January 09, 2007
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.
Now Pace is where someone desecrated a couple of Korans last fall – and partially for that reason the group was forbidden to show the film in October after Muslim students complained. Now the administration is threatening to investigate the group and its members if the film, Obsession, is shown, on the argument that the “anti-Islamic” film implicates the group in the desecrations. Interestingly enough, the university is not nearly so interested in investigating Muslims over the appearance of swastikas around campus.
Abdurakhmanov, a 20-year-old psychology major from Brooklyn, said neither he nor any member of his club had reason to believe they were suspects in the Koran incidents until the dean of students, Marijo Russell O'Grady, suggested it."Her words were if you show this film, the police will be looking into your records further," Abdurakhmanov said.
Maybe there is a need to start investigating the Muslim group that is objecting to the film. After all, their objection to the showing (and the free speech rights of Hillel) would seem to implicate it and its members in the anti-Semitic activities that have occurred on campus. In addition, an objection to a documentary about terrorist groups would appear to implicate the Muslim Student Association and its members in terrorist activities.
At least if you follow the logic of Pace administrators .
Posted by: Greg at
12:29 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 395 words, total size 3 kb.
19 queries taking 0.0073 seconds, 28 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.