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Even more disturbing than the university’s inaction by failing to discipline Khan, for what is clearly a serious violation of the university’s policy against violent threats, are the reasons given for that failure. McGill University claims these threats “don’t constitute a threat to the community.” Instead, the threats are categorized as a “downside of social media,” but who among us would list death threats as a “downside of social media”?
Did social media force you to threaten death against Jews today? Rather, it is more accurate to say that jihad is a “downside” of Islamic radicalism, anti-Westernism and anti-Semitism. Further, in blaming social media instead of the person issuing threats and hatred toward Jews, the university completely ignores the fact that Khan was not only on campus at the time, but in the same room with the same people he was threatening. Finally, the threats were issued over a two-day period, so the “heat of passion” is also not at issue here.
Most troubling of all, however, is the accusation by the university that the reason for their silence and inaction is fear of backlash. The very clear implication is that Conservatives, Libertarians and/or Jews might become violent.
McGill took a number of actions in this case, many of them behind the scenes – not simply to satisfy the demands of Quebec’s privacy law, but because we want some of our responses to remain confidential to shield them from the eyes of those who could cause harm.
Rather than applying university policy to protect Jews, Conservatives and Libertarians who simply want to speak openly about their views without fear of being murdered, McGill University has decided to stoke the flames of animosity toward those being threatened. It is decidedly ironic that this occurred during a showing of “Indoctrinate U” which makes students aware of bias in classrooms.
Perhaps it’s time for a new film to be produced making students aware that they could be risking not only harassment, but death at the hands of jihadist anti-Semites who are protected by the institutions of academia like McGill University.
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Follow Lisa Graas on Twitter and visit her blog at LisaGraas.com
