Carol Swain
Last week, we picked up a story on Vanderbilt Professor Carol Swain, who wrote critically of Islam in a local newspaper. That touched off a furor on campus beginning when a student from Pakistan wrote a letter to a university official which she made public. Now there is an organized campaign against Professor Swain.
https://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/vanderbilt-muslims-seek-to-bully-black-professor-into-silence-on-islam/
“What I’m really trying to show her is that she can’t continue to say these kinds of things on a campus that’s so liberal and diverse and tolerant,” Yamin declared.
Does this person understand how contradictory that statement is?
First of all, Swain did not say what she did on campus. She wrote it in a local newspaper in an op-ed column. Secondly, we have a thing in this country called freedom of speech, However, the campus Muslim student group, like many of its sister groups on other campuses, is attempting to stamp out that freedom.
Professor Swain has offered to engage in a debate on campus as long as it is balanced and conducted with civility. That's a big if.
This story merits keeping up with. Professor Swain deserves our support. I have attempted to enter my own comments in the reader thread of the campus paper, The Hustler. However, I am unable to log on at this point. Most of the reader comments support Swain. I invite my own readers to comment if they can get on.
http://www.vanderbilthustler.com/opinion/
I have not read or seen Swaim in a little while now, but she is always interesting and I believe has a lot of good stuff to say.
ReplyDeleteI would like to be able to personally ask this sweet, young, Pakistani/Muslim lady, who has "been taught her entire life to be loving, caring, tolerant, patient, and kind and to never harm anyone or anything", whether she would then appropriately condemn radical Islam/jihad, whatever its name, whether or not it represents "mainstream" Islam (whatever that is), with no ifs, ands, or buts, no qualifications, no caveats, etc.
If her answer was a resounding and unequivocal "Yes", good on her. I may be doing her a disservice, but I believe that almost certainly would not occur.
And if her answer is "Yes", she is not, I believe, a threat to this country. If, however, her answer is "No", or if she were to waffle/equivocate as most Muslims seem/tend to do, then she might very well be a "threat", albeit possibly/probably only indirectly.
I would further note that whenever I mention that I count blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, Jews, gays/lesbians, etc., among my friends, as this student did with individuals from other religions, I am usually immediately chastised by some, to include Siarlys, for being a closet racist/homophobe and for making these statements as a defense mechanism to avoid exposure as such.
Does this person understand how contradictory that statement is?
ReplyDeleteApparently not. Remedial courses in American civics and constitutional principles are evidently in order.
I have no idea if I would agree with anything Swain says, but there is not question she has the right to say it... and go to work as usual the next day.
elwood, the only thing I'm going to chastise you for is libel... I'm never called you a racist, or a homophobe, and if you take a look at The American Conservative editors' blogs, the gay pride crowd really doesn't appreciate my remarks on "gay marriage."
(Basically, I don't care if the NY legislature votes to create such a thing, but the Fourteenth Amendment offers no guarantees whatsoever.)
If the Muslim lady has "been taught her entire life to be loving, caring, tolerant, patient, and kind and to never harm anyone or anything"," that is a reasonable and plausible rdbuff to Swain's commentary... and should motivate the Muslim lady to be tolerant of Swain's freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech doesn't mean all protected speech is true, right, or sensible... it just means we don't trust the government (or the university administration) to sit in judgement on whether it is or not.