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Dhimmitude in Urbana-Champaign. "School editors say they were suspended for running Islamic cartoons," from the Chicago Tribune, with thanks to Michelle Malkin:
The editor in chief of a student-led newspaper serving the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been suspended for printing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that, when published in Europe, enraged Muslims and led to violent protests in the Middle East and Asia.Editor Acton Gorton and his opinions editor, Chuck Prochaska, were relieved of their duties at The Daily Illini on Tuesday while a task force investigates "the internal decision-making and communication" that led to the publishing of the cartoons, according to a statement by the newspaper's publisher and general manager, Mary Cory.
Gorton said he expects to be fired at the conclusion of the investigation, which is expected to take two weeks....
"This is not a publicity stunt, and this wasn't an easy decision," said Gorton, who said he spent three years in the Army as a medic and paratrooper before college. "I was stressed and couldn't sleep at night. But I just felt it was an important issue to address in the newspaper."
Gorton's decision, however, caused an uproar in the local Muslim community and rankled other Illini staff members after the paper was deluged with negative letters and e-mails.
Gorton himself said he received 300 e-mails. Two-thirds of the e-mails were supportive and a third were hateful, he said.
U. of I. Chancellor Richard Herman also wrote a letter to the newspaper saying he was saddened by Gorton's decision.
Posted by Robert at February 15, 2006 8:11 AM
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Contact info for the chancellor should be HERE:
OT, BUT! A complaint to Mr. Spencer has been lodged in this thread:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/010220.php
This person claims Mr. Spencer has not answered his emails.
Posted by: Gary![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 15, 2006 8:17 AM
Gary,
I don't know why you keep posting this. I just checked, and the guy has actually never emailed me.
I answered you on another thread where you posted this.
Cordially
Robert Spencer
ADDENDUM: Whoops. My mistake. He did email me a few days ago -- a long exposition of jihad. I don't have time to answer everyone who wants to argue with me, and anyway his quarrel is not with me, but with the Muslims whose interpretations of jihad I report on. Let him argue with them.
Posted by: jihadwatch at February 15, 2006 8:24 AM
Mr. Spencer~ it was merely my desire to see to it that he got a good many responses, should he choose to come back to that thread. I had no intent to make it sound like you had ignored him, and I should have been more specific.
Posted by: Gary at February 15, 2006 8:34 AM
The double standard gets worse and worse.
The message these PC police are sending is that aggression pays, that threat and intimidation work. Because rioting and actual violence may happen, authorities discover a sudden 'respect' for islam. (The CNN board for instance, did). So if you want respect, blow something up first.
at February 15, 2006 8:45 AM
I hope that many readers here are sending letters to the universities and newspapers who are preventing their editors from engaging in the open discussion of ideas. This is vitally important. If we lose our right to free speech, we are sunk.
I've been writing and mailing letters during this past couple of weeks. If you decide to do so, send actual letters rather than emails, as they are taken much more seriously. It will take a bit more time, a stamp, and a reasonable commant of the language. We can't all be Hugh, sad to say, but spelling things correctly will cause your letter to be taken seriously.
We can all post here, express our moral outrage and find other like-minded souls. However, if this is the only place we rant, we won't have anything to complain about if they win. Please, consider sending letters, and lots of them.
Ok, I'm done with the soapbox. Someone else can have it back.
Posted by: libbysmom at February 15, 2006 8:47 AM
Libbysmom, you're right about written letters sent via USPS; they are taken more seriously than emails. I've been sending letters to the cowards and the few brave souls who are standing up for freedom of speech. Two "form" type letters usually suffice for any given situation, and it's not that difficult to add the name and address, print the letter, and put it in the mail. With the permission of friends and family, I have been sending letters on their behalf also. Volume is important.
We need to support those who are fighting for our civilization and as dramatic as that may sound, it is exactly what this despicable situation boils down to. Much as I would like, I can't say this in a letter, but TO HELL WITH ISLAM!
Posted by: Susanp at February 15, 2006 9:40 AM
Our left-wing universities are famous for supporting the radical agendas and ideas of fanatical professors like Ward Churchill, whose free speech rights, no matter who they insult, are always defended by university administrations. Most of these despicable creatures aren't fit to be American citizens and have focused their careers on the denigration and condemnation of their own country. What's the problem with publishing the cartoons? Could it be because they allegedly "insult" the death cult of Islam, the left's closest ally in the destruction of the West? What hypocrisy, again!
If these had been cartoons depicting Jesus or satirizing Christianity, I'm sure the staff and administration would have had a good laugh in the faculty lounge as they joked about the pathetic dolts who worship a bellicose God instead of their deity---holy, peaceful socialism. Yet the most vicious of Gods, allah, and his putative prophet, the butcher muhammad, are off limits, hallowed and respected. What hypocrites and cowards!
Posted by: Susanp at February 15, 2006 9:55 AM
Funny, the ACLU has nothing about it on their website. Wonder why that is?
Posted by: Suzan at February 15, 2006 9:55 AM
I want to email the University to have them start checking their library for equally offensive books to Muslims.
I suggest a book burning of all offensive volumes on the quad this Friday, the Muslim "sabbath".
