ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: Noam Chomsky, one of America’s most prominent dissidents, well-known for his long career of protest against US foreign policy, from the Vietnam War in the 1960s to the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, is arriving in Pakistan to share his views about the contemporary situation.

A renowned professor of linguistics at Massachussets Institute of Technology, with more than over 30 political books to his credit, Chomsky will express his views on “Terrorism and problems that beset the contemporary world,” in a lecture on Nov 26 at Islamabad. Dawn Group of Newspapers, in collaboration with the Eqbal Ahmed Foundation, has organised the lecture.

Prof Chomsky, some think, is to present generation what Ibn Rushd, Galilieo, Descartes, Newton, and Russel were to those of their times.

Born in Philadelphia, Chomsky received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty at MIT in 1955. Through a long series of books and articles beginning in 1957, Chomsky has dissected such issues as US interventionism in the developing world, the political economy of human rights and the propaganda role of corporate media.

Much interest has been built in the literary circles about Chomsky’s visit. For many an intellectual anarchist, Chomsky is regarded as a strong proponent of individual freedoms who thinks it makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them. Unless a justification for them can be given, Chomsky feels they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled to increase the scope of human freedom.

Such views, which made Chomsky controversial for the brokers of status quo during the past fifty years, have been expounded in many books and articles, including On Power and Ideology (1987) and World Orders, Old and New (1994).

To get an idea what the man stands for, Chomsky’s views on Sept 11 terrorist attacks are revealing enough how intellectual honesty is maintained in analysing contemporary situations by sailing against public opinion engineered by the powerful state structures.

What many saw in terms of the wide powers given to FBI and CIA in the aftermath of the terrorist attack was an attack on the “Statute of Liberty” by US administration as predicted by Chomsky.

Organisers at Dawn have done a lot of hard work to arrange the lecture in Pakistan as the professor is scheduled two years in advance to deliver lectures. And, the lectures are not delivered to elite intellectuals only but they are mostly listened to by a popular audience. Despite the worldwide acclaim of his intellectual capabilities, interestingly enough, Chomsky has been left out in a way by the US media, a fact which the professor acknowledges. Explaining the reason for this, Chomsky himself says: “Why should they offer space to somebody who’s trying to undermine their power, and to expose what they do?”

The lecture in Islamabad is expected to bring forth an interesting view of terrorism by Noam Chomsky and how the war against terrorism will be successful in the contemporary situation. Listening to recipient of the 1998 Japanese Kyoto Prize would be an eye-opener for many.