The Free Speech Hypocrisy at George Washington University

by Ted Poe

  THE FREE SPEECH HYPOCRISY AT GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

      ______

  HON. TED POE

    OF TEXAS

   IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, it's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. This week involves events on college and university campuses across the Nation to promote awareness of the ideology that motivates terrorist groups like al Qaeda and Hamas.

While this event has sparked free speech debates on college campuses across the country, it has also revealed hypocrisies that exist in "free speech."

On October 8th, antiwar student activists covered the George Washington University campus with anti-Muslim posters. We now know that this was a hoax targeted at conservative student-members of the Young America's Foundation. Right after the posters appeared on the campus, the George Washington University Student Association Vice President, Brand Kroeger said he "would support expulsion" of the responsible students.

The George Washington University Administration brought the conservative students into its office, presumed the students were guilty, and pressured the students to sign a statement disavowing hate speech. The students refused to sign the statement and said they were innocent. The students were then dragged before a university "peace forum" and subjected to heckles from their fellow students. After all of this, 7 antiwar activist students took responsibility. These 7 students said the entire event was just a hoax. Guess what happened to the 7 responsible students? Nothing! No disciplinary action at all! The hypocrisy at American universities is appalling. If you are a liberal student, you can say anything. If you are a conservative student, you are denied free speech by the public university.

It seems that if you have one viewpoint, universities will punish and ridicule you, but if you agree with the universities, you'll be able to say whatever you want. There doesn't seem to be any equal opportunity in free speech on college campuses.

Colleges and universities preach liberal viewpoints without presenting the other side. The politically correct nature of our higher education sparked the creation of Islamo-Fascism Week.

During this week, students on college campuses across America will host events to educate students on issues that are not addressed inside of the classroom. The events include "teach in" panels and sit-ins on Women's Studies Department classes, to protest the absence of courses that focus on the oppression of women in Islam.

Islamic oppression of women will be the key focus of this week. In one horrific example of Islamic oppression, young Islamic schoolgirls were shot to death in Saudi Arabia when they fled a burning building without their veils. In another example, an Islamic teenager was buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses.

The Muslim American Society is protesting this week of events. The Society claims that this event is hate speech and promotes intolerance of Muslims. This isn't true. The event promotes awareness and intolerance of radical Muslim extremists and rightfully so. These extremists want to kill Americans. We should be intolerant of them.

Muslim extremists are responsible for 9/11, for the USS Cole bombing, for Embassy bombings, and they target our soldiers abroad. We also know that Islamo-Fascists have waged a jihad, or a holy war, against America.

The term "Islamo-Fascism" is not hate speech. It is not degrading to all Muslims. It degrades radical Muslim extremists. The term "Italian Fascism" doesn't smear all Italians. It smears radical Italian extremists. There is a difference between Muslims and radical Jihadists, who seek to destroy and murder people indiscriminately.

Islamo-fascism Awareness Week is a wake-up call for American students. Our classrooms need to stop worrying about political correctness and start educating our students on the truth. The truth is that radical Muslim extremists are the greatest danger that exists for Americans at home and abroad. The truth is that women are oppressed by Islamic extremists. The truth is that we need to stop garnering sympathy for the enemy and start confronting those against America.

And that's just the way it is.

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