A Fuller and More Personal Response to Dorothy Rabinowitz's Attack on Me in the Wall Street Journal

When I first read Ms. Rabinowitz's personal attacks on me as the lead article on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal, I have to confess that my first reaction was that she was an ethnocentric racist and prejudiced bigot. After some reflection, I realized that she was probably more ignorant than bigoted. I could have let the matter rest there, but aside from the personal attacks, there are a number of factual errors, that, in the spirit of clarity ought to be corrected.

Ms. Rabinowitz is on the editorial board of the now Fox News-affiliated Wall Street Journal. Its editorial page has long been a faithful stenographer for the Neoconservatives and the Bush/Cheney administration's benighted approach to militant Islam. Elsewhere, my son addressed the complexity of the terrorist problem and the US involvement in it. Gotham Chopra has experience as a war correspondent in the Middle East, including Pakistan and Afghanistan. While returning from Afghanistan, he was arrested after interviewing an Afghani leader (which caused immense anguish for my wife and I). Suffice it to say that the causes of Islamic terrorism are complex. To trivialize my views on a topic as vast as terrorism with: "Deepak Blames America," as Ms. Rabinowitz has done, not only suggests how abysmally uninformed she is, but also speaks to the ever-sinking journalistic standards of her newspaper.

Now on a more personal note: I am one of Midnight's Children as Salman Rushdie refers to those of us born during the tumultuous separation of what used to be the British Raj into the newly formed states of India and Pakistan. I came into this world amidst the carnage of the Hindu-Muslim riots that swept across the Indian subcontinent in the aftermath of the separation. Partition of the Indian subcontinent was an idea generated by the British colonial government and resulted in mass migrations of Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus to India. Both my parents grew up in what is now Pakistan. They, along with their parents, fled from Rawalpindi, now Islamabad. (My father went to medical school in Lahore, Pakistan.) They were innocent victims and refugees of a mass genocide and a collective psychosis that gripped the land at the time. Members of both sides of our family were murdered by Muslim extremists. And of course, countless Muslims in India were also slaughtered in the violence then. I grew up listening to stories of vicious brutality, but also stories of compassion, and acts of heroism that occurred on both sides of the Hindu-Muslim divide. Although my parents and grandparents lost all their possessions, their bank accounts, their homes, and many of their family members, still, in spite of all that, they never expressed any hostility. There were only stories--poignant, powerful, and tragic stories. I and my siblings grew up listening to these stories, and in turn, so did our children. Now Gotham and Mallika are telling these stories to their children as well.

(Our son Gotham was born in Boston, but Mallika, our first child, was born in New Delhi. At the time, I was an intern training in medicine in the US and our health insurance did not cover the preexisting condition of pregnancy. So, since I could not afford the cost of my wife's delivery in the US, I sent her at the 11th hour to India where my father took care of the expenses.)

Obviously I don't blame Ms. Rabinowitz for being unaware of my family's personal experience as victims of religious sectarian violence, but I hope she can appreciate that my interest in conflict resolution does have a real context in the area of religious extremism. Ms. Rabinowitz smirks, "how the ebullient Dr. Chopra had come to be chosen on an authority on terror remains something of a mystery." While I do not consider myself an authority on terrorism, it has had a formative impact on my life and I have used that experience and interest to become a serious student of the root causes of terrorism throughout my life. I am currently the president and one of the founders of the Alliance for a New Humanity. I, along with co-founders and Nobel Peace Laureates Oscar Arias and Betty Williams, are attempting to create a critical mass of awareness to address the deeper causes of global instability including war and terrorism, climate change, social injustice, and radical poverty.

We live in a world were 50 percent of its population lives on less than two dollars a day and 20 percent lives on less than one dollar a day. We can't dismiss these as trivial facts if we want to understand the deeper causes of instability and violence in the world.

Ms. Rabinowitz accuses me of being "a faithful adherent of the root causes of crime." As a matter of fact, I do adhere to the theory that crime does have sources that can be understood, and I have addressed this topic it as it pertains to terrorism in TIME magazine. Ms. Rabinowitz ought to realize that you can kill a terrorist, but that doesn't kill his ideology. And as long as that ideology has power and life, it will continue to regenerate new terrorists no matter how many terrorists you kill. The ideology of Islamic terrorism is barbaric, savage, brutal and primitive, yet still it is born in a context. That context is historical, cultural, religious, economic, and political. Refusing to understand that context, dooms us to an endless failed anti-terrorist policy.

