Pace University pressures Jewish students not to screen documentary on radical Islam ("Obsession")

Judeoscope ^ | 1/9/2007

[Dark Skies]

Pace University administrators threatened to sic the cops on a Jewish-student club if it went ahead with plans to screen a critically acclaimed film about radical Islam, the head of the group charged yesterday.

Michael Abdurakhmanov, president of Pace Hillel, said two deans warned that showing the documentary film would implicate club members as suspects in two hate crimes involving the desecration of the Koran at the university’s lower-Manhattan campus last fall.

In addition, Abdurakhmanov said an assistant dean physically restrained him as he attempted to defend the film and his group in a meeting with administrators.

"The message was pretty clear, if you show this film, you’re going to incriminate yourself," Abdurakhmanov said.

[TheKidster]

I'm surprised the deans haven't already charged them with a crime for existing. We all know that if they would just all disappear the Mid east would revert to Eden, we could get rid of all the nucs and guns and global warming would reverse itself.

[aculeus]

Pace, which is located in downtown Manhattan and offers many business courses, lost more than 40 graduates on 9/11.

[Tzimisce]

This is a "Hate Crime"?

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=8&aid=63607

[Tax-chick]

would implicate club members as suspects in two hate crimes involving the desecration of the Koran

I don't think anyone actually "desecrates" the Koran, except for Moslems trying to elicit sympathy.

Nobody else in the whole dang world CARES.

I hope these students stand their ground.

[Disambiguator]

This is nothing more than blackmail.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT

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[Dark Skies]

It is un-frikken-believable.

[pandoraou812]

But the Muslims can do whatever they want..... We have to bend over backwards to appease them and their religion of peace... I am so sick of Muslims. These students ought to find a place off campus and show their film.

[Slings and Arrows]

I just sent the NY Post article to TheFIRE.org. Let's see just how rough the Pace U. bullies like to play.

[Rocko]

9/11 was the one of history's most notorious hate crimes.

[wacko rightwinger]

Desecrating a Koran is not a crime. What a bunch of idiots.

[cricket]

Incredible and more than unfortunate - by any measure - what passes for intelligence in our Education system.

Perhaps the key here is. . .'moral intelligence'. We can see, without a 'moral base'; intelligence fails to support any 'Good'; much less the 'Common Good'.

[2banana]

And Jews will still vote 90% democrat...

[popdonnelly]

It's ironic to me that the "New Left" started out as a university "free speech" movement. Now we have academics opposing the showing of a movie.

[Tax-chick]

These students ought to find a place off campus and show their film.

That would be okay, but it still seems like a half-surrender. I'll bet a group wanting to show an anti-Jewish or anti-Christian film wouldn't be threatened by the administration!

[massgopguy]

I'll bet there are plenty of copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on their library shelves.

[dennisw]

Talks in social studies classes at Andover High School on Friday by the Palestinian advocacy group Wheels of Justice prompted these students to draw the Israeli flag to post in a classroom. (Evan Richman/ Globe Staff)

Conflict besets Andover High

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff  |  January 8, 2007

ANDOVER -- The social studies teachers say they merely wanted to provide their students different perspectives about conflict in the Middle East when they invited a group with a history of condemning Israel's treatment of Palestinians to speak at Andover High School.

The teachers never expected that their invitation to the group Wheels of Justice would set off the firestorm that has ensued, pitting student against student, teacher against teacher, and rabbi against minister in this affluent suburb north of Boston.

The climate at the high school has grown hostile, students say, as friends argue over how to balance the right to hear all views with sensitivity to individual beliefs. One Jewish teacher said two colleagues harassed her when she refused to sign a petition to bring in the Wisconsin-based group. Many parents are supporting the teachers who invited the group, which spoke to social studies classes on Friday. But more than 50 others who opposed the group's appearance formed a "Committee Against Hate Speech in School."

The debate highlights the struggle faced by school systems to teach students to think critically about explosive world events without alienating the communities they serve.

"This is an issue that is surrounded by emotion, and it's easy to lose sight of some aspect of what the event might actually be," said Peter Anderson, principal of Andover High. "In this day and age, the most important thing we do is to teach students to be intelligently critical."

This week, in an attempt to ease some of the tensions, Anderson plans to invite a second set of speakers with a different view of the strife between Palestinians and Israelis.

The controversy over Wheels of Justice erupted into a shouting match Friday night during a public presentation by the group arranged by Anderson.

Andover, a town of 33,000, prides itself on its town-meeting style of governance, where everyone has a voice and a vote, and more than 200 people crowded into the high school library for the 90-minute presentation Friday evening. But Anderson threatened to cut the forum short when parents and community members began interrupting and shouting at the speakers 15 minutes into the first speech.

"This is pure propaganda," a man shouted as Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian American and medical geneticist who helps coordinate the group, addressed the crowd.

"You're a liar," another yelled to Qumsiyeh, after he compared Israel to South Africa's former apartheid state.

 

---SNIPPED----

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/01/08/conflict_besets_andover_high/

 

 

[Mad Dawg]

How wonderfully Stalinesque!

"If you show a movie we don't like that will show that you do stuff that we don't like so we will charge you with crime for doing something else that happened months ago but we didn't like it either."

o - o - o KAY!

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[steve8714]

No, they would have you bend over forwards.