A board at the University of Maryland announced it will postpone indefinitely the screening of “American Sniper” on campus after Muslim organizations opposed the watching of the film as anti-Islamic and offensive. I have not seen the movie, but the effort to prevent other people from watching films set badly with me both in terms of free speech as well as the pluralistic values governing university communities. The movie was critically acclaimed and nominated for six oscars, including best picture, actor (Bradley Cooper) and adapted screenplay. Even people like Michele Obama have publicly proclaimed how the movie touched them. This is not to say that they are right. However, opposing other people from seeing a major artistic work is part of a growing effort to curtail free speech in the West and particularly on college campuses.
We have seen a crackdown on free speech in the West. For other recent columns, click here and here and here. This trend has only increased after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo in the West. What is particularly worrisome is that these attacks on free speech are being done in the name of pluralism and tolerance.
The role of universities and private organizations in this trend is equally worrisome. This includes the disgraceful decision of Yale University Press to delete all of the Muhammad cartoons that triggered a spasm of murders and church burnings by Muslims around the world. Yale removed the cartoon from Jytte Klausen’s “The Cartoons That Shook the World.”
There has been a campaign across the country by Muslim students and faculty to ban the film as offensive. The University of Maryland’s Muslim Student Association declared that “American Sniper only perpetuates the spread of Islamophobia and is offensive to many Muslims around the world for good reason. This movie dehumanizes Muslim individuals, promotes the idea of senseless mass murder, and portrays negative and inaccurate stereotypes.”
There are many films that are objectionable from different perspectives. I never liked Zero Dark Thirty (2012) from a civil liberties stand point because it perpetuated the myth that torture was the key in finding Bin Laden or that it is somehow justified by such results. However, I would not seek to prevent others from seeing it. I am satisfied with voicing my objections to the accuracy and implied message of the film.
Recently, a similar effort led to initially to the canceling of a showing of American Sniper at the University of Michigan but later relented to showing the film after public outcry.
Maryland pulled the film after the objections but failed to explain where this line is drawn over groups preventing students from seeing films on campus. However, Student Entertainment Events, announced that it was contemplating “an event where students can engage in CONSTRUCTIVE and moderated dialogues about the controversial topics proposed in the film.” Once again, it is not clear whether other films would be subject to such special measures if groups or individuals object. While I commend the group for seeking a compromise, I remain disturbed by the lack of clarity in the standard for such postponements or barring of films. Any group can schedule a discussion about a film on their own. It does not serve their interests to be seen trying to deny free speech in this way to others on campus. We have long maintained that the solution to bad speech is more speech — not the denial of unpopular speech. There has been no restriction on the Muslim student group from planning such discussions. The question is why other students should be prevent or postponed in seeing a major and critically acclaimed movie.
What do you think?
I am aware that it is possible to be a psychopath and a leftist. It is also possible to be a psychopath and a rightist (that word just doesn’t seem correct). Most psychopaths don’t really have a political orientation, from my experience. In the cases of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Hitler, they glom on to whatever group that will accept them and allow them to amass as much power as they can.
By the way, I thought fascism was a conservative political doctrine.
As to censuring speech because some people are afraid of it, especially on universities, why, I’m quite appalled by it (not as appalled as I am by mass murder, but still). My devotion to free thought and speech far exceeds my devotion to a political philosophy.
RcCarol – people equate the Nazis with fascism however they only have two of the three parts required to be fascistic. They are not conservative, they are socialist. They are the National Socialists.
For example, Hitler admired Mussolini because he like his organizational skills. Roosevelt admired Hitler because he was able to accomplish his socialist policies.
It is too bad that folks forget about the Genovese affair at Rutgers in which the Prof said that he welcomed the VC victory in Vietnam in 1965. The GOP campaigned to have him FIRED from his job, not just stopping his speech at anti-war rallies. So this whole outrage thing coming from the conservatives now is hypocritical. They also had no problem killing off their opponents in other countries and sending arms and money to do that.
randyjet –
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Rick
The moment you provide any evidence for your statement, I’ll welcome your request I provide one for mine. Until then, old chap…
It is obvious to me that many of who harping the leftist cuss word confuse it with liberal. Most universities are liberal because kids are generally more liberal than their parents and every new generation is more liberal than the last.