An ideology can only be overcome through the creation of a new more appealing ideology. In order to accomplish that we need the participation and help of moderate Muslims throughout the world. There are between 1.6 to 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, and by far, most of them are the moderates we need to enlist in our efforts. We can't solve this global problem by branding almost 25% of the world's population as terrorists. I would hope Ms. Rabinowitz could recognize that this issue is far too serious of a problem for her to exploit it for her personal petty agenda. The Mumbai tragedy obviously gathered extensive international attention. Instead of channeling this global focus toward productive insight and solutions, Ms. Rabinowitz chose instead to direct the attention of this tragedy into a personal attack that can only further fan the flames of hatred and exacerbate the situation instead of helping it.

In a recent interview on Hannity and Colmes, my long-time friend, William Cohen, the former Secretary of Defense under Clinton, and a Republican, referred to Donald Rumsfeld's memo in which he reveals the futility of the Bush's approach to terrorism when he asks, "Are we creating more terrorists than we are killing?" Bill Cohen and I have worked together on race and reconciliation issues and have discussed these matters at great length. And in looking at the complex matter of terrorism, one thing is clear: the knee-jerk reaction, the eye for an eye Old Testament response to kill them all, is not going to be a successful long-term solution.

Ms. Rabinowitz also says, "nor did we hear in these media meditations, any particular expression of sorrow from the New Delhi born Dr. Chopra for the anguish of Mumbai's victims." In the few second sound bites that are characteristic of the Larry King Live show, I did mention the media obsession for pointing out victims mainly of Western origin. I specifically told Larry that we should be feeling the anguish of everyone and that all lives were precious. Perhaps Ms. Rabinowitz didn't hear that only because she chose to ignore it.

Ms. Rabinowitz has fun trying to diminish my credibility saying I am an "advocate of aromatherapy and regular enemas" and sarcastically says "no one can fail to grasp the wisdom of him who has informed us that if you have happy thoughts you can make happy molecules."

While I do not claim to be an expert in aromatherapy, there is some useful research that can clarify this issue with research. Aromatherapy has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment modality for anxiety, high blood pressure, fast heart rate, and in modulating immune function. Along with neuroassociative conditioning, it has been used for treating illnesses and for mitigating the harmful side effects of chemotherapy, including nausea and vomiting. See citations below.*

Therapeutic enemas have been used both in Eastern and Western medical traditions for thousands of years. I must admit I have prescribed enemas to constipated patients, though that can hardly be considered unique for a physician. Perhaps Ms. Rabinowitz is referring to "cleansing enemas" which are also part of many medical traditions, although I am not personally enthusiastic about them.

It is well documented that when people are having the subjective experience of euphoria or happiness, they generate higher concentrations of serotonin, opiates, oxytocin, and dopamine. These are referred to as the molecules of emotion. These molecules are neurotransmitters but they also act as immunomodulators. Candace Pert, PhD, served as Chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) former Chief of Brain Chemistry at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and former Research Professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine. She and her colleagues have done extensive research on these neurotransmitters, and, in fact in her book The Molecules of Emotion, she attests that happy thoughts do indeed make "happy molecules".

I do not expect Ms. Rabinowitz to know my family history with terrorism, nor do I expect her to know anything about research on traditional, alternative or conventional medicine. But her baseless and reckless pretense that she does know these things, as a means to incite intolerance, is irresponsible and callous.

In her snickering and condescending manner, Ms. Rabinowitz is suggesting that "I am a snake oil salesman." This tired canard is meant to pull the audience in on the joke that I am some kind of a con artist who doesn't deserve whatever attention I have gained. I am quite familiar with detractors using this ready-made prejudice to try to discredit or diminish me. This strategy is somewhat effective because it appeals to a certain mindset that sees the world in those terms, so I don't expect to disabuse those who are not open to the facts.

For my part I would simply say that I value practical, verifiable results in medicine as well as in global issues of terrorism. Repeating old failed policies and procedures based on outmoded ideologies makes no sense to me, whether it is political ideology or medical ideology. This creatively pragmatic view for solutions is also thankfully the direction of the future, and we see this especially in the field of medicine now.

For the record, I am board certified in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, and Metabolism. I have a license to practice medicine in the states of Massachusetts and California. I am a member of the American Medical Association (AMA), and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

For the last several years, the Chopra Center has offered courses on integrative medicine that have been approved for continuing medical education credit by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint sponsorship of the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

I'm an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management where I teach a course on leadership.

Furthermore, once a year I teach at the Update in Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School course where I speak, amongst other things, on aromatherapy and the molecules of emotions.

Additionally I write columns weekly at Washington Post On Faith and at the San Francisco Chronicle I have been invited to speak at Harvard Business School and Harvard Divinity School as well. Perhaps, Ms. Rabinowitz is unaware of my background or perhaps she simply prefers to create a caricature of me to fit her baseless preconceptions.

