Amir Sulaiman
UC-Irvine Cross Cultural Center
As a warm-up for Israel Apartheid Week at UC-Irvine, which kicks off Monday, the Muslim Student Union (and some other campus groups) held an event Thursday evening at the campus Cross Cultural Center. The featured performer was some guy named Amir Sulaiman, a hip hop poet of sorts. Since I hate hip hop and poetry, I wasn't much interested in going, but I heard back from someone who did.
From what I understand, there was a poem about the Uighurs in China, another about peace,a couple were anti-Israel (of course), which drew the loudest cheers, and one on the subject of homemade bombs. My contact came away with a certain inference about that reference, but apparently, it was not an explicit statement, so we'll let it pass.
I should also point out that according to the MSU's announcement, the Cross Cultural Center co-sponsored the event. Last I checked, the CCC was a university entity, which raises the question of whether they are putting their imprimatur on anything that might have been said. I could send the question to the head of the CCC at UCI, but I did that once before and never got a response. I do wonder about that facility, however, and whether it has the welcome mat out for ALL groups.
5 comments:
If its an issue of free speech and diversity of viewpoints, official organs of the university should stay out of it. IF the CCC is a student organization which receives university funds on the same basis as a lot of other students organizations, there may be more of a grey zone. But, I would suggest that student groups advocating a viewpoint should generally get access to facilities, but no funding in any other sense. Let them finance their own free speech.
Siarlys,
The CCC is a university facility. If the CCC co-sponsors an event and is used as the site of the event, does it not take some degree of ownership for what is said? Is it the position of the CCC that Israel is the bad guy in the ME conflict? I also wonder if the CCC is a place where Jewish students can feel welcome.
If it is an official university facility, it should be devoted to bringing together Muslim and Jewish students to have reasonably courteous discussions about their differences.
Yeah, I know that doesn't fit the paradigm, but that's what academic freedom is all about, isn't it?
Siarlys,
It's a nice thought.
Nice thoughts are our only guide to nice practices, or even to bold practices which make the world safe for nice lives. The fundamental principles have to be surveyed as a prerequisite to debate which is anything more than "Cry uncle, I win."
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