Zakaria and the ADL: Mosque madness!
This seems a bit of an over-reaction: Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek and CNN returned an award that was presented to him in 2005 by the Anti-Defamation League, its Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize, to protest its opposition to the Islamic center near Ground Zero.
Wrote Zakaria in a public letter to Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL:
“I cannot in good conscience hold onto the award or the honorarium that came with it and am returning both. I hope that it might add to the many voices that have urged you to reconsider and reverse your position on this issue. This decision will haunt the ADL for years if not decades to come.
“Whether or not the center is built, what is at stake here is the integrity of the ADL and its fidelity to its mission. Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain your reputation.”
The organization makes one bone-headed decision and Zakaria can’t accept an award he received five years ago? I can understand if the ADL’s mosque decision was part of a pattern of anti-Muslim or intolerant moves, but it got so much attention precisely because it was such an outlier.
If I were Zakaria, I would have written a scathing critique, using his honor as the sort of bona fide that other critics lack. How about, “As someone who shares your commitment to tolerance and the first amendment, and was a proud recipient of your award in 2005, I am writing to say how disappointed I am in your taking a position that contradicts those ideals. I am donating a sum equal to the honorarium I received as part of the prize to [insert organization of choice that supports the mosque project or the principles he feels ADL has betrayed].”
The precedent he is setting is this: “Any time I accept an award from an organization, I am doing so on the condition that it never take a position with which I disagree.” That sounds harsh, self-serving, and short-sighted.
I think a better position, especially for a journalist, is to decline any awards from any organization, so you would never feel a conflict between your views and its (and never be accused of being in the tank for the organization).
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JustASC is written by Andrew Silow-Carroll, Editor-in-Chief of the 
August 9th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Andrew, I think the severity of the offense from the credibility of the offender has something to do with Zakaria’s response, which I support. And I count this with Foxman’s intransigence on the Armenian genocide as part of a pattern of intolerance.
Rumor has it that nobody at ADL knew Foxman would issue a statement siding against the construction. If that is true, then Foxman runs ADL less like a representative of the Jewish community and more like a private throne. I actually have great hope for the ADL in being a modern, moral voice — once Foxman leaves. Until then, it’s too much a bastion of hypocrisy for my support.
August 9th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I don’t agree with the ADL’s opposition to the mosque/center near Ground Zero, either, but Zakaria’s act reeks of a double standard.
The ADL gave him an award honoring his commitment to free speech, despite the fact that Abe Foxman and many ADL members probably strongly disagreed with some of his (Zakaria’s) statements on Israel. No one said, “Hey, you don’t toe the line on Israel, so no First Amendment Award for you!”
Likewise, Zakaria should have been thick-skinned enough to respectfully disagree with the ADL’s stance on the mosque, without pulling this whiny and self-righteous move.