Development: Leader attempting to prevent showing of American Sniper calls out Harbaugh,

Submitted by Muttley on

as part of "violent rape culture infested football" and associated with "racist militarism".

Soon thereafter the same leader was revealed to have vandalized Omar Mahmood's off-campus apartment door, according to the former Michigan Daily columnist who was fired from the Daily for his satirical article Do the Left Thing that appeared in the Michigan Review.

 

 A Hostile Place for Arab/Muslim Students

 

What's that?

"campus is already a hostile place for Arab/Muslim students"

 

Apparently so, at least for Omar Mahmood as described by Jonathan Chait

 

Around 2 a.m. on December 12, four students approached the apartment of Omar Mahmood, a Muslim student at the University of Michigan, who had recently published a column in a school newspaper about his perspective as a minority on campus. The students, who were recorded on a building surveillance camera wearing baggy hooded sweatshirts to hide their identity, littered Mahmood’s doorway with copies of his column, scrawled with messages like “You scum embarrass us,” “Shut the fuck up,” and “DO YOU EVEN GO HERE?! LEAVE!!” They posted a picture of a demon and splattered eggs.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/not-a-very-pc-thing-to-say.html

 

Mahmood reported that he has known the identity of the vandals all along, but had hoped to reconcile, but said he couldn't hold back any longer in the wake of Khalil’s statements about campus hostility toward Muslims.

Zeinab Khalil, a recent UM graduate, Muslim, and progressive activist who won numerous distinctions during her time on campus, including an award named for Martin Luther King, Jr., thinks it’s the former. A UM group’s decision to screen the film American Sniper offended the sensibilities of some Muslims, including Khalil, who claimed on Twitter that the campus “is already a hostile place for Arab/Muslim students. In one tweet posted on April 9th, she despaired

“Spent 4 yrs at @umich doing anti-oppressive work; admins used me to educate campus. this is what i get in return as exhausted/exploited alum.”

In a sense, she’s right. UM has indeed proven to be a hostile place for at least one Muslim student: Omar Mahmood, whose off-campus apartment was vandalized last December by a trio of women who pelted his door with eggs and left him hateful messages because they didn’t appreciate a satirical column he'd written mocking trigger warnings and microaggressions.

Who perpetrated this act of intimidation against a Muslim student? It was Khalil herself, according to Mahmood, whose account is supported by the testimony of other students, video footage, and emails obtained by Reason.

Khalil was assisted by two others, according to Mahmood, who are also recent graduates and progressive activists in the UM Muslim community.

Mahmood has known this all along—the amateur criminals were caught in the act on the apartment complex’s surveillance video and are identifiable to those who know them—but he says he didn’t report their names to the media in hopes that they would reconcile with him privately. They never did.

In the wake of the controversy over American Sniper and Khalil’s statements about campus hostility toward Muslims, Mahmood says he couldn’t hold back any longer.

  http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/10/at-umich-a-libertarian-muslim-student…

 

MOD EDIT - I know people won't like locking this, but there are a fair number of people who are not handling themselves well and I really don't want to send anyone to Bolivia today. I am in too good a mood for that. -LSA

 

Dilithium Wings

April 14th, 2015 at 7:00 PM ^

The Muslims in Iraq that saw the screening of the movie didn't seem to care. Hell they gave it a standing ovation.



This guy doesn't speak for all Muslims. Piss off dude. Way to attempt to silence free speech, douchebag.

MGoCombs

April 14th, 2015 at 7:03 PM ^

Wow... I was not expecting that.

For those who will surely be clamoring to get this pulled because we can't have nice things™, I understand, but I also find it interesting and semi-relevant.

ThadMattasagoblin

April 14th, 2015 at 7:08 PM ^

I don't want Harbaugh to respond. Focus on football. Let the political trolls from both sides attack each other. At the end of the day, it's a movie. Who cares if they watched Paddington or American Sniper?

UMChick77

April 14th, 2015 at 7:18 PM ^

Am I wrong here or wasn't this movie what the majority wanted? Isn't that the basics of our rights here in the U.S.? The rule of the majority? 

