Saturday, September 26, 2009

A First Amendment Hero!

Professor Indrek Wichman

He looks mild-mannered, not a man who would stand up to bullies and force them to back down. But Professor Indrek Wichman of Michagan State University, has become a Hero.

Now what would force this Professor of Mechanical Engineering to stand up for the First Amendment? Nothing less than a planned protest by the MSU chapter of the Muslim Students Union (MSU)
Members of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Michigan State University (MSU) didn’t know what they were getting into when they tried to suppress the free speech rights of Professor Indrek Wichman. On February 28, 2006 he read in the MSU student newspaper a call to protest the publication of the Muhammad cartoons. The article struck a raw nerve. He responded with the following:
Dear Moslem Association:

As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intend to protest your protest. I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian churches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavian girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.

This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsel you dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests."

If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Amendment--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.

Cordially,

I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
Some may say this reaction was a tad over-heated. But in a university environment, the more important question is: Were the statements accurate? It’s tough to argue with the validity of Professor Wichman’s factual assertions. And even tougher to demand that Wichman remain morally neutral regarding the examples of Muslim misconduct he cites.

For over three weeks Professor Wichman heard nothing about his email. But behind the scenes, the MSA had called in CAIR and had three separate meetings with the MSU provost. The MSA and CAIR both demanded that Wichman be censured, disciplined, enrolled in diversity and sensitivity training, and even “re-educated” on Islam.

To his credit, the MSU Provost did not cave in to the CAIR/MSA demands. On March 20, 2006 he wrote Wichman a letter saying that he strongly disagreed with the “intemperate tone” of his email. But he added that Wichman still had rights to free speech. From there, things got worse.

The MSU Provost told Wichman that if he continued to “harass” and “intimidate” the MSU MSA - while creating a “hostile intellectual climate” - then formal charges consistent with MSU anti-discrimination policy (ADP) would be filed by MSU against him. (emphasis mine)

On April 24, 2006 Wichman realized that the issue had not quietly gone away. He began receiving telephone calls and emails from local newspapers, AP, Reuters and other national and international outlets. CAIR and MSA, frustrated by the MSU Provost, had gone over his head and published a response, organized a press conference, and made a national/international press release.

CAIR and MSA’s public call upon MSU to take “disciplinary action" against Wichman’s “Islamophobic” email was a classic example of Muslim cowardice. Michigan’s CAIR Executive Director Mr. Dawud Walid said it was “unconscionable for a professor to use his university e-mail account to foster a hostile learning environment for Muslim students.” He added, “The University needs to take appropriate disciplinary action in this case to demonstrate through its actions that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be tolerated on campus.”

It should be noted that Mr. Walid has gone to court to argue for applying Sharia law in mid-Michigan. That serves to undercut significantly his stature as an opponent of bigotry towards minorities.

I sat down for a beer - I believe it was a Danish beer – with Indrek Wichman in April. When he said he meant to “protest the protest” of the MSA he really meant it. He helped form a conservative faculty group at MSU. The group serves to protest speech codes, invite conservative speakers to campus, and represent students and faculty whose rights are trampled by the MSU administration.

Indrek Wichman is not your typical college professor. He is a true First Amendment hero.

Meanwhile, Dawud Walid is still fighting to repeal the First Amendment and keep Muslims from being offended. He wants to replace it with Sharia law so Muslims can freely beat their wives and publicly execute homosexuals.
How is it that Muslims can say the most hurtful, racially insensitive, anti-Semitic rhetoric on US campuses without the administrations of those schools saying a word no, yet one lone professor on a campus writes an e-mail in protest of the barbaric practices of Islam, he is vilified and crucified? The behavior of the MSU in regards to Free Speech and other rights is well documented on the net. One just has to read Fousesquawk by blogger Gary Fouse to see what is happening at UC Irvine.

And it is happening at every college and university in the US.

What the MSU & CAIR are trying to do is first to stiffle free speech, then to impose Shar'ia Law on the US. Their counterparts have been very successful in doing this in Europe and Great Britain. But unlike those lost lands, the US has the Free exercise of Speech firmly written into the US Constitution. And there are plenty of court cases backing the right of Free Speech.

Slowly, on campuses, faculity are speaking out against the MSU. They are challenging their claims, and forcing the 1st Amendment down their throats.

I wonder what has taken them so long.

5 comments:

auntybrat said...

Thank YOU! Will be sharing this everywhere (including FB)

Ron Russell said...

Katie, noticed your comment on Fred's site I'm aka Silver Fox there so thought I would visit your site. Most c universities have gone far left today and the far left is no friend to Israel who they see as a child of colonialism. In this age of rampant nationalism there is no room for a state such as Israel. I recall as a young boy and later as a young man the stuggles in establishing the state of Israel and the many wars with the arab states-- but perhaps my fondest memories were the movies "Exodus" and later "Lisa" a lesser know film. Its strange how movies can effect ones views on historial events, but that was true with me. The new hollywood is entirely something else and that is disturbing. You have a good site and I'm linking to your site. As I leave this comment I'm looking at the little squirrel in the side bar and remembering my youth---I hunted the little critters and they were always good at lunch, ha!

WomanHonorThyself said...

brilliant find girl!..what hypocrisy!

Findalis said...

Welcome to the playground Ron Russell. There is no need to apologize for being a Zionist here. It is not only acceptable, but in this time of trouble, Israel needs all the friends she can get.

So enjoy the fun and games here. I can assure you we always catch the truth here.

Ron Russell said...

I suppose I am a Zionist, never thought about it that way however. I have no problem with nationistic feelings I wish we had more of that here in America. I've always believed in the old "Manisfest Destiny" of early Americans---that is not popular these days. I'm a retired history teacher, although my teaching days were somewhat limited just couldn't make it on a teachers pay and went into the private sector many years ago.
I have seen the decline in the American educational system and the march toward the left in most institutions and its quite disturbing. It will be difficult to erase the many years of liberal indoctrination, but a starting point must be found. Strangely, the election of Obama and his moves toward an extremely radical agenda may turn out to be a blessing. Often the law of unintended consquences comes into play when one least expects it.

I recall as a young man growing up in the rural south many whites hated Jews because of their involvement in the civil rights issues of the time for many different reasons I never fell victim to that hatard. Not that I agreed with all the efforts to bring about so-called equality at that time. Time has softened my positions on many past troubling positions as time often does and I see each person now for what they are and don't lump people together in groups--some call that stero-typing, but I have never liked that word for it has been used many times in devisive ways. I suppose my awareness of the Jewish state came about due to Hollywood and two movies from the 1950's, not really sure about the date---"Exodus" and a far lesser know film "Lisa" with Delores Hart and Stephen Boyd--the bad guy in the Ben Hur charriot race. I think both these films depected the then very young Jewish state. As a young man I thought of going to Israel to aid in that countries early struggle against overwhelming odds, but it was just a dream that never materialized. I followed each conflict from that in 1948, to the Suez war, to the six day war and all those that followed. And with each my support of the Zionist state became stronger and stronger.

Sorry for my rambling, but sometime reflection is good and has its own reward.