I was dismayed to read Eric Moskowitz's piece "Admin. caves on cartoons" (April 3). It seems Moskowitz spoke to the Objectivist Club, but only repeated the group's accusations against NYU Muslim students instead of consulting the Islamic Center, whom he incorrectly castigated.
Moskowitz's column reinforced the principles on which the Islamic Center disapproved of the cartoons being shown — that showing the cartoons would foster overgeneralizations and a more stereotypical view of Muslims. There are many organizations on campus of which Muslims are a part, including the NYU Islamic Center, the Pakistani Students Association, the Bengali Students Association, Arab Students United, Persian Society and Shuruq. One angry protester in the audience doesn't constitute a response for all Muslims on campus.
The Objectivist Club alleged that the Islamic Center refused to attend the debate, writes Moskowitz. In actuality, the Islamic Center declined the invitation to speak at the event because they felt the cartoons were offensive to all Muslims. As President Maheen Farooqi said, you can have a debate on the issues, but you don't have to show the offensive cartoons. For example, we don't need to see child pornography to have a discussion on free speech.
The Muslims were also concerned that the Objectivist Club refused to entertain Muslim students' concerns that the event would engage in stereotyping or prejudice against Muslims. Muslim chaplain Khalid Latif said many female Muslim students were afraid to walk home alone wearing Islamic headscarves, and that these cartoons would lead to more stereotyping and discrimination, and thus more fear.
As a Muslim, I would have volunteered to speak at the event in defense of Muslims, provided the cartoons weren't shown. Common sense says a Muslim will not sit in front of anti-Islamic cartoons, as it would look like he approves of those pictures. This shouldn't be a surprise; I wouldn't expect a rabbi to sit in on an event bedecked with swastikas, or a Catholic priest to sit next to pentagrams. My fellow Muslims and I weren't going to patronize an event with obscene cartoons, the same way I wouldn't be at an event where anti-Semitic or anti-Christian cartoons were shown and praised. If they refused to address our concerns, we weren't going to go. However, hours before the event began, the Objectivist Club reversed its decision and decided not to show the cartoons. If there had been more time, I'm sure the Muslims would have been able to arrange for a speaker to sit on the panel.
Heck, I would have sat on the panel, because it would have been better than having Muslims referred to as "animals" by one panelist. The event lasted three hours, and for nearly one hour they bashed Islam unchallenged. A number of Muslims got up and walked out as the panelists made overgeneralizing statements calling observant Muslims "intolerant" and "violent." I can't tell you how offended I felt by this, and how upset that there was no way for Muslims to rebut the accusations some of the panelists gave. Muslims condemn terrorism, Saudi Arabia's government doesn't represent Islam, Muslims support free speech and my prophet is not a "homo," as Dr. Bostom claimed on the panel.
I'm afraid Moskowitz misreported a few details in his article. One of the panelists accused Muslims of drawing some of the cartoons and giving them to Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that published the cartoons. That was, of course, factually incorrect; at the very least, it's only an allegation. He reported it as fact, something that the Muslim students could have discussed if he had asked anyone from the Islamic Center or any Muslims on campus.
As for the claim that Mussa told everyone to buy tickets and "rip them up," Mussa is not a member of the Islamic Center board. The Bengali Students Association, of which he is a part, wasn't part of the protest and it's unfair to accuse all Muslims of trying to "block" an event. I certainly didn't partake in that activity. Regardless, I saw more than 40 students attend the event they were protesting once it was apparent that the cartoons weren't going to be shown.
I want to be clear that as a Muslim I support free speech, and I didn't tear up any tickets, but I was upset that the panel praised the hateful opinion the cartoons conveyed and even added some more accusations of its own. This is why so many diverse students came to protest, including students from Campus Antiwar Network and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna.
I don't think this panel served an educational purpose, because both sides weren't presented fairly. Instead, the dogma coming from the panel was that Muslims are extremist and refused dialogue (not true). This was about as educational as having anti-Semites, racists or misogynists come and give their opinions without any rebuttal of their accusations.
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