Washington University of St. Louis: MSA holds "Islamophobia" seminar over photo of "soldiers" holding waterguns on "terrorist"

A very interesting post from www.jihadwatch.org about U.S. citizens receiving “sensitivity training” over their views about the terrorists the U.S. is fighting. This follows this post about a billboard with a U.S. soldier and a Muslim woman. This follows this article about American energy independence and preventing money from going to hostile countries such as Iran. For more about what you can do to get more involved click here and you can read two very interesting books HERE.

Washington University of St. Louis: MSA holds "Islamophobia" seminar over photo of "soldiers" holding waterguns on "terrorist"


The Muslim Brotherhood's MSA had a packed house

Apparently absent, conspicuously so, from this Muslim victimhood orgy conducted by the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Muslim Students Association was any discussion of whether Islamic jihad against non-Muslims is a reality, and of whether or not it is permissible under any circumstances to resist it. The MSA and other groups like it have been working for years to stigmatize any and all resistance to jihad terror as "racism," and this ridiculous episode is just the latest example of how successful they have been. In a sane world, the MSA would never have made a big deal about the photo, and if asked for comment about it, would have said that there were Islamic jihadists waging war against the U.S., and that it was perfectly reasonable and acceptable for these boys to stage a Halloween photo based on that fact.

More on this story. "Students, administration respond to divisive Halloween posting," by Emily Schienvar for Student Life (Washington University of St. Louis), November 11:

One by one, Muslim students and their peers passed the microphone to discuss past experiences with racism and Islamophobia.


For many of them, these memories resurfaced when a Halloween photo of students costumed in military garb in what some argued was a depiction of Osama bin Laden, others as a stereotypical Muslim at gunpoint, surfaced on Facebook last Wednesday.



An open solidarity forum hosted by the Muslim Students Association on Thursday offered students the chance to share their experiences with racism and discuss ideas for future prevention of acts that could be considered inflammatory.



What race is jihad terror against innocent civilians again? I keep forgetting.



The photo, which some students defended as a depiction of Navy SEAL Team 6 and Osama bin Laden, went viral Wednesday night and kicked off a discussion about how the University handles incidents students may find racially or otherwise offensive, an issue that the Mosaic Project was and is intended to address.

“The gravity of this matter extends much beyond the photo itself,” MSA president and senior Ishaq Winters said. “The ensuing, oftentimes hateful comments of fellow students expose wider concerns…the silence on the part of the administration and majority of our student body speaks to the systemic nature of the challenges to our university’s principles of inclusion and equality, challenges that we must address moving forward.”



The event, held in Tisch Commons, was hugely attended by members of MSA, other students and administrators.



Winters, along with Jenni Harpring, program manager for the Gephardt Institute for Public Service, served as moderators for the event. They stressed that it was meant to center on the larger context of the photo and the University’s response to it rather than the costumes themselves.



Several students from the MSA shared stories of discrimination from their childhoods and from their time at Washington University post-9/11. Some mentioned bullying, hateful comments and actual violence directed toward them and their families.



Freshman Imran Mumtaz said that he didn’t find the photo particularly shocking after growing up in the South and facing Islamophobic tension for much of his childhood but saw it as an indication for the need for more frequent discussion.



“I strongly believe that the people involved in the image are college students just like us, and we’ll consider that they made a mistake. At the end of all of this, we need to accept that we need to forgive them,” Mumtaz said. “What we need to take away from this is that we need to not just have one event and say, ‘I recognize these issues exist. I tried to commit to change by going to a solidarity forum.’ Yeah, great. But we need to realize that we need to have these discussions every day.”



Non-Muslim students also shared their responses to the post and their opinions about possible avenues for improvement in prevention and responses. Some expressed concerns about a lack of empathy and a sentiment of resignation toward racism within the community as well as the absence of a simple way to report and handle situations of racism and bias.



Senior Gaby Dinkin, chair of the Diversity Affairs Council and leader in the Mosaic Project, responded to students’ concerns by saying that the Bias Response System would be released in the spring semester.



Many students left the event feeling very impressed by the way the MSA conducted the event.



“I thought that [the MSA] handled it really well. They were definitely open to everyone voicing their opinions, and I like how they made it very clear that this was for solidarity, not just as a response,” freshman Shivani Desai, a member of the DAC, said.



Following the remarks of several students, Vice Chancellor for Students Sharon Stahl expressed her apologies for the delayed reaction to the event.



“I am the person, the only person, to whom this posting was sent on Halloween; I made a grave mistake in not responding sooner than I did. I deeply regret that,” Stahl said. “If I could go back and undo this, I would, but I can’t, so I have to accept the responsibility of my mistake. I apologize, and I hope that moving forward you will be able to find it in your hearts to give me that grace.”



After Stahl’s apologies, Provost Holden Thorp committed to improving the response to such events in the future.



“I think that in the future, as soon as anyone in the administration—that goes from housing all the way to the chancellor—hears of an incident where a student doesn’t feel safe, that it needs to get reported up the chain as quickly as possible,” Thorp said. “We need to develop a better understanding of how that needs to be done, and we will.”



Students who don't feel safe because of Islamic jihadis need not apply.

Posted by Robert