What, gives you the right?

Tonight I had the displeasure of attending a talk given by Neo-con Islamaphobe Robert Spencer, hosted by the Binghamton University Zionist Organization and the Binghamton Review (the conservative publication on campus).  The fact that this man was allowed to spew hatred on our campus confounds me.  His entire presentation was aimed at convincing the article that Islam is a threat to Americans and the American way of life.  What surprised me the most was when he started quoting from the Koran as if he were an expert.  Sir, studying Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina DOES NOT make you an expert.  Frankly, sir, when you decided to shout down the Muslim students when they tried to correct you shows arrogance above and beyond that which I have ever seen.  You pick the most convenient passages and quote a few extremists and then feel that you have a legitimate conspiracy theory where Muslims seek to take over the United States.  You insist that people reject the notion that Islam is a “religion of peace”.  The question I have for you, is WHAT gives you the right, to come to this university and tell us that you know, the “truth” about Mohammad and Islam.  WHAT gives you the right to tell Muslims that you KNOW what the Koran says, and that others are choosing to ignore what it says.  Lastly, WHAT gives you the right to shout down students and impose you’re radical beliefs on others.  You, are no better than those Imams and extremists that you condemn.  You live in a world of your own and you need to wake up.

The ironic thing is, he said nothing of Zionism but rather decided to go on about his own beliefs.  This isn’t the first timw that this has happened on our campus.  Daniel Pipes and Dinesh D’Souza were both allowed to speak here last year in spite of their hateful and an inflammatory rhetoric.  These three men and their rhetoric have no place on our diverse and multi-cultural campus.  I am all for freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but please, don’t use my tuition to bring these fuckers to our campus where my other activities suffer from chronic shortages of funding.  It’s ridiculous, so please find somewhere else to spew this garbage.  This campus needs to stand up to this hateful behavior, the backlash would be tremendous should a speaker be allowed to criticize Israel or the Bible on this campus, and the same protection should be afforded to other students as well.