every morning in mortal fear
that some well-funded, crazy
extreme candidate in their own
party is going to run against
them in the primary, so they
alter their voting patterns and
they are less likely to cooperate
with the other side,” Frost said.
The duo suggested that a law
requiring states to appoint non-
partisan district commissions
would mitigate the current
polarization in Congress.
“That would help, and you
wouldn’t have these crazy-
looking districts,” Frost said.
“You’d have more competitive
districts and the two parties
would have to talk to each other
— and that’s what’s missing
right now.”
Due to contribution limits to
national political parties, Frost
said partisan-fueled interests
have assumed a greater role in
funding candidates, granting
extreme
factions
enormous
influence
over
politicians
and particularly presidential
candidates. He said super PACs
and other well-funded groups
and politicians often coordinate
to manage campaigns.
Frost said either the Federal
Election
Commission
or
Congress should pass laws
that address this issue of
coordination, making it clear
that it could be bad for the state
of politics since there are no
effective limits on the activities
of these outside groups. They
also advocate for more specific
and comprehensive campaign
finance
and
contribution
reports.
“We have to do something
about this amount of money in
politics today because it has
totally distorted the system,
and again when you combine
that with (gerrymandering),
then there’s an incentive for
people to never cooperate with
the other side because they’re
afraid some some far-right
or far-left group will come
in (support a more extreme
candidate),” Frost said.
Davis and Frost also called
for efforts to increase voter
turnout. They emphasized this
point in the case of primary
elections, in which turnout
has
been
historically
low.
As an example, according to
Michigan’s Department of State,
only 19.7 percent of registered
state voters participated in
2012’s
presidential
primary.
Presidential
election
years
typically see a higher voter
turnout.
Ann Arbor resident Sven
Hahr said he felt the former
congressmen’s
presentation
was balanced and effective. In
particular, he said he thought
Davis and Frost’s theory on
polarization was sensible.
“It’s always good to have
people from both sides of the
aisle. Otherwise you have no
diversity of thought and one
of the criticisms of collegiate
America is not enough diversity
of thought … so I thought what
they presented was good,” he
said.
Qaradawi’s power followed 2011
revolution — a time that both
accentuated the activist’s advo-
cacy of democracy. However,
many of his views are controver-
sial in the west, and he has been
banned from entering the U.S.
since 1999.
“To him, what matters is poli-
tics,” Skovgaard-Petersen said,
adding that al-Qaradawi is a per-
sonal proponent of authoritarian
government despite his push for
democracy.
Skovgaard-Petersen split al-
Qaradawi’s life into three differ-
ent stages of activism: movement
activism, institutional activism
and solutionist activism.
Al-Qaradawi, who was born
in the Nile Delta in 1926, became
involved in activism in the late
1940s, joining the Muslim Broth-
erhood, an Islamist religious,
political and social movement.
Skovgaard-Petersen
said
al-
Qaradawi became a prominent
youth activist leader after gradu-
ating from college in 1953.
1961,
Skovgaard-Petersen
said, was the year al-Qaradawi
embarked into an era of move-
ment activism, travelling with
the Muslim Brotherhood, speak-
ing and proselytizing the organi-
zation’s mission.
Skovgaard-Petersen
added
that one of al-Qaradawi’s main
teachings invoked Islam as a
“simple” concept not meant to be
overcomplicated and erroneously
applied.
Skovgaard-Petersen
further noted that al-Qaradawi
was known for his style of frank
speech.
“That idea of making Islam
simple … is something that he
specializes
in,”
Skovgaard-
Petersen said. “He speaks not a
very convoluted Arabic, gener-
ally. He knows how to communi-
cate.”
During the 1960s, Skovgaard-
Petersen
said,
al-Qaradawi
moved into a period of “institu-
tional activism” when he strayed
away from his involvement in
Muslim Brotherhood after the
organization was banned in
Egypt. During this period, al-
Qaradawi also did not take severe
public stances on political issues.
During
this
era,
accord-
ing to Skovgaard-Petersen, al-
Qaradawi declined to become
the leader of the Muslim Broth-
erhood when offered the role —
instead taking on a paternal role
in influencing Muslim youth to
steer them on the right path.
“We have new generations
of Muslims who are much more
devout than we have seen before,
but they are also much more
prone to error, and they need the
guidance of men like him,” he
said.
Skovgaard-Petersen said al-
Qaradawi, moving into the 1970s,
became involved with issues of
Islamic finance and medicine
through “solutionist activism,”
wherein Islam could be viewed
as a “solution” to political issues.
This period of time is also known
as the Islamic revival of the 1970s.