The damn movie was  OPTIONAL. No one had to go see it or was forced to watch it.

People fail to realize that being offended is a choice. People also don't understand that just because someone is "offended" doesn't mean that they're right.

 

Royalk81

April 14th, 2015 at 7:33 PM ^

Let me start by saying I fully supported the viewing of the movie and Harbaugh can do whatever he wants in my book, so make the team watch it 10 times.

HOWEVA...

First: You should know that the foundation of our rights in the U.S. is absolutely not the rule of majority. The foundation of our rights comes from the U.S. Constitution and even if only 10% of the country believes in a right, if that right is in the Constitution, then that trumps the 90%.

In fact, sometimes minority positions are better funded/supported by the "right" people, etc. and even without a constitutional basis a minority position prevails.

Basically, going forward we should not be under the impression that the rule of majority is how our system is intended to work, or does work.

Second, it is far too simplistic to say being offended is a choice. There are a host of genetic, cultural, environmental and even evolutionary factors that play into knee-jerk reactions of offense. You can reason and dialogue some of that away over a period of time, but asking anyone to just "not be offended because you don't have to be" doesn't really work.

Third: You are 100% correct in that just because someone is offended doesn't mean they are right. It is annoying when people are placated just because they throw temper tantrums.

UMChick77

April 14th, 2015 at 8:59 PM ^

Simply put, majority does rule. When a proposition comes up for vote... like gay marriage or to make pot legal...how does it get voted in or voted down? Majority.

Secondly, being offended IS a choice. As a hispanic woman, I have had MANY snide, nasty, sexist and racial comments thrown my way through out my life. Things that I know many people here have never experienced or even understand. Some of the things have been obvious, some subtle and passive aggressive. There have been times where I have been offended. That is a reaction to someone else's stupidity. I can't control that, but what I can control is my reaction to it. As I became older, I very much realized that it is by far a choice I made to not even bother to let those ignorant people to control me--so therefore, it is very much a choice rather you realize it or not.

Erik_in_Dayton

April 14th, 2015 at 9:18 PM ^

The students didn't just feel offended. They were concerned that the movie would cause hostility toward them. That's a big difference.

And I am not arguing for pulling the movie, though I would have put it in a broader context by having people comment on it afterward, showing other movies, or something like that.

KBLOW

April 14th, 2015 at 7:08 PM ^

The Harbaugh "call out" in your title is just Upworthy style click bait BS.  Seems that the rest of what you posted is the real story, not some stupid tweet by an upset person.

TSimpson77

April 14th, 2015 at 7:09 PM ^

I never saw any racial discrimination in the movie, I felt like it was more awareness of PTSD and it's affects than anything. Would they ban Saving Private Ryan or Full Metal Jacket?!




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

getsome

April 14th, 2015 at 7:53 PM ^

people can find offense or take issue with absolutely anything, those 2 movies are certainly not exempt.  its become cool to make bold statements, raise flags (no matter how false or far out there), and to cry foul at any opportunity - no matter the actual facts, the only wrong one can do in the fight vs injustice is remain silent!!  

imagine "activists" like that watching south park, austin powers, etc - give them a motive, theyll designate a victim and find a crime

Double-D

April 14th, 2015 at 8:17 PM ^

Is it Patriotic? Yes. Is it good vs evil? Sure. Anyone who saw the pain and suffering of the soldiers and the civilians is not jumping up and down looking for another war. In fact her behavior if true follows the traditional method of intimidation and violence.....if true.

The way to intimidate is to force the viewing of the GIF Carlos posted.

TheLastHarbaugh

April 14th, 2015 at 8:28 PM ^

There has always been this incredibly loud and incredibly stupid group of people who cannot properly contextualize a work of art.

Just because a racist character appears in a work does not make the work racist, nor does it mean the author of said work is endorsing racism. The same way if a character is raped or murdered in a work does not mean the author is endorsing either of those things.

These are the same sorts of people who would ban The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for being "racist," or who would ban Harry Potter for "promoting Satanism." 

These dummies sadly reside all throughout the political spectrum. 

As Dan Patrick once said, "You can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them."