Prof Indrek Wichman at Michigan State U

There is a chain e-mail going around the Internet based on an incident at Michigan State University back in February of 2006. At that time, while the campus Muslim Student Association was making an issue of the Danish cartoons, a professor of mechanical engineering named Indrek Wichman sent the below e-mail to the MSA:

"Dear Moslem Association,


As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend 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 churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian 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 of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, 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 Amendment - 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

Fousesquawk comment: Now there's a real Spartan.

Not surprisingly, The Muslim Students' Association, along with a bunch of other student and advocacy groups, demanded that the university issue a letter of reprimand to the professor.

In addition to a reprimand, the student group wanted the university to implement diversity training programs for faculty and a mandatory freshman seminar on hate and discrimination.

Naturally, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)also urged the university to take "appropriate disciplinary" action, maintaining that the e-mail created 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 added.


The university concluded that Professor Indrek's e-mail was protected by free speech.


At the time, however, the Detroit Free Press reported the following:

Terry Denbow, Michigan State spokesman, 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 added that he considered the comments "very inappropriate".

Fousesquawk comment: Spoken like a true university spokesman-but hardly a Spartan.

My purpose here is not to rehash an old incident but to add a couple of comments that are still appropriate. It is not surprising that the one MSU professor who had the courage to send such an e-mail came from a department outside the humanities and social sciences. Those are the segments of universities where most of the problem lies. It is encouraging that the university chose not to discipline Prof. Wichman, but the namby-pamby statements from the spokesman are hardly surprising.

As an adjunct teacher at UC-Irvine who has spoken out against the campus Muslim Student Union and their radical speakers, I am sure that UCI is occasionally uncomfortable with some of my statements and writings-especially since I have occasionally criticized the university itself. Yet, they appear to accept it as my own form of free speech.

As for CAIR, what can one say except to continue to point out the hypocrisy of this so-called "moderate" organization? They wanted Wichman punished for what he said-ignoring the fact that what he said was true. They decry any form of criticism or statements regarding world-wide terrorism and preachings of hate carried out by Muslims-even if the statement makes it clear it is not condemning all Muslims. At the same time, this group ignores everyday expressions of intolerance from Muslims, be it the rantings of the street corner orators in Britain or the New York blog I mentioned this week that calls for killing of Jews (protected under free speech). CAIR will make a bland statement about "condemning terrorism in all its forms", but will not address the cancer that exists within its ranks. Instead, they search for enemies and look under every bed for signs of "Islamo-phobia". I have no doubt that they monitor my site and others like mine-looking for that statement that they can call "Islamo-phobic" or "racist". They know, however, that I have consistently stated that not all Muslims are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers and that I have called on Muslims to stand with us against terrorism and imposition of shariah. They also know that I stand with Muslims who have had the courage to speak out against this cancer. They also know that I have links on this site to Muslim blogs that really do stand against hate, terror and shariah law. They also know that I monitor their sites to see how they are responding (or not responding) to current events.


On the one hand, CAIR wants to punish people like Wichman; on the other hand, they work behind the scenes on behalf of the family in Ohio that is demanding the return of their run-a-way daughter (Rifqa Bari) who has converted to Christianity and fears for her life if returned to her family and their circle of friends and associates. CAIR is also acting as a shield between the FBI and the Muslim community-advising its members that they "don't have to talk to the FBI" if approached.

But so much for CAIR. I would rather accentuate the positive side of this debate and focus on people like Indrek Wichman. Three years after he sent that e-mail to the MSA, it is still circulating around the Internet as an inspiration to the rest of us who have had it up to here with the whining and complaints of the various MSAs and their weak-kneed enablers in the universities. It is too bad that there are not more people like Indrek Wichman in American universities.