Posted on 04/07/2006 6:52:45 PM PDT by Dark Skies
It took 10 police officers to keep order last month when Brigitte Gabriel gave a speech at Memphis University.
A passionate and powerful speaker who had witnessed Palestinian terrorism and experienced anti-Jewish and anti-Christian propaganda in her native Lebanon, Ms. Gabriel had been invited to speak at the Tennessee campus by religious studies professor David Patterson.
But the day before Ms. Gabriel's speech, Mr. Patterson began receiving threatening e-mails.
“Do you honestly think the scheduled lecture will serve any useful purpose other than inflaming the Muslims, insulting them and spilling poison in the community?” one message said. Another said that inviting Ms. Gabriel to speak was “worse than hosting of the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan,” and another described her as among “the true enemies of Islam.”
When Ms. Gabrial and Mr. Patterson arrived in the campus auditorium 15 minutes before her scheduled presentation, several rows of seats in the front of the room were already occupied by men and women dressed in distinctive Muslim clothing.
Before Ms. Gabriel was introduced, a Muslim man who has been long-term graduate student at the university strode to the front of the room and announced: “We have been told that the speaker will only accept questions written on cards. Everyone who believes this is an un-democratic lecture, raise your hands.” The Muslims in the audience shouted their agreement.
Ms. Gabriel then went to the front of the room and announced that the lecture belonged to her and that all who did not see it this way were welcome to leave. Two campus police officers stood, one on either side of her. They also called for backup. By the time order was restored and Ms. Gabriel began her speech, 10 police officers were posted in the room. Mr. Patterson implored the audience to give her a chance to be heard.
After her speech, she answered every question submitted — questions she described as “Palestinian talking points” — before the Muslim audience members swarmed onto the stage and surrounded her, yelling angrily at her. Finally, police officers grabbed her and hustled her out a side door. Someone else had to retrieve her coat and suitcase while she waited in a police car to be driven to the hotel where, for security reasons, she was registered under a fictitious name.
Only after she had locked her door and drawn the curtains, did Ms. Gabriel allow herself to begin to tremble.
“The intimidation takes a toll on you,” Ms. Gabriel said in an e-mail message to friends after the Memphis speech. “I was dreading this all day, ever since my hosts told me they had been receiving hostile e-mail about my lecture. It was weighing so heavily on my heart. My stomach was in knots. I got a migraine headache. I knew I was going into battle and there was no way out of it. I was nervous and stressed. Each time this happens, I hate it and it makes me feel that I don't want to do it anymore. But I will do it. I will never stop. If we stop, the Islamists will have won. We cannot allow that to happen.”
'Hostile environment’
Does the right to work in a non-hostile and non-life threatening environment trump the right of free speech as envisioned by the First Amendment? Is academic freedom more important than telling the truth?
Years ago, I was asked to testify in a legal action on behalf of a woman who worked the night shift alone in a small store. As a devout Christian, she was offended by the pornographic magazines the store sold. She also felt endangered by the kind of men who came in after midnight to peruse and buy these magazines. She eventually refused to sell the magazines during her shift, and was fired.
She sued. The question: Does the First Amendment right of pornographers override a woman's personal religious beliefs and her rights to on-the-job safety? Does being surrounded by pornographic magazines constitute a “hostile” work environment? The company retaliated for her lawsuit by depicted her to the press as a fanaticon a rampage against both secular society and free speech. My decision to testify on her behalf led some of the usual suspects to question my political sanity and my feminism.
Over the years, I have been consulted by other women, especially those in blue-collar, formerly all-male jobs who have often been harassed and forced to live with sadistic pornography placed in their lockers, locker rooms, and work areas.
The film “North Country,” which stars Charlize Theron, depicts exactly such mistreatment of women miners. The film is based on a real class action lawsuit that 19 women first filed in the 1970s against Ogleby Norton in Eveleth, Minn. The women sued because they were subjected to verbal, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and to omnipresent sexual graffiti.
