by Bill Levinson

[See also American Liberal Liberties Union, WSJ]

To: American Civil Liberties Union info “at” aclum.org (Massachusetts section)
cc: fire “at” thefire.org, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; bacow and barbara.grossman “at” tufts.edu (Tufts University President Bacow and Committee on Student Life head Barbara Grossman); info “at” tuftsprimarysource.org (The Primary Source)

The American Civil Liberties Union says:

“Freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. Since 1920, the ACLU has worked to preserve our freedom of speech. Learn more and take action to protect the right to free speech.”

We are calling on the American Civil Liberties Union to put the above mission statement into effect with regard to Tufts University’s alleged attack on the First Amendment Rights of its students. The Washington Times reports:

A campus magazine at Tufts University has been found guilty of “harassment” by a disciplinary board, a decision that could establish “a terrifying precedent,” according to an academic-freedom group.

The Primary Source, a conservative monthly published by Tufts students, commemorated “Islamic Awareness Week” last month on the Medford, Mass., campus with a full-page “supplement” headlined “Islam—Arabic Translation: Submission,” that cited facts about Muslim history.

That unsigned article, along with a satirical “Christmas carol” in the magazine’s December issue mocking the university’s affirmative-action program, was cited as a violation of Tufts’s “nondiscrimination policy.””

A member of Tufts University’s Committee on Student Life also said that “Labeling Islam violent is unacceptable in any way, shape, or form,” as reported by Townhall’s Ben Shapiro. While it is true that most North American Muslims are decent and peaceful individuals, it is also true that Islam has been used as an excuse to commit numerous acts of violence including:

(1) 9/11, 3000 innocent people murdered
(2) A long litany of suicide bombings and murders in Israel
(3) The beheadings of Nick Berg and Daniel Pearl
(4) The murder of foreign aid worker Margaret Hassan
(5) Femicide, misogyny, and domestic violence against women in Islamic countries
(6) Stonings for “adultery,” which includes being a rape victim
(7) The murder of Theo van Gogh
(8) The 7/7 bombings in London
(9) The ongoing murder of American servicemen and women in Iraq
(10) The recent plot to murder soldiers at Fort Dix
(11) Physical abuse and murder of gay Palestinians

Story continues below…

The list could be made quite longer, but we believe we have made our point. Islam was the perpetrators’ excuse for all these inarguably violent actions. Tufts University’s Committee on Student Life is saying, however, that discussing these facts is “unacceptable in any way, shape, or form.” The CSL may also be interested in a recent Pew Research Center study that says 15 percent of American Muslims under 30 approve of terroristic violence, and that 60 percent consider themselves Muslims first and Americans second. The Muslim Student Association at Tufts, which instigated this controversy and uproar, obviously consists of people who are under thirty. The same goes for the one that made trouble at Penn State last year, by helping to get the university sued for allegedly censoring an anti-terrorism art display by a Visual Arts student. Peaceful and decent Muslims condemn terrorism and violence in the name of any religion as ardently as the rest of us, but these Muslim Student Associations condemn the condemnation of violence instead. If the shoe fits, they will just have to wear it.

In any event, we are publicly calling on the American Civil Liberties Union to carry out its mission statement, “Freedom of speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and is guaranteed to all Americans. Since 1920, the ACLU has worked to preserve our freedom of speech. Learn more and take action to protect the right to free speech.” Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has more information here: http://www.thefire.org/index.php/news/

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