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The Daily Tar Heel

Letter: ​Horowitz lecture was ignorant and bigoted

TO THE EDITOR:

This evening, I attended a lecture by speaker David Horowitz sponsored by our school’s College Republicans. His lecture attempted to provide an alternative view to UNC’s apparent liberal indoctrination.

Ironically, Horowitz spent the night ranting about such allegedly liberal views and painted those with other opinions to be completely wrong. This is greatly contrasted with what I have learned at UNC in Professor Sarah Shields’ Modern Middle East course, which explains that there are many nuanced interpretations to why things occurred the way they did in this region, refusing to paint events in absolutes.

Additionally, Horowitz’s information was false in some instances. For example, he claimed current Iranian society is “backwards,” for women are not allowed to go to school. He is clearly unaware that as of 2006, 70 percent of graduates in Azad University’s physics department were women.

Moreover, he must be further ignorant of the fact that Professor Shields recommended this lecture as a part of our course’s “cultural events” sessions that we are required to attend in order to develop a greater wealth of views regarding Middle Eastern history. Which of the two individuals appear to be more indoctrinating to you?

Ultimately, this event left me with a far greater respect for Professor Shields and the others who challenge us to not view the world in such simplistic terms. That the College Republicans hosted a man as closed-minded and agenda-driven as Horowitz befuddles me.

Jacob Wright

Sophomore

History and American Studies

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