The secularist group SHIFT at Northwestern University became the third major campus student group to chalk stick figures of the Prophet Muhammad today according to the news blog NorthbyNorthwestern. SHIFT has also posted a formal statement about their event citing the events leading to their protest including the threats made against the South Park creators and the previous protests:
At the University of Illinois, the secular student group AAF (Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers) decided to show their support for Parker and Stone by drawing stick figures around campus and labeling them as "Muhammad." (For pictures of the event and an official statement from the group itself, you can read their blogpost.) Because they received such a backlash from the Muslim community on their campus, this past week the AAF sent out a mass e-mail to all of the student groups in the nation affiliated with the Secular Student Alliance (which includes SHIFT), imploring everyone to act similarly on his/her own campus, so that we may establish a solidarity among secular students for free expression, and in doing so, rebuke the power that we have given to fear-mongerers wherever we have allowed needless censorship. Thus far, the University of Wisconsin has followed suit (a very interesting reaction resulted from the Muslim community at their campus, actually; you can read about it here), but it will take a lot more than two (and now, three) groups to achieve the desired solidarity.
This is why SHIFT has chalked Northwestern's campus: to support both the AAF and South Park, as well as to facilitate an open discussion about censorship and political correctness (which is scheduled for this Sunday at 4 PM in the Shepard piano lounge).
UPDATE NU's President will formally meet with SHIFT to discuss the matter. President Shapiro will be attending their open talk on sunday. See the Facebook event here. (I'd just like to point out our own president and our campus newspaper had no interest in such things.)
2 comments:
Go Cats! I'm proud to be an alum of two schools with student groups demonstrating against the suppresion of free speech
Clearly your awesomeness rubbed off and hangs out like an aura.
I'd like to say that the reason AAF never organized its own "open talk" as NU did is this all heated up right when finals started and the year is over. We will not doubt set something up for the fall when people can actually come.
Post a Comment