Dear all,
Two weeks ago, a woman by the name of Nonie Darwish was to speak at an event sponsored by both of the student organizations Tigers for Israel and Whig. Nonie Darwish has some particularly harsh criticisms against extremist Islam, to put it lightly. Because of her positions on Islam, the leaders of the Muslim community and the CJL pressured both groups to drop their sponsorship and eventually they did. Of course, without any student group supporting the event, it cannot be held on campus. The Tory was asked by a group of students who still wanted to hold the event to step in at the last second and sponsor it.
I made the decision to go ahead and sponsor the event. It was not an easy decision, as I was well aware of the fact that our actions could bring the Tory under intense scrutiny from the Muslim community and perhaps the campus at large. As your publisher, I took the potential harm this could cause the Tory’s reputation very seriously. However, I was ultimately persuaded that in sponsoring the event we would be standing for a principle that was too important not to defend. Ms. Darwish’s views are in no way motivated by bias or hatred, she simply has come to rather extreme conclusions against a specific sect of a religious faith. Thus, the respective leaders of the CJL and Muslim communities, it seems to me, were trying to prevent her voice from being heard for the simple fact that she took an antagonistic stance towards a particular religion. This is simply unacceptable on a campus where we should hope to promote open, intellectual debate. Furthermore, this campus has shown historically that arguments that directly criticize other faiths (e.g. Christianity) are well within the accepted discourse. Surely this standard should apply to all religions. With all this in mind, I concluded that Ms. Darwish’s right to free speech was being unduly infringed, and since the Tory was presented with the opportunity to rectify this matter, I felt it was our duty to do so.
That being said, I take full responsibility for my decision, and you all are perfectly allowed to disagree or be dismayed with my choice. I simply tried to represent the spirit of this organization and what it stands for to the best of my ability, and I hope this is something you all can respect.
Sincerely,
Rob Day, Publisher of the Tory
PS – The story was picked up by the Trentonian as well as a number of conservative blogs and websites (including, most notably, Michael Savage’s website, michaelsavage.com). Below is a link to the the Trentonian article – you’ll notice they used my quote in the title:
http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2009/11/19/news/doc4b04c4f8e36cb785729432.txt
