Friday, August 29, 2003

Nagy leaves for teaching post in Canada

Earlier this summer, Press Action published an interview that regular contributor Abu Spinoza had conducted with Thomas Nagy, a professor of expert systems in the school of business and public management at George Washington University.

Since that time, Nagy announced that he has decided to leave his post at GWU in order to pursue a career teaching peace in Canada. For the time being, Nagy has lined up a position as visiting professor of peace studies at MacMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. In a July 25 article on Muslim WakeUp!, Nagy, who has been a U.S. citizen since 1954, explained why he will apply for Canadian citizenship and “try to rebuild my 20-year university career in a functioning democracy.”

In the article, he cites the erosion of democracy and takes aim at U.S. Institute of Peace board nominee Daniel Pipes for naming him and five other professors as “Profs Who Hate America” in a New York Post column.

Nagy wrote in the Muslim WakeUp article:

“I think Canada’s secret is simple: a small, peace keeping-oriented military; a small weapons industry; no empire to rule and no countries to conquer. (Sending trigger pullers to Afghanistan was an aberration. Canadian troops die if they must but as peace keepers, not as killers of essentially defenseless people.)”
“I hope to die in Canada and atone for my stupidity and culpability in paying taxes to the most well-oiled killing machine in history, the United States of America, by teaching peace studies and promoting pacifism, which I think is the only force powerful enough to overcome America’s super weapons.

In a July 31 column on his website, Pipes refers to Nagy’s article on Muslim WakeUp! and questions Nagy’s reasons for leaving for Ontario. In a letter to Nagy, Pipes says a July 4 explanation by Nagy for leaving the U.S. “seems to contradict the one you gave on July 25 ... could you reconcile them for me? Your saying that you ‘probably will not return to GW’ seems to contradict your wish ‘to die’ in Canada; could you again reconcile these statements?”

Nagy, who is now living in Hamilton, Ontario, can be reached at . -- Mark Hand

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