Thursday, March 30, 2006
Atlas has an after-action report from the NYU panel on the Muhammed cartoons. NYU forbade the display of the cartoons themselves if the event were to be open to any members of the public...for fear of violence on the part of concerned Mormons no doubt.
In continuing attempts to sabotage the event, Islamic students secured a large number of tickets and then destroyed them...
...You could see these men were stunned by the absence of the cartoons on the podium. They could not ingest the censure by the university, what one was a bastion of free thinking and free speech, campuses across the country have taken on a group think collectivist mentality. The panel answered as many questions from the audience (roughly 125 people) that time would allow. Of all the questions submitted, they answered almost all of the hostile ones.
The Islamic students demanded to know why their side was not represented on the panel to which Kara, the Objectivist club organizer that put this baby together, said "numerous inquiries were made. I contacted at last 15 Islamic societies, professors et al and no one would come."...
...About halfway through the program a group of Islamic students all got up and walked out. Their only contribution was to glare hard at anyone that clapped enthusiastically. The girls in the back wore the full metal jacket - headgear , covered from head to toe...
Meanwhile, you've no doubt noted (linked in Atlas' piece above) already that Borders and Walden Books won't carry the issue of a magazine in which some of the cartoons appear:
"For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority," Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday...
And in France, in amongst the "youth" demonstrating to protest a change in French labor law, are gangs of "other youth" with different goals: Violent Youths Threaten to Hijack Demonstrations in Paris. Take note of how the plaith-clothes French police must dress in order to blend in with this latter group:
I found the contacts for Borders’ media relations people. I thought some of your readers might like to tell Borders what they think about their policy.
Craig
Anne Roman at 734-477-1392 or aroman@bordersgroupinc.com
Beth Bingham at 734-477-4457 or bbingham@bordersgroupinc.com
Holley Stein at 734-477-1224 or hstein1@bordersgroupinc.com