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Protestors cannot be faulted for their legitimate right to protest

Reader comment on item: Speaker Shouted Down at U.C.-Irvine

Submitted by Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai (India), Feb 9, 2007 at 06:21

Dear Mr. Pipes,

When you said, 'crush Palestinians'; you yourself are in a territory, that can be construed as bordering on inciting criminal action against a group of people. You talk of constitution and campus propriety, while you yourself have taken liberty with both. You cannot go out and publicly call for 'elimination' of a whole people. Does that not look like calling for genocide of Palestinians?

Even in a legally declared war, US cannot resort to genocide. So how an ordinary citizen, be that Pipes or Bush or anybody for that matter could publicly call for total genocide of a group of world citizenry. I have watched your speech and the disruption by the protesters. I would say, they had been more restrained, or they should have raised objection to your open invitation to 'crush' Palestinians. Would you tolerate any US citizen to go out and say ---'crush Jews' ----'crush Israelis'. The law has to work both ways. You cannot get away with such aggressive message while taking offense over even normal campus boisterous response to a controversial figure like you. Compared to the boys who just walked out and vent their feelings among themselves, you have been clearly proved to be more intolerant and vindictive. You could turn the whole discussion on an academic note, rather than playing politics of the street kind.

It is time that you should come to realize that Muslim Americans have as many civil rights as Jewish Americans, who sympathize with Zionism. At the moment, Jewish political influence is more pronounced, but that has to gradually change and Muslims too will be given their right to register their concerns, their aspirations, their protests and their value judgments on American affairs, internal as well as external.

You better be prepared for such changes, as in any democracy, you cannot keep any group long suppressed and under some kind of collective guilt for supposed crimes that may or may not have committed by their very existence.

By the way, I completely sympathize with your logic about feeling of insecurity for Israel's very existence, as Israel as a state is too dependent on world suffrage. To legitimize its existence, it will have to abide by commonly understood rules of democracy, non-racial polity, legal rights of the residence, that had been legal residents of the space occupied by the new State.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai

Submitting....

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Daniel Pipes replies:

I spoke of "crushing their will" not crushing them as people. Big difference. Every war involves the crushing of will.

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Reader comments (48) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Please read and see the video below [135 words]Please readFeb 17, 2010 11:57169057
gratitude [123 words]jennifer solisAug 26, 2007 03:34106989
Anti-Semitism in America and Our Universities [1540 words]gary fouseJul 28, 2007 02:52105019
Disruptions on College Campuses [187 words]Bob JackFeb 13, 2007 17:2377063
It's Their Right [253 words]Debby MayerFeb 13, 2007 16:0277050
Possible responses [76 words]abraham irwinFeb 13, 2007 13:5777037
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION [39 words]HATITTIFeb 12, 2007 18:0876942
Freedom of Speech is not Freedom to Prevent Speech [335 words]G WoodworthFeb 13, 2007 02:3976942
In support of your position [97 words]Bob JackFeb 14, 2007 08:5676942
Whose "freedom of speech"? [478 words]G.WoodworthFeb 12, 2007 09:3476887
Righteous indignation... [275 words]donvanFeb 13, 2007 15:3976887
I'm depressed [109 words]concernedFeb 10, 2007 13:0076721
Don't let the knockers convince you [150 words]RPaineFeb 13, 2007 12:1476721
re: RPaine [263 words]concernedFeb 14, 2007 11:0076721
dumb stupid/stupid dumb [150 words]dfwhite19438Feb 9, 2007 18:1576654
Saudi money plays an ugly role in Western countires [187 words]joesephFeb 15, 2007 17:3176654
UC-Irvine [39 words]GumboFeb 9, 2007 11:4076640
speaker shouted down at uci [129 words]rafi maromFeb 9, 2007 09:4376634
Protestors cannot be faulted for their legitimate right to protest [397 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Ghulam Muhammed, MumbaiFeb 9, 2007 06:2176621
To: Ghulam Muhammad, Mumbai [273 words]B KettelleMar 12, 2007 09:0876621
The University Failed; Hannity & Colmes Obfuscate the Issue [139 words]Nathan RosenblattFeb 8, 2007 18:1176592
Disruption [171 words]Ernie LofthouseFeb 8, 2007 12:1076557
Anti Opression ? [115 words]abdul khanFeb 8, 2007 11:4976552
Dr. Pipes where where the moderates that you claim exist. Where they there? If not, why not? [65 words]gellin&infidellinFeb 8, 2007 11:0976550
"VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS" [154 words]Edgar Malcolm ErvinFeb 8, 2007 10:4876548
eye opening [66 words]DarrenFeb 8, 2007 08:3076540
slippery slope [46 words]robert aFeb 8, 2007 04:4676519
Disturbance at the Irvine Campus meeting [227 words]FaqiFeb 8, 2007 03:3576511
Objective vs. Subjective [82 words]David W. LincolnFeb 8, 2007 00:0876502
follow up on the event [289 words]HarrakFeb 7, 2007 23:3976498
False liberalism, Muslim incivility, and immoral faculty [366 words]Caesar M. ArevaloFeb 7, 2007 22:5976489
Clarity [173 words]Bill StoreyFeb 7, 2007 22:5876487
Surprise [119 words]Michael from CanadaFeb 9, 2007 11:5376487
Re:Bravo! Mr.Daniel Pipes, Don't mind these idiots and bullying babaric Islamists. [168 words]TTSFeb 7, 2007 22:4876486
Irvine [78 words]steven LFeb 7, 2007 22:2476482
No trust in Muslems [53 words]f.shaFeb 7, 2007 21:0776472
The Moslems want the people in the West to give the Jizya to them [47 words]f.shaFeb 19, 2007 21:5876472
El Azhar of Egypt decided the all non moslems deserve to be killed [56 words]f.shaFeb 19, 2007 22:1976472
Muslims are dangerous [21 words]MuslimApr 21, 2007 23:3976472
Great Interview w/Hannity & Colmes! [310 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Reut CohenFeb 7, 2007 17:0476426
wash my hands [61 words]andre cassanoFeb 7, 2007 19:5576426
Speaker shouted down at UC Irvine [49 words]faqiFeb 8, 2007 03:4876426
1"les chiens aboient, la caravane passe" [106 words]HarrakFeb 7, 2007 16:5876424
Pipes at Irvine [114 words]steven LFeb 7, 2007 22:4276424
Depression pills [180 words]HarrakFeb 10, 2007 20:5876424
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Saudi Influrence In Our Colleges. [186 words]clarence puckettFeb 7, 2007 23:2876418
Bullying Tactics [52 words]Philip W. ChapmanFeb 7, 2007 16:0576413

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