Freud's "The Future of An Illusion" insults Mohammad. It must go. (The glowing precedent of Hitler burning this book 70 years ago should warm their current enthusiasm for self-censorship.)
The Bibles (Hebrew and Christian) must go next. They are called distortions by the Koran, and nothing that contradicts the Muslim "holy" book should be allowed inside the library.
All books containing images, since pictorial representation itself offends inconoclastic imams, need to be destroyed.
Or, they can simply follow the straight-shooting lead of an early Islamic Imperialist, who, when he encountered an infidel library, during an invasion of a neighbor's land, said:
"If the books here disagree with the Koran, we don't want them, and, if they agree with the Koran, we don't need them, -BURN THEM ALL!"
Higher education, where is thy brain!
(We know where your head is... although it will take a proctologist to accurately describe the region.)
Posted by: profitsbeard at February 15, 2006 10:21 AM
I agree, where is the ACLU?
Posted by: alaskan1000 at February 15, 2006 1:15 PM
This is the result of lefties dominating academia, and the large number of Islamic foreign students they cater to.
Back in January 1999, at the University of Texas at Austin, I passed by a room where newly arrived foreign students were attending an orientation session. One of the things the administrator told them, obviously directed at the infidel portion of his audience, was that "Not all Arabs are terrorists." That was back in 1999, imagine.
at February 15, 2006 6:49 PM
It will take a bit more time, a stamp, and a reasonable commant of the language. We can't all be Hugh, sad to say, but spelling things correctly will cause your letter to be taken seriously. - posted by Libbysmom
Amazing, isn't it, that in spite of all of our technological advances, still nothing says "I mean business" like a letter written on a tangible piece of paper (as opposed to a computer screen) and signed by hand? All the more so as the price of postage goes up.
For that matter, where is Hugh today? His silence is not unnoticed.
I'm currently at my third university (no, they didn't kick me out-- I graduated!), and lost interest in school papers after my freshman year. Every time I did pick one up, there was an editorial-- staff or guest-- espousing the most extreme and juvenile of views, and the whole paper was often fraught with horrendous errors spelling and grammar that were overlooked at press time.
But I'll keep an eye on my current campus paper to see if anything interesting happens, one way or the other, on the cartoon issue.
It's heartening to see the staffers at the Illini taking a stand for something worthwhile; hopefully, that won't be an isolated incident among campus papers nationwide.
Posted by: Shinoliite at February 15, 2006 7:51 PM
Of all the sentences to have a typo... "horrendous errors of spelling and grammar."
"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"
Posted by: Shinoliite
at February 15, 2006 7:53 PM
Shinoliite, you can't hold a candle to me! After pompously pointing out that good grammar and spelling count, I managed to fill my entire post with various typos. I'll just slink off now...
Posted by: libbysmom at February 15, 2006 9:42 PM
libbysmom & Shinoliite-
Typos are just a sign of passion overcoming precision.
(Nothing like the old "Vinegar Bible" flub.)
It seems the student newspapers haven't gotten the "decorum trumps freedom" message from the main stream press, yet. (White and Strunk's new edition of "On Style" will surely include it.)
But as more university editors are fired for attempting free speech, I hope even more editors at other schools, to thumb their noses at the crotchery, doddering, self-castrated departmental 'leadership', print even more cartoons. And more. AND MORE!
It is always the nature of those upcoming to challenge the lies of their "elders".
They finally have a real issue to devote their energies to.
The defense of Western Civilization against the collapse back into the 7th century.
I say to all on student papers:
Rock on!
And Mock on!
Posted by: profitsbeard at February 15, 2006 10:13 PM
Profitsbeard-- this sort of attempt at control can backfire on university administrations, as well.
The finest hour of my undergrad school's paper was when, during the brief administration of an absolute maniac of a university president who tried to stop them from criticizing him, they went independent, shrugged off the designation of "student organization," and printed what they pleased.
I'm not finding any details in the article above on what positions are held by those who have to power to "fire" the Illini editors, but I hope the incident may inspire that publication to follow the example set by that of my alma mater.
By the way, speaking of typos and the resulting embarrassment, the least-finest hour of my school's paper occurred some two years prior to their finest, when some writer errantly left the "F-word" in a caption. So, some poor track runner had his photo and a caption describing how he did in his "first f---ing track meet," or something to that effect.
The damage control that followed explained something about "dummy captions" for layout purposes that were replaced before printing.
One of my fondest memories of the place. ;)
Posted by: Shinoliite at February 15, 2006 10:38 PM
Shinoliite-
Reminds me of the university who had to fire a stone carver hired to incise the motto:
"THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD"
-over an archway at the school, and he coyly reduced the space between the second and third words, -and got canned for his creation.
Posted by: profitsbeard at February 16, 2006 12:04 AM
That saying has never been the same since I first noticed that possibility, Profitsbeard.
It reminds me of an old joke about Mrs. Charles de Gaulle being asked what she was most looking forward to on the occasion of her husband's retirement.
The punchline goes something like "Madame, I believe it is pronounced 'háppiness.'"
Posted by: Shinoliite at February 16, 2006 12:17 AM
FYI -- for those who have been asking what the ACLU is doing about this:
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/censorship/24197prs20060217.html
at February 21, 2006 12:02 AM
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