In our comments for the “UC Berkeley and the Protocols” topic, Susanna Klein copied her response to the article in the Daily California:

Editor-
(Regarding “Student Alleges Anti-Semitism Taught in Arabic Language Course” 8-8-03)

In the 8-8-03 article, Mr. Kadhim never actually denies believing that the “Protocols” is a true document. Regarding his claims that he presented it the context of Iraqi conventional wisdom, he is not telling the truth. I do not recall the word “Iraq” being mentioned even once in the entire discussion. If I am as “brilliant” as my peers describe in the Daily Californian, surely I am able to distinguish between a discussion on Iraqi culture and worldview, and an instructor presenting his personal views to the class as truth. There was no room for ambiguity in Mr. Kadhim’s remarks. I asked him repeatedly if he was certain that he believed the “Protocols” to be a document written by Jews. He assured me that he did. Hoping desperately that there must be some mistake, I phrased the question differently and asked him if he didn’t believe it to be a forgery. He laughed and said, “Who would have forged it, Muslims?” I tried to explain that it was proven to have been forged by the Tsarist sercet police, but he cut me off and changed the topic. Mr. Kadhim may really believe that the “Protocols” are part of Iraqi conventional wisdom, although that is not what he presented to the class. I’m willing to give the Iraqi people more credit, though. The Iraqi public is on the whole highly educated and I find it hard to believe that they would buy such utter nonsense as the “Protocols”.

I find it shameful that no other student save myself had the decency to speak against Mr. Kadhim’s anti-Jewish diatribe. One student is quoted as calling me “belligerent”. If belligerency means standing up to hatred and bigotry, then I will wear the label with pride.

Signed,
Susanna Klein

UPDATE: In March 2002, Abbas Kadhim forwarded the following message to an Islamist Yahoo group:

HINDUS BURNING THE HOLY QURAN

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY MUSLIMS AS YOU CAN IN
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES SO THAT IT MAY REACHES

THE MEDIA WHICH WILL -FOR SURE- COVER IT AS WEEL AS IT DESERVES, AND THE MUSLIMS ALLOVER THE WORLD MAY KNOW “”http://www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR041603.htm” TITLE=”IPA News Release: Syria, Iraq, Antiquities, Terrorist Groups”>Institute for Public Accuracy, a far-left anti-Israel, anti-America advocacy group. (Hat tip: db.) Here’s an article at FrontPage about the IPA, which also sponsored Sean Penn’s trip to Baghdad: Fifth Column Public Policy Institute.