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nekokate
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Location: West Yorkshire, UK
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 Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:34 pm Post subject: Nick Griffin fails to impress at Michigan U |
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| Quote: | Brendan Bouffard
Lansing State Journal
EAST LANSING - When British Nationalist Nick Griffin took the podium at a Friday night Michigan State University event, he tried to explain how Islam is a threat to Western civilization.
Protesters wouldn't have it.
Hurling obscenities and using chants to interrupt his address, rambunctious student organizations forced Griffin to abandon his speech and allow an informal question and answer session.
What followed was an unstructured banter between the speaker and a crowd of roughly 75 protesters. While many attempted to ask Griffin legitimate questions, others shouted obscenities.
"We have all come from different backgrounds," said Authra Khreis, 17, a pre-med student and a protester. "We should accept one another. I don't think he should be allowed to speak. You can use free speech until you hurt another person."
Griffin was invited to campus by a conservative student organization called Young Americans for Freedom, or YAF.
Kyle Bristow, chairman of YAF, said his organization invited Griffin to promote intellectual debate. Bristow said he doesn't believe in many of the ideas Griffin has preached, particularly his alleged denial of the Holocaust, but does agree that the Islamic faith is a threat to America.
"I'll stop saying their religion is terrible when they stop flying planes into buildings," he said.
"Islam is horrible. The extreme in Christianity is 'love thy neighbor,' with Islam it is violence."
One student who engaged in a particularly long debate with Griffin was Junaid Mattu, a finance junior from India.
"I am a supporter of free speech, but at the same time there has to be a benchmark," he said. "Why does MSU time and time again show its insensitivity to minorities by inviting racists?"
Because several speakers invited to MSU by YAF have sparked controversy, MSU Trustee Faylene Owen is asking the Board of Trustees to take action.
"I realize that people like this have a right to speak on this campus, but we don't have to condone it," she said at a Friday meeting.
She called for a board resolution that "expresses our disapproval as a board of the message of hate expressed by this person."
"He's a hatemonger," she added in a later interview. "He says there's never been a Holocaust and Muslims are terrible people."
MSU President Lou Anna Simon said that Griffin's views on immigration and multiculturalism were "inconsistent with the values of Michigan State University."
"YAF has chosen an array of speakers that continue to test the values of the institution, both in terms of being antithetical to our values of being a multicultural, inclusive community and at the same time testing our commitment to free speech," she said.
"That's a very, very delicate balance."
But she also said the university allows student groups to invite speakers to campus and, for the time being, that policy would stand. |
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I have to say, the quote that prompted me to post this article was one of the event organisers saying "I'll stop saying their religion is terrible when they stop flying planes into buildings. Islam is horrible. The extreme in Christianity is 'love thy neighbor,' with Islam it is violence."
That has to be one of the most retarded things I've ever heard in my life. A child could dismantle that argument!! |
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major.tom
Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Location: BC, Canada
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| Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Agreed. That retort got my blood boiling as well. What an ignorant bigot. |
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faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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Nice one Kate - I've not found any video yet, but it's apparently going to be posted soon... this page has a 'liveblog' of the event in a good bit of detail
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 10:43 pm Post subject: |
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| major.tom wrote: | | What an ignorant bigot. |
nutters like him always are! i mean, theres no rational argument or reasoning for their hatred of others based on religion or colour, so it comes down to stupid stuff like that.
whats scary is that some people buy into it  |
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faceless
admin
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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