If you went to any university and spoke of the left, people would have no idea what you are talking about. They do not think in terms of politics, left and right, they think in terms of human rights and individual freedom, in terms of LIBERAL policies.
po – couple of things. 1) If you went to the university and they could not equate leftist with liberal then they are stupider than I think. 2) kids react to their parents, i.e., if the parents are liberal, they are conservative, if the parents are conservative, they are liberal. Current surveys show the current classes at universities to be more conservative than previous years. 3) Most students think about classes, week-ends, parties and dates. And not in that order. Politics does not enter into their thinking pattern except when forced on them by a professor.
po,
The difference is there is no evidence people standing up for free speech on this issue are against it in other circumstances. You still have offered none. The only evidence offered by anyone was a reference to people who are no longer alive, which also serves to highlight the lack of evidence available.
Rick
It is NOT a controversial point. Nor was what I said. My point is that for someone who just posted a comment without any evidence (you), based solely on his subjective deduction, to request an evidence for someone else’s subjective opinion is pretty bizarre.
Aridog
As for the movie “American Sniper” it is not anti-Muslim, it is a portrayal of one mans experiences in war, including his quandaries about the whole affair. No veteran of combat sees it any different…we all see every one’s story as personal, unique, and about their individual experience.
This is one way to understand both (1) the coordination between activist groups and (2) their intellectual bankruptcy. It’s impossible to believe so many different people can arrive at the conclusion that the movie “glorifies” war, snipers, or the individual in question. The movie clearly shows the horrors of war. It’s routine for movies to show people in extreme circumstances and how those circumstances effect and change the people facing them.
For people to assert the movie is anti-Muslim simply because one group of Muslims are on the opposite side is so absurd you have to conclude their assertions are agenda driven.
Rick, As long as you realize you are wasting your time and intellect, I say only then proceed.
Robert Rex EDWARDS,
The “Killing Jews is Worship” signs you complain of are being put out by a pro-Israel, anti-Muslim group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative [AFDI].
Their previous ad read: ““In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, defeat Jihad.”
In other words, the “Islamic and Muslims” you are blaming for the signs appear to be Israeli propagandists. The executive director of the AFDI is Pamela Geller. Yep. That Pamela Geller; the far right, Jewish, Pamela Geller who describes herself as a “racist-Islamophobic-anti-Muslim-bigot.”
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/04/killing-jews-ads-will-soon-appear-on-subway.html
po,
I asked what made you believe there is no evidence. I still expect an answer and I’d like you use the other item you originally cited as your example.
The answer to your question is:
1. There aren’t very many Muslim students at UM (or at most Universities for that matter) compared to non-Muslims, and leftist activists outnumber specifically Muslim activists by a wide margin.
2. Muslim advocacy institutions are part of the left, particularly on campus.
3. There is effectively no difference in the two groups positions, non-Muslim leftist activists make the same assertions about the movie.
4. Due to the numbers it’s implausible that Muslim activists would be able to get the movie banned without the non-Muslim activists acting in concert.
It doesn’t seem that controversial a point.
Mike Appleton said …
And every college campus ought to be a center of challenges to orthodoxy
If you mean all orthodoxy, I agree. When I was in school in the med 60’s many of our classes and the junior and senior level we seminar formats….where you can say anything you wanted, but had to support & substantiate it by standing up and speaking to the entire class. I had a couple of those where the professor was a card carrying members of the Communist party…but he graded based upon how you supported your position, whatever it was then….not on whether you agreed with him per se. They were actually classes no one wanted to miss…even those of us working full time as I did to pay for the education.
I should add that had this nonsense been attempted on any self-respecting university campus in the late 1960s, students would have shown it anyway. We thought we had won the free speech wars then. We were obviously wrong.
Again, I agree. We won the free speech wars then by actions, not philosophical nonsense. Then is not now where we seem to have lost it on many campuses.
As for the movie “American Sniper” it is not anti-Muslim, it is a portrayal of one mans experiences in war, including his quandaries about the whole affair. No veteran of combat sees it any different…we all see every one’s story as personal, unique, and about their individual experience. Few vets actually will go in to gory details, preferring to relate the humorous anecdotal things we were part of or witnessed….much like my story about playing baseball with some local national kids and having fun fun with them.
