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.

