by Editor (Editorials, Crescent International Vol. 40, No. 8, Dhu al-Qa'dah, 1432)
How free is the US and what does it mean to have freedom of speech? Some people now call the US a police state but freedom of speech appears limited only to those that abuse Islam, Muslims, and their revered personalities. Heaven help if you want to criticize Israel or its representatives.
How free is the US and what does it mean to have freedom of speech? Some people now call the US a police state but freedom of speech appears limited only to those that abuse Islam, Muslims, and their revered personalities. Heaven help if you want to criticize Israel or its representatives.
This is the verdict delivered on September 23 by a court in Santa Ana, California against the “Irvine 11”, a group of 11 students from the Muslim Student Union at the University of California who had shouted at Israeli ambassador Michael Oren as he spoke at the university in February 2010: “It’s a shame this university has sponsored a mass murderer like yourself.”
Is it now an offence to call Israeli mass murderers by the names they deserve? Zionist Israel and its apologists never tire of justifying their crimes against innocent Palestinians, thousands of whom have been killed by gun-toting Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers.
For this “offence”, the Muslim student body was suspended and put on probation for two years. Despite these harsh steps, the case against the 11 students is an even greater travesty of justice.
While the students, all in their twenties, and their supporters have vowed to continue the fight for their rights, the verdict does not portend well for the future of free speech or for Muslims trying to exercise it. Islamophobia is sweeping much of the western world; it has now infested US courts and academic institutions as well.
Related Articles
