DCP Censors a Critic of Iranian Executions

[Doctor Scratch]

Over at "Sic et Non," Dr. Peterson has been busy plugging his various ventures: the "Witnesses" movie, which debuts mainly in the Zion Corridor in the next few weeks, and also his involvement with an organization called The Foundation for Religious Diplomacy. FRD describes itself as adhering to "The Way of Openness," which will remind more than a few readers, I'm sure, of the disaster know as "The World Table," which proposed to "change the way we interact online." In any case, to backtrack slightly, the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy seems to have been given an odd name. Here is how Dr. Peterson describes its ethos:

The aim is not ecumenical agreement, though (of course) we don't object to such agreement. On the whole, the realistic objective is to further civil and even friendly disagreement. Resptful contestation. As Randy Paul rather cheekily puts it, we want religious adversaries to say to each other “You're going to Hell, but I feel really bad about that.”

Religious adversaries, maybe. But what about policatal adversaries? Indeed, if you scroll down to the "Comments" for this particular "SeN" entry, you'll see that a series of comments have been deleted. One of the comments was clearly from the Mopologists' arch-nemesis, "Chapstick," because DCP left one of his own responses to CS intact:

CS: "I hope he would put his principles over any money he might be receiving for this webinar."

I've been offered no money.

Strike two.

Huh. Getting accused of doing things for money is certainly nothing new for Dr. Peterson. So why would he censor this? The answer lies in the other post that he censored--a post belonging to a woman named Lawdan Bazargan, an activist who describes herself on Twitter as an "Atheist,Ally, Iranian-American, No to Execution." It turns out that there is a deeply troubling history behind Dr. Peterson's support for the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, and some of its affiliate organization, including The Baskerville Institute, which is operated by DCP's "friend Dr. Bahman Baktiari."

On her Twitter feed, Bazargan states rather plainly her objections to DCP's plug for his involvement with these organizations:

The mass slaughter of children in #Gaza is the direct result of support @oberlincollege & people like @DanielCPeterson
& #BBaktiari give to Iran's Islamic Regime's cronies such as #Mahallati to work and speak in the US academia & spread lies and misinformation
#GazzaUnderAttack

And:

Meet @DanielCPeterson a professor of Islamic Studies @BYU who is a speaker at the Webinar alongside #Mahallati accused of #CrimesAgainstHumanity for his involvement in #1988Massacre. The topic: Religious Diplomacy in Middle East! No wonder there are ongoing wars for decades in ME

Where to begin? It seems there is a long and ugly history behind these sentiments. You can read some of the backstory here. Still, I can't help but wonder about Prof. P.'s decision to censor the comment, particularly given what he calls the "cheeky" purpose of the FRD. Why not just tell Ms. Bazargan that all the people who died in the executions--including Bazargan's own brother--are "going to hell," but that he"feels really bad about it"? It strikes me as incredibly shameful that he would censor her comment, seemingly for no other reason that to prevent her from "raining on his parade." It will be interesting to see if he moves forward with this "webinar," in any case.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

DCP decides to work with a well-known anti-Semite (Jafar Mahallati) who is also implicated in the murder of thousands? And in addition, DCP decided to censor two posts today at SeN from a woman whose brother was killed under the Jafar regime? And, her only "crime" was to express genuine concern about DCP's participation with Jafar? DCP has totally jumped the ethical shark.

Jafar Mahallati is a complete anti-Semite who has been very public about wanting to "erase" Israel and the Jewish people from the face of the Earth:
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemi ... sor-667284

It also sounds like Jafar was implicit in the murder of thousands: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran- ... ity-645107

https://www.change.org/p/president-of-o ... t-humanity

All in all, this sounds like the kind of person DCP loves to hang out with. No doubt DCP will participate in the webinar with this monster. I guarantee no other scholar would touch Jafar with a 10 foot pole, except DCP. I'm sure many other scholars declined the offer to appear with Jafar.

