False liberalism, Muslim incivility, and immoral faculty

Submitted by Caesar M. Arevalo (United States), Feb 7, 2007 at 22:59

This is not liberalism at all. This is incivility and lack of moral clarity. UC Irvine is not a liberal university. UC Irvine is fabric of anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism and incivility protected by the academic elite who is interested in brainwashing the mind of American students.

Colmes' arguments are weak and missed the point. He does not deal with the real issue, which is the interruption of Dr. Pipes' presentation by a group of Muslim students who did not show the slightest sign of respect at all. This is a strong evidence of the level of civility that permeates American universities.

Second, the lack of moral clarity of the faculty is evident, when we read the response of the university to the disruption. Actually, it was not a response; it was just a whitewashed declaration about what actually happened. The fact that the faculty failed to take a stand against the violent rhetoric of Muslim students is another clear evidence that moral clarity is something missing in UC Irvine. If they intended to be "objective" in their answer, they failed greatly.

Colmes' reasoning is full of fallacies. He thinks that freedom of speech means incivility, disrespect, and intimidation. Second, Colmes thinks that because Dr. Pipes had the chance to finish his presentation peacefully, everything is ok. That is to say that because all the rubbish and debris was cleaned up after the fall of the twin towers, everything is ok. and there is nothing to worry about it. Colmes does not want to admit that if Dr. Pipes finished his presentation was because the Muslim disrupters left the room. That tells me that civil dialogue and intellectual honesty is not the main goal of the university, but the protection of bullies and troublemakers.

Finally, Colmes erroneously assumed that liberalism is synonymous of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism. Actually, a true liberal university would have condemned the behavior of these Muslim students, put them in disciplinary status, protect the right of speakers to be heard, promote respect among students and faculty, and foster an open and honest debate and dialogue. Colmes is wrong, the faculty is wrong, the Muslim students are wrong, and bullies are silencing the voices of clarity.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".