Thursday, October 26, 2017



Columbia Law Professor: Letting a Right-Wing Activist Speak Is 'An Act of Violence'

I think that having a Columbia Law Professor say such things is an act of violence

Kayum Ahmed, an adjunct faculty member at Columbia's Law School, helped students prevent a controversial right-wing speaker from giving a talk (via Skype) on campus. He also preemptively filed a discrimination complaint because the speech in question "constitutes an act of violence" and "is a form of harassment and discrimination."

Ahmed claimed in the Columbia Daily Spectator that he is under investigation for his role in disrupting the College Republicans' event on October 10, which involved a presentation by Tommy Robinson. Robinson is a far-right European anti-Islamic activist who is legally barred from entering the U.S., which is why he was scheduled to speak via Skype.

The speech didn't happen: Protesters shouted him down, making it impossible for the Columbia audience to hear him, according to Campus Reform's Toni Airaksinen. Ahmed has defended his actions on the grounds that allowing someone like Robinson to speak is dangerous, and that hate speech does not deserve robust First Amendment protection:

Robinson is indeed a hateful and loathsome person. If I were a member of the College Republicans, I would have implored my friends not to give him a platform. I support students and professors who protested both the decision to invite Robinson, and Robinson himself.

But words are not violence, and the hatefulness of Robinson's perspective is not grounds for cancelling his speech or shouting him down. Ahmed's argument is paternalistic: He doesn't trust students to "choose the most well-reasoned argument" when presented with a hateful perspective, and so he wants to strip them of their right to listen. This is illiberal thinking, and a betrayal of the values for which Columbia stands, and a concerning position for a member of the law faculty to take.

SOURCE

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liberals think that they are the protectors of the innocent.

Hinchey said...

Tommy robinson is none of the things the article says he is . Check out his own words here https://www.tommyrobinson.com/

Anonymous said...

Tommy robinson is none of the things the article says he is

Actually, the man is much worse than the article says he is.

He has been convicted of assault several time, fraud and trying to enter the US under a forged passport.

Even if one agrees with his stance on Muslims, even there he is a hypocrite as he says that Muslims should be banned from England and Europe because they are violent people and yet he himself is a violent person, attacking others without physical provocation.

He's not a person to admire or follow.

That being said, whenever he talks he demonstrates his ignorance and stupidity which is why he should be allowed to speak. There is nothing better than watching morons and ignorant people prove what they are by words and actions.

Bird of Paradise said...

Liberal collage professors have all the I.Q. of a flea or perhaps a flea is smarter

Anonymous said...

That a Law Professor has such little regard for the most fundamental law in the country is deeply concerning.