I wish I could say I was surprised. I guess we can all be thankful that Hitler is not alive today, or DCP would be participating in webinars with him too.

[Doctor Scratch]

You know, Stake President Wang Chung, I don't begrudge DCP for his reluctance to get embroiled in this controversy. You can tell there is a lot of pain there. But he's claiming that the decision to censor her wasn't even his "idea":

DanielPeterson,

May I ask why you deleted her posts? Were they hostile or violative of Patheos rules? Just curious. She seemed very professional and sincere and her posts seemed fine. Thanks

You may ask.

It wasn't my idea.

And I won't comment further.

Huh. That's puzzling. So did Patheos order this, then? I thought that he essentially had control over the comments, bannings, and so forth on his own blog. Granted, I saw the original posts, and my recollection is that Chapstick's description is correct: i.e., she essentially was just asking DCP why he was willing to stand beside Mahallati. The much more inflammatory material on Twitter, if I'm not mistaken, appeared in the wake of the censorship. And if that's true, then why the banning?

In any case, I can't help but wonder if this is related to his recent threats to move "Sic et Non" to a different venue.

[Gadianton]

In any case, I can't help but wonder if this is related to his recent threats to move "Sic et Non" to a different venue.

Do you mean that his fingers may have pushed the button, but it was at the behest of the shadowy figures who prevent his speaking of politics?

[Doctor Scratch]

In any case, I can't help but wonder if this is related to his recent threats to move "Sic et Non" to a different venue.

Do you mean that his fingers may have pushed the button, but it was at the behest of the shadowy figures who prevent his speaking of politics?

Well, he spoke specifically of a *donor.* So I guess the idea is that he’s motivated by money this time? Or rather, money that’s earmarked for “Interpreter”?

[IHAQ]

From the, as yet, undeleted comments (posted 20 minutes ago)

Thank you for your kind words and support, even though Mr. Peterson deleted my comment and yours to me, I had received it through email before he get a chance to delete them. Just to know what kind of person, Mahallati is, please read the Amnesty report on the 30th anniversary of the 1988 Massacre called IRAN: BLOOD-SOAKED SECRETS: WHY IRAN'S 1988 PRISON MASSACRES ARE ONGOING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. Unfortunately, Mr. Peterson is unethical and corrupt just like Mahallati. He deleted from this article, all the praises he had given Mahallati and deleted my comment. I had sent him an email on Sunday, detailing my story and Mahallati's crimes and accusations. He chose to run this article AFTER he had read my email. He forgot to delete his praise for Baskerville Institute and Bahman Baktiar. After I sent emails to all the participants and sponsors of Mahallati's Webinar in Sunday, and Tweeted about it, Baktiari was forced to remove the names of Board of Directors from his website, probably because they contacted him and confronted him about the Webinar. Baskerville Institute does not even have a physical address and is using a UPS box address!!! It's just a sham that they created to organize this webinar for Mahallati with the help of people like Mr. Peterson Feel free to contact me on Facebook or Twitter since I am sure Peterson will delete this one too. My name is Lawdan Bazargan

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... qus_thread

[IHAQ]

In terms of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy...the most recent "news" posting on their website is February 2016.

FRD NEWSROOM

The FRD Newsroom is a designated area for website visitors to access news stories and videos we believe will be of interest to all peace-builders.

18 February 2016

Yehuda Stolov, founder of Interfaith Encounter Association, publishes an article in The Jerusalem Post.

http://religious-diplomacy.org/library- ... /newsroom/

Why advertise something that's clearly been defunct for the last 5 years?

[IHAQ]

Peterson's good friend Dr Bahman Baktiari was fired for plagiarism back in 2011.

