UO Faculty Member Calls For “Appropriate” Free Speech
Mohamed S. Jemmali, a member of the UO Arabic Faculty, has a guest opinion in today’s Oregon Daily Emerald delightfully titled “Approach freedom of speech with care.” A cringe-inducing headline if I’ve ever heard one, even worse when you realize he’s writing about the recent Israel/Palestine demonstrations.
I won’t bother with the first paragraph, which describes the NRA supposedly “abusing” free speech by holding a rally after the Columbine massacre. Oregon Commentator Publisher Guy Simmons is much more versed on the subject and is already penning a letter to the Emerald about it.
It’s hard to pick a real argument or point out of Jemmali’s rambling parvum opus, but this seems to be it:
On Friday, some University students decided to exercise their freedom of speech. Lately, they’ve been watching horrifying live videos of dead, innocent Palestinian children and their hysterical mothers on a major U.S. news network (surprisingly), so they decided to take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and organized a peaceful rally on campus, where they brought “PEACE” flags to call for an immediate cease-fire.
Many other University students decided to organize another rally in the same place at the same time, and brought flags of Israel to protest against the original rally. They were certainly legally exercising their freedom of speech, but was it appropriate to try to “crash the other party”?
As anyone who was actually at the rallies could tell you, there was no party crashing to be had. The pro-Israel demonstration stayed at a respectable distance, held signs and handed out fliers. But that’s besides the point. It’s troubling that Jemmali would even suggest that there’s something inappropriate about holding a counter-protest. He seems to lack a fundamental grasp of why a liberal interpretation of the First Amendment is important – namely, the right to say things that others consider “inappropriate” or offensive.
This is all very amusing because Jemmali then goes on to say (emphasis added):
Living in America, I can’t imagine what it may feel like to live in that area in the Middle East, so I shouldn’t tell people which side is right or wrong. That’s what the UN and international laws are for. What I do know is that 9/11 happened primarily because some Muslim extremists have had enough of America’s military support to Israel.