Once a week I host a radio show on Sirus-XM satellite radio. I intend to devote the next few shows to terrorism and creative approaches to it. The next show on Saturday December 6^th is a special two hour program live from 12-2pm ET to discuss the cultural, social, and political roots of global terrorism. My next upcoming show will include the following guests: Alan Colmes, of Fox News, Gotham Chopra, Ken Robinson, Peter Bergen, Salman Ahmad, Former Senator Bill Bradley, and Shekhar Kapur.

In the spirit of reconciliation and inclusiveness I am also inviting Ms. Rabinowitz to join in these discussions to offer her solutions to terrorism. I hope she will have the courage to show up.

Read More:

Mallika Chopra: What Happened in Mumbai is Very Personal

Gotham Chopra: My Response to Dorothy Rabinowitz and the WSJ

Michelle Haimoff: My Uncensored Interview with Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra: Response to the Wall Street Journal

Deepak Chopra: How to Prevent Another Mumbai

Gotham Chopra: Mumbai Mess

*Aromatherapy enhances immune function (Shibata, 1992)
Aromatherapy reduces need for antidepressant medication in psychiatric patients (Komori, 1995)
Fragrances can be sedating or activating (Buchbauer, 1993)

Sirus radio podcasts are available on Intent.com

Comments

[Trittydi]

Sound, logical, comprehensive and compassionate thinking on such deeply complex and dangerously misunderstood international conflicts is hard to come by. I would argue they are nonexistent on the right. Their tools are sound bites and ridicule. I don't believe there is any level on which they actually understand a situation of this nature - I simply don't believe they're capable of it.

She decided she was going to do a personal attack style "hit-job" - to delegitimize you and attempt to damage your integrity. The right especially engages in such attacks when they feel that your point of view threatens them in some way.

Typical re-Thug stuff.

Thanks for taking the time for a comprehensive explanation.
*

[trubluelefty]

Many of us appreciate greatly the message that you are trying to send in today's bitter world. Thank you for speaking out as a voice of reason. Do not fear that we are all blinded by such hate as that which was leveled agaisnt you. Speak up, speak more, do not be silenced.

[MontanaHome]

Excellent post, Dr. Chopra.

[dryrock]

I used to call him Dr. Feel-Good. After reading the original article, then his response, I can see that what he does is chose his time and place to take a stand, rather than reacting to everything. Clearly the tone of the WSJ piece was devoid of nuance. Black and White - just like the paper. But then that's what they do, massage the egos of the plutocrats.

I suspect Dr. Chopra knows all this. What I can't figure out is: Did the WSJ refuse to print his rebuttal, or did he choose to go to a known sympathetic publisher? I don't know. I suspect the answer to that question would be revealing.

[jade7243]

Now that's what I call a smackdown.

Score it a unanimous decision for .... Deeeeeeeee­eeeeeeeeee­eeeeeee-pa­k Choooooooo­oooooooooo­-praaaaaaa­aaaaaaaaaa­aaaaaaaaaa­aaaaa!!!!!­!!

[downwithbig3]

Dr. Chopra, while this retort was enlightening, you didn't really address the assertion that you blame the United States for attacks such as these, i.e. are we to blame for the venomous hatred directed towards us by radical islam?In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks i saw a small bit of one of your interviews and all i heard was what the United States is doing in Iraq is terrorism. The idea that you would equate the United States going after a terrorist group (who attacked us first) using organized military operations to cowardly radicals who bury roadside bombs and kidnap American citizens to later cut their heads off while taping it disturbs me. So i'm guessing you would subscribe to the notion that all we have done is "air raided villages and killed innocent civilians"? And how many of these civilians in Iraq have been killed by Al Qaeda? This whole Utopian idea of holding hands with all the moderate muslims in the world and asking them to ask their radical bretheren to play nice and change their ideology is a joke. After 9/11, what would your IMMEDIATE response have been? Of course its easy to look back and say what we should or should not have done, but unless you were there and in charge you have no idea what that was like. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Look at your beloved FDR who rounded up 130,000 Japanese Americans and put them into camps.

[crackpot]

you wrote "i saw a small bit of one of your interviews and all i heard was what the United States is doing in Iraq is terrorism. The idea that you would equate the United States going after a terrorist group (who attacked us first) using organized military operations"
You are a liar or a fool for repeating falsehoods such as this. Which is it? The information has been out there for a long time that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Keep flailing away with your hateful slander of those who tell the truth, it won't help your case, the real story will be told by history.