It took more than 20 years for the women to win a settlement, but only after they found themselves put on trial: their sexual, gynecological, psychological, and marital histories were scrutinized in the courtroom.
Many people said that the women simply ought to “tough it out.” Some said that pornography and insults were protected under the First Amendment.
Campus hostility
Today, when someone tries to tell the truth about Islam or departs from the politically correct line — against America, Israel, Jews, and religion — just like the women miners of “North Country,” are subjected to hostile working conditions.
In the West, authors critical of Islam are routinely threatened, sometimes sued for “defamation,” or slandered as “racists.” In Muslim countries, such authors are more often jailed, mobbed, murdered or forced into exile.
Western academics who criticize Islamic culture have been ostracized or silenced on campus. They are shouted down, shamed, interrogated, and cursed.
Do we want speakers on our campuses to be subjected to such hostility, to run such a gauntlet in order to be heard? Why have so many university presentations descended to the level of the “Jerry Springer” show?
Why has the Western academic world given a free pass to those who defend the rights of misogynist terrorists who practice both religious and gender apartheid in Islam's name? The women in “North Country” have counterparts in the Islamic world today who suffer worse than mere harassment: Some are stoned to death, publicly hung, gang-raped or suffer genital mutilated. The can be forced to marry their first cousins and, if they refuse, may be victims of an “honor killing.”
When speakers tell the truth about this on American campuses, they must endure harsh and punitive working conditions. This reality must be exposed, challenged, and transformed. We must call Nazi tactics by their proper name and not confuse them with a civilized or scholarly exchange of ideas. We must liberate our campuses from such barbarism.
I had lunch with Brigitte's husband today, a man I had worked with in the past and only recently reconnected with. This story is typical of what she goes through, and I plan to be involved with her organization. With any luck, there will be video of future occurrences.
My wife and I were in the audience at this event. The tension was evident, but handled well by the very forceful and articulate speaker. The description of events is accurate - the attempt by a student to intimidate the speaker, and the way she seized full control of the situation by rejecting it. However, I did not see any physical threat presented - perhaps because of the display of force present.
It was an interesting evening.
Good. Please suggest it.
Good. Please suggest it.
More than likely, I'll be carrying the camera!
That is where they went wrong. They should never have been allowed up on the stage.
Becki
Somehow I think that wasn't their first choice of things to happen.
And then what? Do you think the regional MSM would run it more than a time or two?
Do you think the nation-wide MSM would run it, or run it w/o "editing" a la Rodney King?
Circulate it on the internet. It'll spread much faster. I've given up on the MSM for any kind of accuracy or fairness. They will be our downfall and the first means of the New Caliphate to secure its hold.
I have to endure the annual "ethics" briefing at the insistence of my employer. There are clear policies about what constitutes a "hostile" environment. That meeting was a clear example of a hostile environment. The Muslims would have been subject to immediate termination had they been employees at my company.
Understandable in a country where democrats are allowed perform sedition and treason as with a license.. The U.S. has been harboring democrats and will pay heavily for it.. even now is.. it will get worse, much worse.. You cannot appease evil.. And the democrat party is evil... Many republicans are appeasers..
Excellent point! I hadn't thought of that. A tip o' my hat to you,Slowboat.
She is a brave and good woman to stand up to this hatred and tell the truth. We need a lot of Arabs to do this.
Why was this allowed? Why was this swarm not all arrested and she got to stay? That is what I do not understand. They win if she has to flee. And what were the policemen doing then?
Oh, I am sure not. But once they were up on the stage, security lost control.
I'm willing to bet that as word of these threats gets out, there will be more effective security measures planned.
Becki
On the other hand, I think that what happened spoke volumes. I fear for the day when, in the interest of "preserving the peace", telling the truth is outlawed out of fear of such a response.
That day is coming, though.
I highly suggest that people review the mini-series "V" (the original, from the early 80's). It's a great example of how a group uses the law to take control of a culture.
bttt
Bump for later
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.