What if someone broke into Berlin chapel and stole (and presumably slashed or burned up) the Torahs there. What do you think would happen? A fucking uproar, that’s what would happen.
Well, someone broke into the Muslim Student Association Lounge last Friday, hacked at the wall, and then stole a Koran. That’s a hate crime. There has been a hate crime on campus. Stealing (and presumably desecrating) a Koran is a big deal.
Where is the uproar? When a noose was found hanging in the UC San Diego library less than a month ago, there were protests and sit ins and sympathy strikes at other colleges. Here – what? There should be some big anti-bigot rally, or a big gathering in support of the islamic students on campus, or something. What are we going to do about all this? Is anything planned?
Update – I hear that there are early plans for some sort of solidarity meeting on Friday. I’m told: “Stay tuned”
Alex —
I assume the Brandeis police need to definitively establish a motive before they can call it a hate crime for legal reasons. But I don’t think that should keep us from being able to use common sense here. An explicitly religious site was broken into and nothing was stolen except its holiest text. I just don’t see how this could be anything but an attack on the campus Muslim community.
I am shocked and appalled to hear this. Please post any details of a response / solidarity meeting as soon as you know.
Sahar, we’re all angry, but I don’t think you can presume that the Quran taken was desecrated. Assigning motives at this point is premature, which is why the BranPo have yet to label this a hate crime.
I have faith that the Brandeis community will speak out fervently against this bigotry.
Sahar, I realize that you clarified a bit in your response to Mr. Cohen, put the original post did seem to come off as prematurely calling out hypocrisy. I have no problem noting when bigotry against one group is handled different than bigotry against another, but by doing it so early (and this is the tone that I as a reader got from the original post, not necessarily your intent)we risk cheapening the eventual reaction from a “Brandies does not stand for this” to “Brandeis does not want to be called out for hypocrisy so it will claim to not stand for this.”
No need to get into a debate here of course; if you clarify or respond in anyway I’d appreciate it, but ultimately I’m sure we can both agree that the communal response to the act in question is what’s important here, not some slight exception taken over a post about it.
Joseph, I wouldn’t go that far. The Justice isn’t neccarily an accurate measure of student sentiment. I don’t the campus is indifferent. What do you us/them to do? We don’t really do big flashy occupations or sit-ins or what not here, not in my years at Brandeis. There will be many conversations, perhaps some letters to the editor. There will probably be a forum called by the Student Union and a statement by the administration. Do I wish that more would happen, that we would use it as a teachable moment? Hell yes. Would I be disappointed in Brandeis’s character if it didn’t happen? No, let’s not confuse choice of tactics with values.
Furthermore, let’s not conflate the actions of one drunken lout with Brandeis. Brandeis is composed of all of us, not one of us. One idiot kid was a dick. Brandeis as a whole, 24 hours after the news “officially broke”, is starting to respond. Give us time, but if the response isn’t of the form that you’d like, well, we’re here to carve out our own future and our own way of doing things.
But yeah I’m pretty pissed too. Please don’t take it out on us, though.
I agree with both of you. I wonder if we don’t really know how to react (other than to publicize it in the papers) because it’s not something this schools sees often. Yeah, we have my shtick with the racial minorities, but I think both sides of that argument realize that it’s really nothing compare to a real hate crime.
This is a deplorable act, the harm of which is only compounded by the apparent indifference of the campus (presuming the de minimis coverage in the justice can be viewed as an accurate gauge of student response). As an alum I feel disappointed, as a supporter of the MSA I feel betrayed, but most of all I just feel sad that Brandeis is failing so blatantly to live up to its own purported values.