Skovgaard-Petersen said al-
Qaradawi was a well-known fig-
ure by 1990, and had acquired a
large global following. Despite
a language barrier, al-Qaradawi
joined the European Council
for Fatwah and Research and
began to develop an interest in
how Muslims should survive in
Europe and the West.
Though seemingly quite sud-
den,
al-Qaradawi
became
a
“national mediator of some sig-
nificance,”
Skovgaard-Petersen
said.
Eventually,
al-Qaradawi
defended parliamentary democ-
racy as an Islamically correct
form of governance.
Al-Qaradawi
is
still
con-
cerned with Jihadism today, and
addressed his rebuttal of Jihadist
thinkers in one of his books.
“He
is
becoming
inspir-
ing
and
sometimes
pushing
Islamic movements to move in
a more democratic direction,”
Skovgaard-Petersen said.
Skovgaard-Petersen
argued
that the Arab revolutions, the for-
mation of the Freedom and Jus-
tice Party in Egypt and the party’s
2012 electoral victory marked the
climax of al-Qaradawi’s influence
over the Islamist movement. That
said, Skovgaard-Petersen noted
that al-Qaradawi remains a con-
troversial figure in contemporary
politics.
“Many of his statements are
probably more controversial in
Western context than they are
in a Middle Eastern context,”
Skovgaard-Petersen said. “In the
Middle East, he would hardly be
considered an extremist.”
Now 89 years old, al-Qaradawi
considers himself an activist and
is not yet a “spent force,” accord-
ing to Skovgaard-Petersen. “It is
very difficult to see who will fill
his shoes the day when he dies.”
Skovgaard-Petersen said he
did not lecture to pass a moral
judgment of al-Qaradawi, but
rather to make an assessment
of
his
political
significance.
Skovgaard-Petersen said he uses
al-Qaradawi’s unfinished mem-
oirs, as well as numerous books
written by al-Qaradawi’s own
students and colleagues, to col-
lect information on the Muslim
activist.
Al-Qaradawi was sentenced
to death in June of this year in
Egypt, but continues to update
social media, tweeting about
events as current as the Egyptian
elections earlier this month.
Nevertheless,
Skovgaard-
Petersen
said,
al-Qaradawi
continues to make lasting contri-
butions to contemporary Islamic
and political thinking.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, October 28, 2015 — 3A
UM-Dearborn
launches general
education program
University
of
Michigan-
Dearborn officials launched the
school’s first general education
program last week in an effort
to better prepare students to
succeed throughout college and
life.
The
program,
Dearborn
Discovery Core, requires students
to take upper and lower- level
courses in one of three categories:
Foundational Studies, Areas of
Inquiry or Capstone Experiences.
Foundational Studies consists
of
courses
that
strengthen
students’ communication, critical
and quantitative thinking and
problem solving skills. Areas of
Inquiry covers classes in natural
resources, social and behavioral
analysis, arts and humanities.
Capstone
Experiences
are
courses providing students with
the chance to reflect on previous
learning experiences.
Ilitch family gifts
$40 million to
Wayne State
The Ilitch family will donate
land and funds totalling $40
million for a new business school
to be located near downtown
Detroit, the Detroit Free Press
reported. This gift marks the
largest gift in Wayne State’s
history.
Mike Ilitch, an American
entrepreneur
famous
for
founding Little Caesar’s Pizza,
is also owner of the Detroit Red
Wings and the Detroit Tigers.
The donation includes $35
million to build the school,
located near the new Red Wings
arena on Woodward Avenue,
in addition to a $5 million
endowment.
Construction is expected to be
complete in 2018. The school will
be named the Mike Illitch School
of Business.
Two Detroit police
officers charged
with misconduct
Two Detroit police officers,
Charles Lynem, age 32, and
Chancellor Searcy, age 29, plead-
ed not guilty Tuesday before the
36th District Magistrate Laura
Echartea to charges includ-
ing confiscating money from a
33-year-old man they arrested
in March 2013. They were addi-
tionally charged for fabricating
“circumstances and documenta-
tion” associated with the arrest
of a 41-year-old man in Septem-
ber 2014.
Lynem and Searcy are both
seven-year
veterans
of
the
Detroit Police Department. They
are both currently suspended
without pay and face several
counts, including misconduct
in office, embezzlement of less
than $20,000 and false report of
felony.
Attorney
John
Goldpaugh
is representing the two men in
court and said he expects they
will be exonerated.
“They’re both hard-working
people that have been out there
serving Detroit,” he said. “And
serving Detroit well.”
University to host
TSA PreCheck
enrollment event
The
University’s
Procure-
ment Services Department will
bring the Transportation Secu-
rity Administration’s PreCheck
program to the Michigan League
from Nov. 16 to 20 for a special
enrollment opportunity.
