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Colorado College's invitation to Palestinian Hanan Ashrawi to speak at a three-day symposium called "September 11: One Year Later, Responding to Global Challenges," brought criticism from several Coloradoans, including Focus on the Family President James Dobson. He issued a press release against the event, which prompted a reply from Bethlehem Bible College President Bishara Awad, one of the leading evangelicals in the Mideast. Awad's open letter, in turn, prompted a reply from Dobson. Below is the full text of all three documents. For more commentary, see Christianity Today's Weblog coverage here and here.

Colorado Springs—The Jewish community of Colorado Springs has expressed concern over the timing of a conference to be held at Colorado College and the decision by the college to invite Palestinian sympathizer Dr. Hanan Ashrawi as a keynote speaker. Dr. James Dobson, a member of the National American Alliance of Jews and Christians and the Center for Christian Jewish Dialogue, has said that he is sympathetic to the concerns of the Jewish people in the Colorado Springs area.

"There is certainly a place for academic freedom, but contracting a controversial figure at such a painful time for America is insensitive and lacks appropriate judgment," says Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family. "Have we already forgotten the news footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets on September 11 celebrating bin Laden's attack on the United States? Have we forgotten Israel's response to the catastrophe? Israel lowered its flags to half-staff, and Benjamin Netanyahu said, 'Today, we are all Americans.'"

Dear Dr. James Dobson.

I pray that you will accept this message from a concerned Palestinian Christian.

On September 11, I was in Bethlehem and I personally asked many Palestinians Muslims and Christian, about the attack and ALL those I asked have said this is terrible and evil. Not one condoned the attack on America. The reason is very simple, the Palestinians themselves have gone through a great deal of suffering and they understand more than anybody else what it means to go through suffering and death. The incident of dancing you referred to is a very isolated incident, and all Palestinians believe it was staged by the media .It was done by very few irresponsible young Palestinians in one location only. It was at the very beginning of the news of the attack and no one knew the magnitude of the attacks yet. It is sad that the Israeli media used this very isolated incident to over tone all Palestinians as rejoicing. For you to use this event to further stereotypical of the Palestinians is not fair. You just do not have all the facts. The Palestinians decried the attack; Mr. Arafat and all his cabinet expressed in strong terms this evil incident. He was even shown donating blood to the victims of 911.

Dr. Dobson: All my life I had a great respect for you and for your writings and how much you have done in restoring family and the value of the family. Not only in American society but also all over the World. Your books are translated to Arabic and are used in our Bible College. We don't only respect, but we feel we know you and love you.

For us it is a shock to learn of your objections for Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, for a very moderate and sound speaker to share in Colorado. Just because she is a Palestinian, this does not make her unclean. You have become an instrument of hate and division. You have said things against your own writings and beliefs. You have considered all Palestinians as the enemy of America and your enemy. Dr. Dobson, you are wrong. You live in a democratic country and you, among all people should defend the right to speak even though you may not be in agreement.

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September (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46