For en uke siden kommenterte vi den stadig økende aksept av dhimmi-status, en holdning som går ut på å gi avkall på egne verdier dersom de er i konflikt med islam for ikke å støte muslimer. Det tilfelle vi da kommenterte gjaldt Norge, men slike tendenser finnes også i USA.

29. mars skulle en studentgruppe assosiert med The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) arrangere en debatt om ytringsfrihet ved New York University, og utgangspunktet var de famøse Muhammed-tegningene.

Dette skulle være et åpent møte hvor også tegningene skulle vises frem. Her er en pressemelding fra ARI om arrangementet

Panel Discussion on the Danish Cartoons
Panelists: Peter Schwartz, former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute and author of The Foreign Policy of Self-Interest: A Moral Ideal for America; Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education; Andrew Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims; and Jonathan Leaf, New York Press editor who resigned over his paper's decision not to publish the Danish cartoons.

Moderator: Dr. Harry Binswanger, professor of philosophy and member of the Board of Directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.

What is planned: (1) A display of the controversial Danish cartoons depicting Mohammad. (2) A panel discussion and Q & A on the meaning of the worldwide reaction to the cartoons.

Where: New York University, 60 Washington Square South at NYU Kimmel Center, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium (4th Floor), NY, NY 10012
When: March 29, 2006, 7 to 10 PM

Summary: ARI's Peter Schwartz will participate in a panel discussion on the Mohammad cartoon controversy. He will explain: Why the eruption of violence and the issuance of death threats make completely irrelevant the question of whether the cartoons are in bad taste. Why the idea that freedom of the press must be "coupled with press responsibility" means that free speech is not a right, but a fleeting permission. Why every Western newspaper and media outlet should have immediately re-published or shown the cartoons in solidarity with the cartoonists. Why the cowardly and appeasing response of many Western governments--including our own--will only invite further aggression. Other panelists will present their own views.

Arrangementet ble utsatt for trusler, og arrangørene regnet med at ledelsen ved universitetet ville gjøre det som er vanlig og naturlig, nemlig sørge for de sikkerhetstiltak som var nødvendige for at arrangementet skulle kunne gjennomføres.

Men ledelsen nektet å gjøre det som var nødvendig for at møtet skulle gjennomføres. Møtet ble av ledelsen ved NYU omgjort fra et åpent møte til et møte som kun var tilgjengelig for personer tilknyttet NYU.

Her er pressemeldingen fra ARI om dette:
"In a seemingly mundane decision, New York University has sacrificed the principle underlying its flourishing and the survival of civilization--free speech," said Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute. NYU is refusing to protect a student group's right to display the Danish cartoons of Mohammad at a panel discussion on free speech on March 29.

The group's event was to be open to the public, but at the last minute NYU retreated. Under the pretense of maintaining campus security, the administration contradicted its own stated policy on free speech by requiring that, if the cartoons are displayed, the event be limited only to "members of the NYU community." The student group now must turn away more than 150 members of the public who had planned to attend the panel.

"The university's shameful appeasement of Muslim and anti- free-speech groups--which have vowed to protest the event-- underscores the urgent need to display the cartoons in defense of freedom of speech," said Dr. Brook.

"Free speech protects the rational mind: it is the freedom to think, to reach conclusions and express one's views without fear of coercion of any kind. And it must include the right to express unpopular and offensive views, including outright criticism of religion. NYU--which like other universities grants tenure to protect intellectual freedom--ought to recognize the crucial importance of this principle and defend it.

"If intimidation and threats are allowed to compel writers, cartoonists, thinkers and institutions of learning into self- censorship, the right to free speech is lost. If Muslims are allowed to pressure critics of Islam into silence, critics of religion will be next. And then everyone else."

Vi slutter oss helt til ARI i denne saken.

At en ledelse ved et universitet gir etter for press fra barbarer i et så viktig spørsmål som ytringsfrihet er en skandale. Det er tydelig at dhimmi-status er en ettertraktet tilstand ikke bare for norske lærere, men også for universitetsledere i USA.