This is eerily similar to what I went through with Lane Community College and my attempt to teach a non-credit class on Islam. Professor Maurice Eisenstein made comments about Islam and Muslims on his facebook page and lo and behold, the pseudo-intellectuals at Purdue, with their multiculti panties in a bunch had him castigated. Now the professor is filing a lawsuit claiming denial of free speech rights and religion. In my case, as just a regular citizen of my community I had little power to file a lawsuit and press the issue, but as a professor he has much more sway and this case will work its way through the system. Lets hope he wins and free speech is upheld as sacrosanct no matter what the words are. I would bet that if Eisenstein had criticized Catholics or Jews there would have been nary a peep.
From the Journal Gazette May 18 by Charles Wilson
“This is not the first time and it won’t be the last time we will see a university punish a student or professor for constitutionally protected speech on Facebook. Professors at public universities should not have to go to court to defend their free speech rights,” Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said in a statement Wednesday.
FIRE, a non-profit educational foundation devoted to free speech, has sent letters to Chancellor Thomas Keon advocating Eisenstein’s position and tried to raise public awareness, but is not involved in the suit, said Adam Kissel, the group’s vice president.
The complaints were filed last fall amid student protests on the Hammond campus, citing comments Eisenstein, a 64-year-old Orthodox Jew, made inside and outside his classroom.
The complaints followed posts on his personal Facebook page questioning the response of moderate Muslims to other Muslims killing Christians in Nigeria, and insulting the prophet Muhammed.
I wonder just who would file a complaint that Eisenstein insulted Muhammad. Hmmmm....
Read it all
From the Journal Gazette May 18 by Charles Wilson
Prof sues over Muslim tiff
INDIANAPOLIS – A Purdue University political science professor has sued officials and other professors at the school’s campus in northwest Indiana for the treatment he received after he posted criticism of Muslims on Facebook.
Maurice Eisenstein claims in the suit that Purdue-Calumet officials violated his rights of freedom of speech and religion by subjecting him to a disciplinary investigation which eventually yielded mixed results.
The lawsuit filed May 10 in a Lake County court says Eisenstein was cleared of the initial allegation that he had violated the school’s policy against discrimination and harassment, but officials reprimanded him for what they considered retaliation against the two professors who filed the complaints.
“This is not the first time and it won’t be the last time we will see a university punish a student or professor for constitutionally protected speech on Facebook. Professors at public universities should not have to go to court to defend their free speech rights,” Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said in a statement Wednesday.
FIRE, a non-profit educational foundation devoted to free speech, has sent letters to Chancellor Thomas Keon advocating Eisenstein’s position and tried to raise public awareness, but is not involved in the suit, said Adam Kissel, the group’s vice president.
The complaints were filed last fall amid student protests on the Hammond campus, citing comments Eisenstein, a 64-year-old Orthodox Jew, made inside and outside his classroom.
The complaints followed posts on his personal Facebook page questioning the response of moderate Muslims to other Muslims killing Christians in Nigeria, and insulting the prophet Muhammed.
I wonder just who would file a complaint that Eisenstein insulted Muhammad. Hmmmm....
Read it all
No comments:
Post a Comment