Friday, October 12, 2007

Fabricating Hate Speech

We read:

"Accusations of hate speech make great headlines for newspapers, even if those accusations turn out to be wrong -- or even worse -- contrived. Such is the case at The George Washington University (GWU). Administrators at GWU are on a rampage against a conservative group on campus for posting anti-Muslim fliers that the group had nothing to do with. The Young America’s Foundation chapter at GWU was blamed for disseminating fliers that read “Hate Muslims? So Do We!!” The flier went on to describe a “typical Muslim” as having “lasers in eyes,” “venom from mouth,” “hatred for women”, and a “suicide vest.”

As it turns out, the fliers were a dirty trick, specifically created to stoke hatred where none had existed. That much is clear from taking a moment’s reflection to view the flier. The bottom of the flier, for instance, spitefully reads “Brought to you by Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness.” And as if that weren’t enough to tip off University officials that this was a stunt of malicious intent, the very last line stating “PS Seriously, do a google video search for ‘The Power of Nightmares’ ” should have ended any doubts. The film argues that the threat of radical Islam worldwide is in fact a myth perpetrated by politicians in America who have been hoodwinked by neoconservatives.

With the charges of hate speech unraveling before the campus community’s eyes, the University should have cleared the names of the students unfairly targeted and denounced the flier as a cheap attempt to sully the reputation of conservatives sponsoring a forum on the threat of radical Islam. GWU did some denouncing, but astonishingly, made the Muslims, not the conservatives, out to be the real victims of hate and intolerance.

Source