset of someone who has been totally skewed by political correctness could our enemy somehow be our friend," says Youngblood. "And then, contrast that with Yale's position on the military, which is they try to keep it as far off campus as possible. So our friend, our U.S. military, is actually the campus enemy."
The Army veteran wonders why Hashemi is even in the country.
"Why are we giving preference to someone who represented an oppressive regime that didn't afford people due process and treated women so badly?" he asks. "Why should he have a spot in this country to study anywhere? Realistically, [opportunites] like that, which are few and far between, should be given to people that fought that sort of oppression." Afghan women, he suggests, would be much better candidates for such opportunities.
The U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security both cleared Hashemi to enter the country.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
