WHERE AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE NOT FREE TO SPEAK
When I posted here on 10/13/2006 about the student protests (which turned into a riot) at Columbia University, during which speakers from the Minuteman Project were prevented from speaking, I did not realize that this was just the tip of the iceberg of campus hypocracy in this country. I am just beginning to grasp how widespread the suppression of dissenting voices is in the classroom and on campus. http://www.columbiaunbecoming.com/
provides the text of a film documenting abuse of students at CU by professors who are permitted to teach only one point of view and to silence anyone questioning their opinion. Yet they continue to go on teaching.
As a further example of suppression of open debate, in my first blog here I wondered why American Muslims do not often speak up against Islamist terrorism and against punitive and restrictive practices in some Muslim countries. I assumed that they were afraid of reprisals by those terrorists. I was wrong. It seems that they are, at least some of the time, prevented by other American Muslims!
Nonie Darwish, raised as a Muslim, was prevented from speaking at Brown University of her rejection of human rights abuses by radical Islamists, because Muslim students found her to be too controversial. She also got no support from a Jewish student organization which preferred to show its allegiance to Muslim students. A woman's organization also opposed her coming to speak on campus because Ms Darwish did not criticize Israel for not protecting Palestinian women from their husbands. (It does seem difficult, though not impossible, to prevent spousal abuse just about everywhere!) Just where is the logic in this as Ms Darwish wants to speak for Muslim women everywhere?
I must admit that I still wish that liberal Muslim leaders and individuals would say something more in public or in the press if they truly deplore such acts as, in just one example, fathers and brothers in Jordan murdering a daughter or sister who has been raped because she has "disgraced" the family.
And I also strongly urge those politicians and journalists who have expressed concern at erosion of free speech and other civil rights brought about by the current administration, to also use their clout and access to the media to bring to light the situation in higher education. When university faculty and students do not understand open debate, freedom of speech, and do not realize how horrendous disruptive protests are in an academic environment, then higher education itself is a victim.
Please check out these links:
Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror (Hardcover) by Nonie Darwish
http://www.anchorrising.com/barnacles/003603.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21369
When I posted here on 10/13/2006 about the student protests (which turned into a riot) at Columbia University, during which speakers from the Minuteman Project were prevented from speaking, I did not realize that this was just the tip of the iceberg of campus hypocracy in this country. I am just beginning to grasp how widespread the suppression of dissenting voices is in the classroom and on campus. http://www.columbiaunbecoming.com/
provides the text of a film documenting abuse of students at CU by professors who are permitted to teach only one point of view and to silence anyone questioning their opinion. Yet they continue to go on teaching.
As a further example of suppression of open debate, in my first blog here I wondered why American Muslims do not often speak up against Islamist terrorism and against punitive and restrictive practices in some Muslim countries. I assumed that they were afraid of reprisals by those terrorists. I was wrong. It seems that they are, at least some of the time, prevented by other American Muslims!
Nonie Darwish, raised as a Muslim, was prevented from speaking at Brown University of her rejection of human rights abuses by radical Islamists, because Muslim students found her to be too controversial. She also got no support from a Jewish student organization which preferred to show its allegiance to Muslim students. A woman's organization also opposed her coming to speak on campus because Ms Darwish did not criticize Israel for not protecting Palestinian women from their husbands. (It does seem difficult, though not impossible, to prevent spousal abuse just about everywhere!) Just where is the logic in this as Ms Darwish wants to speak for Muslim women everywhere?
I must admit that I still wish that liberal Muslim leaders and individuals would say something more in public or in the press if they truly deplore such acts as, in just one example, fathers and brothers in Jordan murdering a daughter or sister who has been raped because she has "disgraced" the family.
And I also strongly urge those politicians and journalists who have expressed concern at erosion of free speech and other civil rights brought about by the current administration, to also use their clout and access to the media to bring to light the situation in higher education. When university faculty and students do not understand open debate, freedom of speech, and do not realize how horrendous disruptive protests are in an academic environment, then higher education itself is a victim.
Please check out these links:
Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror (Hardcover) by Nonie Darwish
http://www.anchorrising.com/barnacles/003603.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21369
Labels: American Muslims, censorship in U. S. universities, Freedom of Speech
1 Comments:
Thanks so much for visiting my blog :)
About your article, I totaly agree...even in the age of communication, there's still no total freedom to express your opinion, and (sorry to say) that's probably how it will always be as long as power exists. Some people prefer their opinions not to be questioned, so other people opinions have to be eliminated...a shame
(blog tip: I'd add pics on the issues you talk about each post...think of it as a newspaper ;) )
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