A Response From Golden West College

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As previously reported, I attended an event entitled, Islam 101 at Golden West College, in which campus police were called because some of us were asking uncomfortable questions. I subsequently wrote a letter about the incident to the GWC administrators.

Today I received this canned response from the public affairs office of GWC.

“We have received your comments and appreciate your voiced concerns. As you know, Golden West College recently opened a scheduled class to the public which included a presentation and opportunity to engage in questions and answers. The event was intended to be an introductory educational overview of Islam as part of an intercultural program for students in the class. We understand that the presenters and audience members have varying views about the effectiveness of the event. We are regretful that when campus security was called to help ensure the safety of the environment, that anyone may have felt uncomfortable, singled out, or discouraged from expressing their opinions.  

“We fully support free speech and the right to express diverse thoughts.”

Are you kidding me? They told us our questions were inappropriate and called in the campus cops!!

The event was announced as an effort to address “misconceptions” about Islam as stated by the speaker herself in her opening remarks. Yet the presentation was nothing more than a lollipop slide show about what Islam is, who Muslims are, the 5 daily prayers, the 5 pillars of Islam, etc.

 

As soon as some of us starting asking questions which the speaker was unable or unwilling to deal with, the gendarmes were called in to restore order where there was no disorder. The professors who harassed the questioners acted not only unprofessionally but were trying to stamp out the lofty principles that GWC seems to think it is committed to.

This will not go away so easily.