Fool of the Week

The Fool of the Week honor goes to Yale University President Richard Levin.

Recently I blogged about the admission of Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, a former ambassador at large of the Taliban, as a special student at Yale University. Hashemi has a 4th grade education. When this admission was exposed in a newspaper account, Yale University remained silent and then issued a 144 word statement claiming it hopes "his courses help him understand the broader context for the conflicts that led to the creation of the Taliban and to its fall...Universities are places that must strive to increase understanding", according to John Fund in the Wall Street Journal.

Hashemi has not renounced this involvement in the upper eschelons of the Taliban and intends to apply for full-time student status as a Sophomore for the upcoming school year. The university remains silent and unwilling to reconsider the placement of this man.

When the story came out to the public, two alumni of Yale organized a protest among fellow alumni and encouraged others to stop giving money to the university until the situation is corrected. The Director of Giving threw a hissy fit and sent e-mails to these two graduates, one male and one female, asking them what was wrong with each of them and asked if they were retarded. Retarded. The exact word this Ivy League person in the position of Director of Giving used to alumni of the university when they demanded better of Yale. He delved into the giving records of these two alumni and claimed they haven't given enough to the university to complain about its policies. Nice. Fortunately he has since been put on administrative leave.

Hashemi goes to Yale courtesy of several members of a foundation and a 40% tuition discount from Yale. The foundation members have since pulled their support.

Last night Natalie Healy, mother of two sons fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Malali Joya, a member of Afghanistan's parliament spoke at Yale on behalf of the Afghan Women's Mission. Joya is appalled that people have forgotten or ignore the crimes of the Taliban and is shocked that Hashemi attends Yale. He is the same age as Malali Joya, 27 years old. She states, "He knew very well what criminal acts they committed; he was not too young to know. It would be better if he faced a court of justice than be a student at Yale University."

In his sole recent interview, given to the Times of London, he admits he's done poorly in his class,Terrorism: Past, Present and Future". He blames his textbooks which he claims disgust him. He objects to the textbooks stating the Taliban is the same as al Qaeda. Hashemi won't explain an essay he wrote just last year which states Israel is "an American al Qaeda".

Former Yale president Benno Schmidt says "admitting Mr. Hashemi is an exercise in amorality and cynicism." He told John Fund that "diversity simply cannot be allowed to trump all moral considerations."

This is an easy call. The admission of Hashemi is an insult to all the families who grieve the loss of a soldier killed in Afghanistan. It is a slap in the face to the new government of Afghanistan. It gives new meaning to the short-sightedness of political correctness.

Diversity run amok.