This past week, no doubt generated by a cap I was wearing that has a US Army emblem and unit symbol on it, I was asked by two Muslim neighbor kids (ages 8 & 10), who were in our yard playing with “Dera”, what it as like to kill. I said little about that, except that wars are the breakdown of sanity, that those killing you and those you kill have more in common that different and that the kids living in the midst of the war pay the price for it in the end. I asked them what they thought and both said wars are crazy and finally grasped what I meant by the kids paying for the whole thing ultimately wherever it occurs. Since most of my neighbors are refugees from one ME conflict or another, the kids understood what I meant quickly.
If they find it offensive then stay at home and do not try to control other people.
If the University allows them to control this then they can also control. Pork chops, hamburgers and other food they find offensive that Americans enjoy.
Where will it stop? When you become like them.
Why is it 90+% of Muslims in American prisons are black? Because it is agang symbol in prison to be Muslim. But now that is shifting. They now all call themselves Islam state members. Muslim beliefs are to peaceful for the blacks in prison and they want to join ISIS, ISIL and become “Islam State In America.”
Rex, Stand strong. Name calling here is not tolerated, and almost always deleted quickly by JT.
Rc, I don’t think anyone can stand what Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot did. But, some are doing an Alice in Wonderland and make them not the leftists they OBVIOUSLY were. Of course, those trying to rewrite history here are committed leftists, and extremists, on both the left and right, often try and rewrite history. The problem is, leftists control the universities. Read Camille Paglia on this topic. She is a leftist, she has worked @ universities the past 40 years, and she HATES what they have done to free thought and speech. I’m responding to you because I have some hope for you. Your response will tell me if there is any. I have no hope for a few here.
It is funny that Islamic and Muslims can put signs up in the United States to promote killing Jewish people, but we do not have the same right to watch a movie based on a true story. The signs can be found here http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/04/23/judge-nap-killing-jews-worship-ad-does-not-qualify-hate-speech .
If this is offensiveness then beheading White people on the internet or for just the hell of it is not then where has the world values gone.
Another thing why has no one stood up about the beheading by the Islamic terrorist. If faith is the answer then the Muslims and Islamic state should help stop the killing in that region and restore the destruction of the landmarks created by their forefathers. To clean slate history is to only repeat history over again.
Robert Rex EDWARDS – the signs are being put up in awareness by a Jewish group, which is why it got by the ‘hate speech’ label.
come on guys … this movie is about how a military of one religion is killing others that belong to another religion. how can most of you be so naive and not see this. the u of md did the right thing and others should follow. liberalizm is about education and tolerance, the conservatism is about religion – about going back to middle ages and the crusades. we make heroes of those who kill the most – especially if they are of another religion …
nickos – you haven’t been following the current military have you? Our military does not care what religion you are or even if you have a religion.
And here I thought Stalin’s brutal dictatorship was a result of his being a psychopath. Now I know it’s because he was a leftie!
And no, I can’t stomach what Stalin did. Really, can any of us?
RcCarol – it is possible to be both a leftie and a pscyopath. Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Pol Pot have all taught us that.
Glorifying snipers- almost the definition of a cowardly job- is a major propaganda coup for the Perception Management industry. Sure free speech is important, and I doubt I’d act to shut down this film. But I mourn the country of bullies that produced it.
laudyms – the shelf life of a sniper is very short. So, to be a sniper requires someone who is willing to die for just one shot. As the job has become part science and part art, we have been able to keep snipers alive longer, but we still lose them, usually to other snipers (because they know what to look for). They are anything but cowards. Remember they can take YOU out at up to 1 1/2 miles. You will never hear it coming.
po, I understand that, but I think it is worthwhile to use them to make some points. I am astounded that NONE of our right wing folks have answered my point about their supposed hero, George Orwell, being an OUTRIGHT COMMUNIST! I find it passing strange that they have nothing to say on that subject, either to refute it or to justify why they are in bed with such a big bad RED!
randyjet – I do not remember Orwell being on anyone’s list of heroes.
Rick says: Why don’t you explain why you think each of the items you cite lack evidence to support them.
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Alright then, Rick, what is your evidence for this:
I suspect there are more non-Muslim students than Muslim students pushing this. It’s a campus-left initiative.
po – there is a major BDS movement on many campus helping out in these situations.
Pogo is right, McCarty was right all along. There were Communists in the State Department and the State Department knew about it.
BTW, Communists and Socialists are leftists. This includes the National Socialists.