Professor shuts down Web site again

By Victor Alvis

A local professor has again suspended updates to his pro-Palestinian Web site following another round of criticism and pressure — this time instigated by another member of the Internet community.

Hassan El-Najjar, an associate professor of sociology at Dalton State College, has closed www.aljazeerah.info, a site he says is “to promote cross-cultural understanding between people all over the world,” apparently as the result of a campaign undertaken by a person who operates a Web log called The Jawa Report (http://mypetjawa.mu.nu).

On Monday, El-Najjar posted an explanation on his site:

“I have concluded it’s not safe for me anymore to continue editing aljazeerah.info in this atmosphere of intimidation, which abridges freedom of speech and freedom of the press. I believed that, as an American citizen, I have these sacred rights as a given. I acknowledge now that I was wrong,” he wrote. “Until I’m assured of these constitutional freedoms and rights, I’ll stop editing news reports and opinion editorials about U.S. wars and Israeli occupation of Palestine, hoping that the campaign against my employer stops.”

From the perspective of El-Najjar, who says he is a native of Gaza, Palestine, Israeli Jews took control of Muslim holy land in an “occupation,” and are proponents of Zionism. Similarly, the U.S. presence in Iraq is an occupation of Arab land, and those fighting against this “Imperialism” are “resistance fighters,” rather than “terrorists.”

He declined to comment Thursday.

“I don’t want to talk about (the Web site),” he said. “I found the best way to handle it was just to close it.”

The Jawa Report posted a story on El-Najjar on March 22 followed by a link to the e-mail address of Dalton State College president Jim Burran and telephone contact information and e-mail addresses for members of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

The blogger who runs the site calls himself Dr. Rusty Shackleford from Texas — a “professor of know-it-allogy” and “Editor-in-Chief, Sith Master, Admiral and Pimptastik Blog Overlord.”

“At least one site seems to have honed in on this, and some contacts were made. I know Dr. Burran has gotten some calls from the system office,” John Hutcheson, Dalton State’s vice president for academic affairs, said Friday. “I ‘Googled’ Rusty Shackleford, but it’s not very intelligible. This is one of the things the Web has brought us to; it’s a situation where anybody can say anything. The impact is immediate and can generate strong response — far faster than print or broadcast media.”

According to www.wikipedia.com, the name “Rusty Shackleford” is apparently borrowed from the TV cartoon “King of the Hill,” in which a character called Mr. Dribble uses it as a pseudonym.

Hutcheson said El-Najjar’s Web site is in no way connected to the college.

“He did that of his own volition. He doesn’t use any college facilities, and we don’t have the right to ask him to drop it,” Hutcheson said. “He previously complied when we asked him to eliminate any links from the college Web site. He’s an American citizen and has the same rights of free speech as anyone else, unless he’s advocating something illegal.”

Burran was out of his office on Friday. In 2003 when questions were raised about the Web site, Burran told The Daily Citizen “it’s an independent site not connected to the college, and that’s within his rights as a citizen.”

An e-mail to The Jawa Report seeking comment was not immediately returned Friday. The blog calls El-Najjar a “terrorist supporter and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.”

It’s not the first time El-Najjar, who created the www.aljazeerah.info domain name in January 2002, has faced criticism. A Washington Times story in 2003 made locals aware of El-Najjar’s site, and he closed it then after he said he received threats against his life.

“I want to tell the people of Dalton that I am a citizen of the United States, I love this country and that’s why I’m here,” El-Najjar told The Daily Citizen then. “I expressed my right within the constitutional right of freedom of expression, and I thought everyone would defend that right. And if they don’t protect that, well, I shut it down until I have people from Dalton who would ask me to open it again.”

Several students and area residents came to his defense, and El-Najjar reopened the site shortly thereafter.