In a recent column published on his own website, Georgetown adjunct professor Michael Scheuer seemed to endorse the assassinations of President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Borrowing words from seventeenth-century British political theorist Algernon Sidney, he wrote, “every man might kill a tyrant; and no names are recorded in history with more honor, than of those who did it.” Scheuer clearly identifies Obama and Cameron as these tyrants, and the context of his column allows for little debate over the meaning of the concluding quote. Openly advocating for the assassination of two world leaders is questionable content for political dialogue—especially for an educator at a prestigious academic institution.
A fierce anti-war critic of the Bush administration, he wrote on a Ron Paul online forum in 2012, “Fox television would be missing a bet if it did not create a program called ‘Let’s Kill US Kids and Bankrupt America,’” and as a result, he was fired from his job at Fox News. Scheuer has also criticized the influence of Jewish policymakers in the United States, claiming in a 2008 column that “Israel-Firsters” had led the United States into the Iraq War and that Israel “owns the Congress.” Furthermore, he also suggested that Osama bin Laden is a beloved figure in Islam and that fighting al-Qaeda is akin to fighting the entire Muslim world.
Comments like these only serve to deepen religious and political division. In today’s constant cable news cycle, developing a tolerance for such extreme and dangerous rhetoric is unavoidable. Freedom of speech is important, therefore, Scheuer’s opinion that Obama and Cameron are tyrants, though extreme, deserves to be heard and included in open dialogue and debate. However, his encouragement of political violence against our own president and close ally is troublesome.
Scheuer’s remarks are particularly troubling due to his position as an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s Center for Peace and Security Studies. Students, especially those with leadership roles, are held to a certain standard when it comes to public remarks and assertions, as they are associated with their universities. Therefore, professors should be held to the same standard. Though the right of free speech extends to both students and professors alike, a professor who calls for the assassination of a president should not be associated with a university that prides itself as fostering rational debate among divergent opinions.
Professors should be cognizant of their connection to the university before publishing radical remarks, as any member of its academic community who advocates for murder as a potential solution to real foreign policy and security challenges reflects poorly upon Georgetown and its values.
Why not? By every definition Obama is a traitor. Read “Whose Sarin?” by Seymour M. Hersh. See the fact that he’s arming and training terrorists. The Muslim Brotherhood ADVISE him for christs sake! See what he’s done to our government and what our govenment has turned into under him: America’s first political prisoner. The guy who made a friggin movie. He’s responsible for the murder of our ambassador and other American civilians. He’s used his political power to sic a documented child predator, Angela Corey, on George Zimmerman. Who commited FRAUD and created false evidence!!! The reason we’re fighting to keep and bear arms doesn’t have anything to do with “hunting” four legged animals.
One of my favorite books is Vince Flynn’s “Term Limits”. I wish and pray to God a Scott Coleman would implement what would probably be the best solution to our political corruption problems.
I should also add that your comment function is NON-functional. Also your page doesn’t adjust when you enlarge it in order to SEE it! Truly this page is SCREWED UP!!!
And oh yeah; can somebody get word to those two cowards Daniel Martin Varisco and John Esposito to debate Robert Spencer.
“Varisco discussed his refusal to debate Spencer as “someone who just hates Islam,” yet claimed that in any hypothetical encounter he “would beat the whatever out of him.” ACMCU head John Esposito concurred with the “Combatting Islamophobia in the Internet” assessment of “little value in debating Islamophobic speakers in academic settings since it gives them a forum.”
Where I come from this is called cowardice and lacking the courage of your convictions. It’s incredible that these guys totally lack the ability for self-evaluation and not see how lame these responses are. Really, they should tattoo “PHONY” on their foreheads.
[…] it happens, Scheuer was Jesuit trained at Canisius College in Buffalo, and he used to be an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security Studies. Georgetown University is of course the Jesuit university in Washington, D.C., and the Jesuit […]
[…] at Israel, is Michael Scheuer. He attended Jesuit Canisius College in Buffalo and used to be an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security […]