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.

Registration

This morning I finally got the chance to register for classes

CHIN 203 – Intermeadiate Chinese          PLSC 380S – Causes of Civil War

CHIN 202 – Singing Chinese                    MATH 130 – Mathematics in Action

HPE 256 – Emergency Health Care

So yeah. I decided to continue with Chinese, that was always my plan and I’m not going to deviate from it, even if its hard.  I’ve already invested alot of time and energy into learning it and I think I’ve made a lot of progress.  Alot of people have asked me what the “point was” to taking another year of it.  I think it’s worth it.  Not only will it become an extremely important language in the future but I’m also aiming for a career in the business world.  Try convincing me that knowing Chinese won’t be useful in the business world…go on…just try =).  Of course that isn’t my only motivation for learning Chinese but thats a post for another day.  For now it looks like my schedule will be packed, unlike my super sweet schedule from this term.  I guess I’m a little disappointed that I couldn’t fit Intermediate Tae Kwon Do into my schedule, but there’s always time for that I guess.

Anyway, I’ve told a lot of people so far but I guess I should write it down.  As of this fall term, I will not be a sophomore but rather a junior thanks to the crap load of APs  I took in high school. Due to this I have an entire year to play with.  At first I considered graduating in 2010 but it seems likely that my third year of college will be spent overseas as an international student.  Try to imagine my shock when my parents told me they were okay with this.  They don’t let me out after dark but they’re okay with me living half-way around the world for a  year.  i guess they must be tired of trying xD.  I’m hoping to go to Hong Kong or Shanghai so I can take business courses in addition to improving my Chinese.