US University Won't Reprimand Professor for Racial Slurs

DETROIT, April 25, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Distancing itself from the remarks, the Michigan State University (MSU) said professor Indrek Wichman was exercising his free speech right when describing Muslims as "brutal and uncivilized" and telling Muslim students to return to their "ancestral homelands."

"He was cautioned that any additional commentary ... could constitute the creation of a hostile environment, and that could ... form the basis of a complaint," Terry Denbow, a spokesman for MSU, was quoted as saying by Detroit Free Press.

He stressed that the remarks, though "very inappropriate," do not violate the university's antidiscrimination policy.

In an e-mail to the university’s Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) on February 28, Wichman wrote: "I counsul [sic] you dissatisfied, agressive [sic], brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems [sic] to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile ‘protests.’"

He was referring to global protests against Danish cartoons that ridiculed Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

"If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Ammendment [sic]--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans."

The Bush administration has backed Muslims against newspapers that reprinted the blasphemous caricatures, which were first published by Danish daily Jyllands Posten last September.

Former US president Bill Clinton has condemned the cartoons as "appalling" and "outrageous" and compared rising anti-Islamic prejudice to anti-Semitism.

Disciplined

The Muslim Students' Association called Monday for the university to issue a letter of reprimand.

They have met several times with university officials since February 28 and went public with the e-mail Monday because the school had not acted.

The student group also wants the university to implement diversity training programs for faculty and a mandatory freshman seminar on hate and discrimination.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, has also urged the university to reprimand the professor.

"The university needs to take appropriate disciplinary action in this case to demonstrate through its actions that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be tolerated on campus," Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan chapter of CAIR, said in a statement on the group's website.

He said that it is "unconscionable" for a professor to use his university e-mail account to "foster a hostile learning environment for Muslim students."

Many prominent American figures, who insulted Islam and Muslims in the past, have apologized or lost their jobs thanks to the quick and positive reaction from Muslim advocacy groups in the country.

In August last year, US radio talk-show host Michael Graham was fired after branding Islam a "terrorist organization" in remarks slated by Muslim groups as "hate radio."

In June, a California radio station was forced to issue an on-air apology for an Islamophobic skit that claimed Muslims have sex with animals, avoid bathing and are obsessed with killing Jews.

The Chicago-based syndicated radio commentator Paul Harvey, the most listened-to radio personality in the United States, claimed in December 2003 that Islam "encourages killing."

But after receiving hundreds of angry messages from Muslims and non-Muslims alike, Harvey backtracked on his defamatory comments, praising Islam as a "religion of peace".

CAIR launched in 2004 a campaign called "Hate Hurts America" based on the conviction that the increasing attacks on Islam by conservative talk show hosts was not only offensive to Muslims and other people of conscience but to the entire country.