October 15, 2007
The hate that dares to speak its name at GWU
Young America's Foundation is the terrific organization that, among other things, supports conservative students on college campuses with speakers and conferences. We haven't gotten around to covering the outrageous events of the past week at George Washington University that involve YAF. We asked YAF's Jason Mattera for a recap, which he has kindly provided. Jason writes:
The President of The George Washington University, Steven Knapp , came out swinging when he thought that conservative students had hung pernicious, anti-Muslim fliers around campus. "There is no place for expressions of hatred …. We do not condone, and we will not tolerate the dissemination of fliers or other documents that vilify any religious, ethnic or racial group," he said in a statement released to the media. The Executive Vice President of the Student Association called the acts "heinous" and said that he "would support expulsion."
Emblazoned on the much-reported fliers were the words "Hate Muslims? So Do We!!" The fliers went on to stereotype an Arab Muslim as having "lasers in eyes," "hatred for women," a "suicide vest," and a "hidden AK-47." The ads were maliciously attributed to Young America's Foundation.
Seven leftist students have since come forward to take credit for creating and posting the fliers. One of the students, Brian Tierney, is a self-described socialist who fantasizes about lining up George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz in front of a firing squad. Another student, Adam Kokesh, is currently being prosecuted for defacing public property during an anti-war rally. Overall, the GWU seven aren't the sharpest utensils in the drawer. They claimed the flier was "expos[ing] the upcoming Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week sponsored by the GWU Young America's Foundation for the celebration of racism that it is." Leaving aside for a moment the fact that Islam isn't a race, these students charged conservatives with racism, and then to buttress those baseless claims, these same radicals manufactured actual racist material to pin on the young conservatives.
So far, President Knapp has been less than enthusiastic about taking any type of disciplinary action now that liberals have been revealed to be the culprits. "We have established judicial policies and procedures," University spokeswoman Tracy Schario said. "I am confident that President Knapp will let them take their course."
What about not "condon[ing]" and "tolerat[ing] the dissemination" of hate? All of a sudden the administration is concerned about due process? Yet when the fliers were first spotted, Young America's Foundation students were dragged into an administrator's office, presumed guilty, pressured—unsuccessfully—to sign a statement disavowing hate speech that may originate from any of their future events, and hauled before a University "Peace Forum" where they were jeered at by fellow students.
So much for due process!
I'm sure if Muslims were the intended target of the fliers, President Knapp would've probably announced plans to build a multimillion-dollar mosque on campus, Imams would be hired as visiting professors, prayer rugs would be imported from Saudi Arabia, and the school would institute a new study abroad program to Mecca.
Alas, conservatives were the target, so President Knapp's wrath has subsided, and his clarion call for justice is no more. And that means that the political profiling of conservatives continues for another day.
Jason adds that President Knapp's email address is
sknapp@gwu.edu.
Posted by Scott at 5:36 AM
