Catholic League says anti-Jewish and anti-Christian professor should be fired

Feb 2, 2005 / 22:00 pm

Catholic League president William Donohue says University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill should be fired for his philosophy and rhetoric, which are both anti-Jewish and anti-Christian.

While some faculty defend Churchill on the grounds of free speech and academic freedom, Donohue argues that Churchill’s views are not appropriate for an institution of higher education, whose main mission is the search for truth.

“Higher education does not exist so that all ideas can be exchanged freely—that can be done in a bar.  It’s purpose is the pursuit of truth,” says Donohue.

“Ergo, Ward Churchill should be fired not because his ideas are offensive, but because he is incompetent.  This is a classic case of academic malpractice,” he states.

According to a press release issued by the Catholic League, Churchill gained media attention when he remarked that “those who died in the World Trade Center bombing were ‘little Eichmans’ who deserved it,” and when he suggested that “it may be that more 9/11s are necessary.”

Churchill is on record for accusing early Christian colonists of committing “genocide” against the American Indians – resulting in the loss of  “100 million indigenous people” – and calling it a “holocaust” that is “unparalleled in recorded history.” 

Donohue says this claim is astounding since historians estimate there were no more than 10 million American Indians living in the current territory of the United States at the time of the European arrival. He cites political scientist Guenter Lewy in saying that as many as 90 percent of the deaths were the direct result of disease. “The Indians had no immunity from contagious diseases like smallpox,” says Donohue. 

Churchill also claims that Israeli Jews are guilty of committing “genocide” against the Arabs and is also “bent on trivializing the Holocaust,” says Donohue. The professor claims that Jewish writers “are engaged in a conspiracy to suppress evidence of other historical examples of genocide; he calls them ‘Holocaust exclusivists,’” Donohue says.