[downwithbig3]

falsehoods? liar? which part? the part where i said Chopra Blames america? Quote from his appearance on Larry king "Terrorists call mechanized death from 35,000 feet with the press of a button also terror. We don't call it that because our soldiers are wearing uniforms."
He also has said our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan has made the problem "worse" turning "moderates into extremists". As for Iraq, i never have given Bush a free pass on it, but our enemy has no country. Also Bush said originally that were going after terrorists or THOSE WHO HARBOR TERRORISTS, i.e. IRAQ. You think Saddam would have given them up if he knew about Al Qaeda in his country? He had already violated sanctions from the Gulf War, not to mention he was committing genocide. As for history telling the real story Crackpot, history will judge Bush much more kindly than you think.

[DocDiggs]

As I recall, those that hit the WTC, Pentagon, and took down the other plane were Saudi's, not Iraqis. That being the case, why did Bush,et al. in the WH not attack Saudi Arabia? Gee now...let's see.... All this garbage will eventually be sorted out as, hopefully, the Bush, etc. papers, and other data are dug through by political historians...in my lifetime I wish, but as I'm 70 I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for the definitive report. I just want some of the truth to start coming out while I can still read and understand it all. There is obvious culpability on the part of the Bush admin based on stuff already documented, but it just ain't 'nuff yet.

[annschneider1]

I am always so satisfied when someone as brilliant as you are, Dr. Chopra, can also clearly communicate the essence of the wrongs that have been said. So many times I see that wise men do not know how to defend themselves against ignorant people.
Perfectly done.
I hope when Rupert Murdoch's more liberal wife gets wind of this...Ms Rabinowitz will be toast. I don't see how anyone could ever take her seriously again.
Thank you for all the good you do. Keep attempting to open eyes as well as hearts.

[stefiz]

she has no interest in the truth about you... she just wants to build herself and her ideology up by tearing you down!! i think you are an amazing insightful person and we as a nation are blessed to have your voice speaking truth and commonsense in this crazed climate!!!!
thank you so much!!!

[stop7997]

Mr. Chopra states "I would hope Ms. Rabinowitz could recognize that this issue is far too serious of a problem for her to exploit it for her personal petty agenda." However, it is not her personal agenda that Ms. Rabinowitz exploits; rather it is a political agenda of creating dissension and exploiting fear. This has long been the modus operandi of conservative movements (certainly it is what allowed a cowed Congress to take us into yet another unending war); and, with conservative economic policies having recently been completely discredited via the world's economic collapse, it is their last weapon in the holster.

[lola85]

Beautifully articulated. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us all.

[canuckmoose]

Dr. Chopra,
Truth requires no defense.
The attacker attacks only herself.
One cannot give offense, but only take it.
Jesus said: 'So say you'.
Buddha said 'There is unsatisfactoriness in the world'

I suspect you have written all these things.

Deep peace to you.

[chaos4700]

I wish that were true, but when good people stay silent in the face of an injustice -- even a minor one like a superficial ad hominem -- that injustice takes root and grows. The lie is repeated, grows in complexity, is shouted deafeningly, preached as gospel. And that might not be so bad if it never had an effect on decisions and behaviors, but it does. Just look at where the lie that the Bush administration touted about Saddam Hussein cooperating with al Qaeda and how that lie carried us into a war that has left Iraq ruined and fractured and led to the suffering of millions of people, both Iraqi and American.

You're right, no one can destroy the truth. But if the truth reminds buried while lies are acted upon, the truth is reduced to an impotent spectre and selfish people will grasp the opportunity to inflict mass suffering on others merely to enrich themselves.

[NoToGOP08]

Well said Mr. Chopra.Some day the Rabinowitz' of the world will open their eyes, hearts and minds, In the meantime please continue being the voice of reason.

[William1950]

The practice of religion, mixed with humans need to be dominant, to be right. This is what causes all conflict and prevents us from living in paradise. Neighbors cannot get along with neighbors. Schools cannot get along with other schools. Towns with other towns, countries with other countries, races of people with other races. Many of us cannot get along with our own families.
Then we have religion to give us a reason to hate... "It's God who commands us that we are right above all others!"
And the ignorant fan the flames.
And the people go to bed hungry and afraid.

[antiprop1]

After Murdoch took over, what did you expect?

[Alethia]

I agree with Deepak Chopra that using the "root cause" theory to extinguish terrorism is the way to go.

It's absurd to attack moderate and well-meaning Muslim countries (who happen to be our allies) to solve the problem.

Yes, America is already bombing Pakistan to get at terrorist sites without its government's consent and we are creating a situation of falling dominoes much like we created in SouthEast Asia by bombing Cambodia in 1970. And we all know what tragedy befell the poor Cambodian people-
the killing fields.

Dr. Chopra is asking for sanity and understanding to prevail, not madness and recklessness.