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This was in today's Detroit Free Press. Quote:
MSU prof's e-mail outrages Muslims
Speech protected, school tells students
April 25, 2006
BY LORI HIGGINS and NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
An Islamic student group at Michigan State University demanded Monday that university officials publicly reprimand a professor whose Feb. 28 e-mail called on Muslims who don't "like the values of the West" to leave the United States.
But MSU officials said there's little that can be done to punish Indrek Wichman, 55, a tenured professor of mechanical engineering, because his comments essentially constitute free speech. Wichman sent the message to the Muslim Students' Association of Michigan State University while it handed out free cocoa during a public awareness event about controversial cartoons that depicted Islam's founder as a terrorist.
The cartoons, one of which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, sparked violent protests and riots around the world in February.
"I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders," Wichman wrote.
He went on to say: "I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' "
The Muslim Students' Association, along with 12 other student and advocacy groups, called Monday for the university to issue a letter of reprimand. They have met several times with university officials since Feb. 28 and went public with the e-mail Monday because the school had not acted.
Terry Denbow, spokesman for MSU, said Wichman's views in no way represent the university's views. But, he said, they do not violate the university's antidiscrimination policy.
"He was cautioned that any additional commentary ... could constitute the creation of a hostile environment, and that could ... form the basis of a complaint" under the policy, Denbow said.
He said he considers the comments "very inappropriate. And I personally wish he would apologize to the students."
To Farhan Abdul Azeez, an MSU senior studying human biology and the president of the student association, the e-mail was startling.
"Naturally, I was very upset. I was disgusted. All of those emotions went through my body," said Azeez, 20, of Canton.
In addition to a reprimand, the student group wants the university to implement diversity training programs for faculty and a mandatory freshman seminar on hate and discrimination.
"The best way to limit or to kind of defuse hate is through education, no doubt," said Maryam Khalil, 18, a sophomore from East Lansing studying journalism. Khalil is vice president of the association.
Denbow said discussions with students about sensitivity training are ongoing.
"We're not only willing to, but eager to listen to the students. Their commentary to date has been thoughtful," Denbow said.
Reached at home Monday evening, Wichman said he had regrets.
"I used strong language in a private communication that I would certainly not have used if this communication would have gone public," he said.
But he stressed the importance of free speech.
"I believe very strongly in free speech and free expression. It is one of the building blocks of this great republic in which we live. And any attempts to abridge or diminish it are serious matters."
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also is urging the university to take "appropriate disciplinary" action, saying the e-mail creates a hostile learning environment for students.
"It was upsetting, yet sad" that a tenured professor could make such comments, said Dawud Walid, executive director of the council. "It's scary when you think about the power that this gentleman has" as a professor.
Walid said that MSU has the academic and moral obligation to publicly denounce the e-mail, conduct a formal investigation and have sensitivity training on how to deal with Muslims on campus.
The university should "strongly and publicly disassociate themselves from the statement," Walid said.
Azeez said education is most important.
"There's a bigger problem here of racism and discrimination at Michigan State University. Faculty training and sensitivity training are very important to help prevent future incidents like this from occurring," he said.
This was the actual [urlhttp://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060425/NEWS05/604250381/1007/NEWS]Feb. 28 e-mail[/url].
Quote:
Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest.
I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.
This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests."
If you do not like the values of the West -- see the 1st Ammendment -- you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.
Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering
The question is, is there a right to complain about this professor's letter, or does he have the right to voice his opinion to the Islamic student group?
I think not only does he have a constitutional right to speak out against violence, but a moral obligation to speak out against the hypocrisy that the students are spitting right back at him the university. He's not calling for a violent response to the radical Muslim violent response. He's calling for them to wake up and read the Constitution and see that in this country we all have a right to speak our minds. In response, they call for diversity training, the biggest joke ever started by the PC movement. All diversity training does is preach that we should be tolerant of of intolerance. How can we ever by tolerant on intolerance towards our undeniable rights under the First Ammendment? How can we allow people to walk all over our own constitution in on our own soil? The pussification of America needs to stop right now, and I only hope that more people take the hint, at the university level, and start making a stand now in the same way they stood up against the Vietnam war. Whether anyone here agrees or disagrees with the university response to the Vietnam war, students had a right to speak up then, and they have that same right to speak up now. Only this time, it may be their last chance before the PC police begin to trample all over the rights of philisophical discussion in schools of higher education. The hypocrasy in America has to stop now, and I hope that this is finally the first step in that direction.
<sub>Will Eisner's last work - The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of ZionRDCW Profile"Well, as it happens, I wrote the damned SOP," Illescue half snarled, "and as of now, you can bar those jackals from any part of this facility until Hell's a hockey rink! Is that perfectly clear?!" - Dr. Franz Illescue - Honor Harrington: At All Costs"I don't know what I'm do, or how I do, I just do." - Alexander Ovechkin</sub>
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We already are 15000+ posts
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I agree with you Penwing. Being PC is making this country soft. I just wish that newspaper included an article admitting that the Pistons are the most overated team in the history of the NBA.
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graemlin protector 6000+ posts
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overrated, and on their way to 2 finals losses in a row
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1 Millionth Customer 10000+ posts
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I think people go too far with PC shit. I think we need programs to prevent discrimination, but not to step on eggshells around different races. Doing that will never result in any sort of honest understanding, it just makes people pretend to be nice because they're afraid of being sued.
Bow ties are coool.
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for me to really read his comments and weigh in, i would want to know exactly what the protest was about. the content of the cartoons alone? if anything else what else?
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Timelord. Drunkard. 15000+ posts
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Timelord. Drunkard. 15000+ posts
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Quote:
PenWing said:
The question is, is there a right to complain about this professor's letter, or does he have the right to voice his opinion to the Islamic student group?
Yes, and yes. They have a right to complain about his exercise of free speech just as he has a right to complain about their exercise of free speech. As long as neither try to squash those rights, it's A-Ok!.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet." Our Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man said: "no, the doctor's right. besides, he has seniority."
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Quote:
thedoctor said:
Quote:
PenWing said:
The question is, is there a right to complain about this professor's letter, or does he have the right to voice his opinion to the Islamic student group?
Yes, and yes. They have a right to complain about his exercise of free speech just as he has a right to complain about their exercise of free speech. As long as neither try to squash those rights, it's A-Ok!.
It seems to me that the Muslim Student Association is trying to squash his rights by demanding repremands and diversity counseling. All this professor said was in America we have the right to voice our opinions, and if someone doesn't like that, that person should leave. He used examples to point out the hypocrasy of those who demand we respect them but not that they should respect us (us as in people who voice free speech) because they use threats of violence and acts of murder to try and shut up anyone who verbally opposes their thoughts. Isn't all he's saying here is that we have a right to complain in the media and other public forms of communication and they have the right to voice their own opinions in the same peaceful manner, but not in physical violence, nor in attempts to silance our freedom of speech? And then here they go trying to silance our own freedom of speech.
<sub>Will Eisner's last work - The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of ZionRDCW Profile"Well, as it happens, I wrote the damned SOP," Illescue half snarled, "and as of now, you can bar those jackals from any part of this facility until Hell's a hockey rink! Is that perfectly clear?!" - Dr. Franz Illescue - Honor Harrington: At All Costs"I don't know what I'm do, or how I do, I just do." - Alexander Ovechkin</sub>
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