Carolynn Blankenship, an
audit and compliance supervi-
sor for Procurement Services,
said the TSA PreCheck program
offers participants a faster secu-
rity check process in which they
may be exempt from removing
their shoes, belts, light jackets,
laptops from cases and and small
liquids from carry-on luggage.
—LARA MOEHLMAN
NEWS BRIEFS
RITA MORRIS /Daily
Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen, a professor in the University of Copenhagen’s department of Cross-Cultural and
Regional Studies, discusses Yusuf al-Qaradawi and the establishment of the Freedom and Justice Party in Egypt in
the School of Social Work on Tuesday.
to students in print form before
the
transition
to
electronic
feedback.
LSA junior Sean Pitt, CSG
chief of staff, said releasing
course evaluation data will allow
students to form expectations
of courses without resorting
to third-party sources like the
website RateMyProfessors.com.
“We
have
all
this
data
collected
about
previous
students’ experiences,” Pitt said,
“Our goal is to make it easier for
them to make decisions based on
their peers.”
CSG
President
Cooper
Charlton, an LSA senior, said
the immediate release of course
evaluations is not the only
ongoing conversation between
CSG and faculty governance.
“The
second
conversation
is about a continued shared
collaboration with faculty to
make sure the instrument of
gathering course evaluations
is not only accurate, but it’s
efficient
to
give
us
some
substantial feedback,” Charlton
said.
In this case, “instrument”
refers to how the evaluations
are
designed.
Comparative
Literature
Prof.
Silke-Maria
Weineck,
who
chairs
the
Senate Advisory Committee on
University Affairs, has said the
current instrument negatively
affects the quality of data
yielded.
“In my 17 years at the
University of Michigan, I have
not heard from a single person
that thinks this is a good
instrument providing good data,”
she said at an Oct. 12 SACUA
meeting. “In sum, nobody thinks
that these are good data. And
whatever they are, they were
not designed to assist students
in choosing classes; it is the
wrong instrument for that. So
what we’ve been saying at the
Senate Assembly, it’s not that we
don’t think students don’t have
a legitimate interest in having
more and better information on
how to choose classes, but we
think at a world-class University
it behooves us to design an
instrument that can actually
deliver the data needed for that
purpose.”
Charlton said ideally, CSG
wants to course evaluations to
be released by Winter 2016.
Resolution updates
CSG Assembly also considered
a new resolution Tuesday to
support featuring information
about University mental health
services
in
course
syllabi
distributed at the beginning of
each semester.
LSA junior David Schafer, who
co-authored the resolution, said
inspiration for the resolution
came from the recent emphasis
raising awareness about sexual
assault prevention on campus.
The University’s Sexual Assault
Prevention
and
Awareness
Center added language about
Title IX and sexual assault
awareness to course syllabi this
semester.
“I thought that was a fantastic
idea,” Schafer said.
Schafer said the resolution
will aim to spread the message
that there is a direct correlation
between mental health and
academic results — as well as
inform incoming students who
may be unaware of the services
available to them.
“No student should come to
the University of Michigan and
be shut off to these resources
because they don’t know these
resources exist,” Schafer said.
Public Policy junior Gabe
Dell,
who
co-authored
the
resolution, said these resources
are not currently being utilized
to their full capacity.
Schafer said to approach the
resolution as professionally as
possible, CSG went through key
departments on campus devoted
to mental health assistance.
He added that the resolution
has
garnered
support
from
Robert Winfield, the director
of University Health Services
and
the
University’s
chief
health officer, and Todd Sevig,
the director of Counseling and
Psychological Services.
LSA junior Sierra Stone, a
representative on the Assembly,
said
the
resolution
is
the
culmination of many meetings
with both Sevig and Winfield.
“This isn’t something that
we just threw together; this
is something we’re all really
passionate about,” Stone said.
Schafer
said
the
policy
recommended by this resolution
is not groundbreaking, adding
that the inclusion of campus
resources and the advocacy of
proper language, particularly
in the case of sexual assault
by example, has already been
implemented at schools like
Columbia University, Rutgers
University and the University of
Minnesota.
Schafer said the potential
mental
health
resources
outlined on syllabi would not
necessarily be exhaustive. He
added that the resources listed
would prominently include but
not be limited to UHS and CAPS,
among others.
Should
the
resolution
be
approved
by
the
Assembly,
Schafer,
Stone
and
Dell
would
approach
University
Provost Martha Pollack with
their recommendation for its
adoption.
CSG
From Page 1A
SCHOLAR
From Page 1A
CONGRESS
From Page 1A
STORY
SLAM
poetry, short stories, essays
email Sam Gringlas
at gringlas@umich.edu
Friday, November 20
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
420 Maynard St.