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Home Front: Culture Wars
Group Wants Prof Punished for Anti-Muslim E-Mail
2006-04-25
An Islamic rights group on Monday urged Michigan State University to discipline an engineering professor for disparaging Muslims in an e-mail he sent to the school's Muslim Students' Association.

Indrek Wichman, a mechanical engineering professor, sent an e-mail to the student group Feb. 28 — apparently in response to its protests of controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist. The students had labeled the cartoons as hate speech, not free speech.

Wichman, 50, wrote that he was protesting their protest and said he was not offended by cartoons but rather Muslims who commit suicide bombings, behead civilians, attack public buildings, burn Christian churches, kill Catholic priests in Turkey, rape Scandinavian girls and riot in France.

Wichman referred to Muslims as "dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems" and the protests as "infantile" in the e-mail. "If you do not like the values of the West . . . you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option."

Wichman declined to comment when contacted Monday by The Associated Press.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Michigan State officials should publicly denounce Wichman's statements and conduct an investigation. The results of the probe should be made public, and Wichman should at least have a letter of reprimand placed in his file, Walid said.

The group also wants Wichman and other faculty to receive sensitivity training before the fall semester.

University spokesman Terry Denbow said the school would not publicly condemn Wichman's statements because they were private and did not represent the school in any way. But he added that Wichman has been advised to be careful in the future.
Posted by:ryuge

#8   If you do not like the values of the West . . . you are free to leave.

Three cheers for the engineering prof!

This is something I have never quite understood: say your an immigrant and you've left your homeland because it, not to put too fine a point on it, is a shit hole. (no offense to your impoverished, disease-ridden, oppressed homeland or the rat-bag dictator that runs it). Now you want to make your new home just like your old home. So what was the point of leaving?
Posted by: SteveS   2006-04-25 17:44  

#7  Agreed, SR-71. And, it raises an interesting question. Who would the ACLU favor in this case? Free speech for Professors (who are typically moonbattish and have tenure), or the "poor, downtrodden minorities" (Muslim students)? It could be fun to watch for these type fights in the future and see where the ACLU lines up. Of course, in this case, I think we all know where the ACLU would've gone (against "Hate speech").
Posted by: BA   2006-04-25 14:25  

#6  Sounds like an academic freedom of speech issue. Expect the AAUP and ACLU to be all over this like flies on whateve you keep outside.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-04-25 12:59  

#5  If you do not like the values of the West . . . you are free to leave.

Amen!
I don't like the values of the goat raping, moon god worshiping, woman degrading clerics in the Middle East; therefore I will not live there.
Posted by: DarthVader   2006-04-25 12:11  

#4  Engineering prof. Fewer moonbats there.
Posted by: SR-71   2006-04-25 11:49  

#3  The group also wants Wichman and other faculty to receive sensitivity training before the fall semester.

Mooslim sensitivity training will soon be available in a theater near you and on DVD. Follows is the trailer link:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/united93/


Posted by: Besoeker   2006-04-25 09:10  

#2  I did not know there were any sane professors left. Good for him.
Posted by: newc   2006-04-25 09:04  

#1  The group also wants Wichman and other faculty to receive sensitivity training before the fall semester.
Hmmm. That's a western, post-modern solution, not an Islamic solution. Off with their heads!
Posted by: Spot   2006-04-25 08:43  

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