On day one (Tuesday), the UCI Muslim Student Union (MSU) objected to certain portions of the displays, specifically those parts which described the Muslim Student Associations on university campuses as being a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, as well as hateful speakers brought to the UCI campus by the UCI-MSU, such as Amir Abdel Malik Ali (all true statements).
As a result, a university official from the office of the vice chancellor of student affairs "suggested" that the Students for Peace in the Middle East remove or cover up the "offending" portions of the displays. The same day, the university put up signs near the display area warning students that there may be displays in the area that some persons would deem "offensive". When asked why such signs had not been put up during the MSU's anti-Israel week-long event two weeks earlier, said school official reportedly stated that such signs had, in fact, been put up in the past.
After hearing this, the aforementioned signs were photographed, at which point, the signs were quickly removed.
It should also be pointed out that the aforementioned references to the MSU and their speakers were covered by a sort of curtain by the Students for Peace in the Middle East with a notice that this was being done because of objections. The result? People who stopped by to view the exhibits were curious to lift the curtain to see what was being censored.
The moral of the story?
Censorship never works.
The underlying moral is, free speech will always offend someone. If nobody was ever offended by any speech, there would be no need to enshrine freedom of speech in a constitution. The sole purpose of that protection is to make sure that offended government officials cannot suppress the offensive speech.
ReplyDeleteI offend, you offend, we all offend. That's inevitable. The best defense is a good offense. The MSU can always put up a display announcing its own version of its non-MB origins. What tripe.