A faculty panel has substantiated a "pattern of plagiarism" on the part of a tenured University of Utah political scientist, but in a split decision declined to recommend firing him or revoking his tenure.
That lifeline was severed, however, by a senior administrator who overruled the panel, known as the Consolidated Hearing Committee (CHC), and fired Bahman Bakhtiari, whom the U. hired in 2009 to head its troubled Middle East Center (MEC), according to documents the U. provided to The Salt Lake Tribune.
"Plagiarism — holding out the work of another as one's own — strikes at the very core of academic integrity. In my view, the sanctions proposed by the CHC do not recognize the seriousness of this offense," interim president Lorris Betz wrote in a June 30 decision. "The only appropriate sanction in this case is dismissal, which is necessary to preserve the academic integrity of the institution and to restore public confidence in the university."

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php? ... type=CMSID

The plagiarism probe focused mostly on materials Bakhtiari submitted to the U. when he applied for a tenured position two years ago, according to the U. documents. At that time he was director of the University of Maine's School of Policy and International Affairs.
In his defense to the panel, Bakhtiari conceded he made "mistakes" and was "sloppy," but denied he intentionally copied, despite "convincing evidence" that his work borrowed whole sentences and paragraphs from other sources with no attribution, according to the June 14 CHC report.

Sound familiar?

Several political commentaries published by the director of the University of Utah's Middle East Center (MEC) appear to borrow heavily from unattributed sources, prompting an inquiry by university officials.
One of the pieces is an op-ed about the Egypt turmoil by Bahman Baktiari that was published in The Salt Lake Tribune on Feb. 5. According to an analysis by MEC faculty and students, given to top U. administrators and The Tribune on Tuesday, the piece replicates material from at least four sources, including The New York Times and The Economist.
In an interview Thursday, Baktiari said he was unaware that he needed to attribute material written by others in opinion pieces he wrote for newspapers.

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php? ... type=CMSID

[Everybody Wang Chung]

Peterson's good friend Dr Bahman Baktiari was fired for plagiarism back in 2011.

A faculty panel has substantiated a "pattern of plagiarism" on the part of a tenured University of Utah political scientist, but in a split decision declined to recommend firing him or revoking his tenure.
That lifeline was severed, however, by a senior administrator who overruled the panel, known as the Consolidated Hearing Committee (CHC), and fired Bahman Bakhtiari, whom the U. hired in 2009 to head its troubled Middle East Center (MEC), according to documents the U. provided to The Salt Lake Tribune.
"Plagiarism — holding out the work of another as one's own — strikes at the very core of academic integrity. In my view, the sanctions proposed by the CHC do not recognize the seriousness of this offense," interim president Lorris Betz wrote in a June 30 decision. "The only appropriate sanction in this case is dismissal, which is necessary to preserve the academic integrity of the institution and to restore public confidence in the university."

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php? ... type=CMSID

The plagiarism probe focused mostly on materials Bakhtiari submitted to the U. when he applied for a tenured position two years ago, according to the U. documents. At that time he was director of the University of Maine's School of Policy and International Affairs.
In his defense to the panel, Bakhtiari conceded he made "mistakes" and was "sloppy," but denied he intentionally copied, despite "convincing evidence" that his work borrowed whole sentences and paragraphs from other sources with no attribution, according to the June 14 CHC report.

Sound familiar?

Several political commentaries published by the director of the University of Utah's Middle East Center (MEC) appear to borrow heavily from unattributed sources, prompting an inquiry by university officials.
One of the pieces is an op-ed about the Egypt turmoil by Bahman Baktiari that was published in The Salt Lake Tribune on Feb. 5. According to an analysis by MEC faculty and students, given to top U. administrators and The Tribune on Tuesday, the piece replicates material from at least four sources, including The New York Times and The Economist.
In an interview Thursday, Baktiari said he was unaware that he needed to attribute material written by others in opinion pieces he wrote for newspapers.

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php? ... type=CMSID

Yes, this all seems eerily familiar.

[Tom]

I doubt this event will take place. A recent article in the Jerusalem Post: https://jpost.com/middle-east/after-pos ... dor-668218