Mere Rhetoric: Tufts Students Punished For Blasphemy, "Intentionally Putting A Negative Spin On Islam"

While every outrageous anti-Semitic conspiracy theory is covered by free speech on college campuses, publishing statistics about Islam and quoting from the Koran will get you punished. Eugene Volokh catapulted this storyinto the blogosphere yesterday with a post excoriating the Tufts faculty and administration. It's been a little slow to hit the jblogs - the only post we've found so far is over at TAB - but that could be because today is a day of rest or something. The campus free speech activists over at FIRE are pretty incensed about the whole matter:

Today, FIRE announced the decision by a disciplinary panel at Tufts to find the conservative student newspaper, The Primary Source, guilty of “harassment” for, among other things, publishing a satirical ad that listed less-than-flattering facts about Islam during Tufts’ Islamic Awareness Week... Author Salman Rushdie needed to go into hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeni declared a fatwa calling for his death for writing The Satanic Verses, which was declared “blasphemous against Islam.”... The seven nations in the world that punish homosexuality with death all have fundamentalist Muslim governments.

And so on. There is nothing in the ad that gets close to being even controversial from a factual standpoint. But apparently some college campuses are now Islam-criticism-free zones. This is happening in a national academic environment where students are daily - daily - subjected to fantastical anti-Israel lies inside the classroom and vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy theories outside - and where that harassment is indignantly and proudly protected as free speech. Muslim students following Jewish students around and calling them Nazis? Free speech Muslim students stopping anti-jihadist speakers like Daniel Pipes from speaking? Even that's free speech.

But quoting the Koran? That's hateful, and totally unbefitting a place where you're supposed to learn about other religions.

References:
* "Intentionally Putting a Negative Spin on Islam" -- Flabbergasting! [Volokh]
* Blasphemy at Tufts [TAB]
* Factual Statements=Unprotected Harassment!? A Terrifying Precedent at Tufts [FIRE]
* More Nazi Imagery on UC Irvine's Campus. Administration on Hate Speech: "One Person's Hate Speech is Another Person's Education". [MR]
& Two Videos: Daniel Pipes Shouted Down At UC Irvine - UCI Administration Proud Of Insane Muslim Student Union Hate Speech [MR]

Previously:
* Carter's Appearance At UC Irvine Provides Opportunity For Snark About Peace Treaties, Tears About American Academia
* Brown University Outrage: Anti-Israel Academics Organize Conference To Attack Pro-Israel Critics, Shut Out Pro-Israel Speakers and Students
* John Mearsheimer - Not Anti-Semitic. Just Anti-Semiticish

Cross-posted to:
* Israpundit