protest and profess

Sometimes it can be exhaustingly overwhelming to say what you think, which is why I haven't posted in awhile.

While rummaging through photo files at work I found this one of protesters perched on the Alma Mater with signs on stopping US intervention in El Salvador , probably during the 80’s. In a way it’s an appropriate find with everything that has been happening on our campus lately. Sum of evens from the last several weeks:

• Ahmadinejad is invited to speak on campus in late September, invitation revoked days later due to security reasons, people are pissed either because the invitation was made or because he didn't speak,; generally everyone sort of shrugs.
• Last Wednesday the College Rupublicans intive Minutemen fro the US-Mexican border to speak on campus; people are pissed and some caused a commotion on stage; Columbia on National TV and FOX news thinks we're a bunch of punks and Jon Stewart makes fun of us; protesters may face possible consequences and the theme of the semester is now free speech. Less shrugging this time.
• This Wednesday, College Republicans invite Wallid Shoebat, a former PLO member, came to speak on campus with a couple of his buddies (another ex-PLO and a former Nazi) about how they became sympathetic with the Israeli cause; 120 people are not let into the auditorium which causes more pissage; notably, Zacharias Anani (the other ex-PLO) makes a statement about how the only true Muslims are terrorist Muslims, while everyone else is ignorant. Naturally, people are not pleased.

There are quite a few side-stories that have stemmed off this, but the Bwog (the Columbia Blue & White blog -- and it's gotten tons of commentary) has plenty more details as does the Columbia Spectator; IvyLeak has also been making postings of its own about the situation. My favorite headline from them: "It's 1968 at Columbia, and there's reason to live again."

(On the upside for the University, two professors have received Nobel prizes.)


The amazing thing about being on a campus that suddenly has crazy spouts of activism is that you have this opportunity to see what causes things to go wrong, where support lies on various issues that affect a majority of the student body, and at the same time you're exposed more to a way people think. My awareness of politics while on this campus has definitely heightened, but also the more I see the more things seem to cloud, and the more disappointed I am with the way activism takes place on this campus. What the protest organizers lack is a form of more intelligent argument -- certainly, a physical commotion will get you all over television, but what good is a brawl if it comes in halfway through the speaker's argument? And whatever happened to asking questions? With these guys I'm sure if the protesters had orginized some strategic questions to ask during the actual event they would have had some positive effects, and things would have been less animalistic. Admittedly, however, things are more interesting when people rush a stage and make a ruckus.

I guess a question I've been trying to define for myself is, What is bad activism? Perhaps the Minutemen incident could be an example, but at the same time wouldn't it grab more attention as opposed to a progressive Q&A? How effective is this sort of thing anyway?

To diverge, there was then the Shoebat event, which felt increasingly uncomfortable being among a crowd that constantly clapped when he or Anani referred to Islam and criticized the religion. While the audience did ask questions concerning how the religion could assimilate itself peacefully into modern society, they did not offer any true solution. While many Muslims has been trying especially to knock Islam's bad rep since the beginning of the 21st century, it's sort of disappointing that they could not see much possibility (due to Islam being a practice of religion and politics, one of the speakers claimed). When Shoebat got particularly excited, the first thing he said was, "Any Muslim could convert to Christianity!" or something similar, which many people confused with "Every Muslim should convert to Christianity!" It was probably not the best example of human rights he should have made.

So politically on campus it's been quite a month, and while increasingly I've found myself looking more for a definition of where to stand on these things, especially after talking to other students about these issues (they've come up on Wallach 2C a bit, and once religion comes into the picture it doesn't end). I think I end up coming out of these situations with more questions than answers, but perhaps for now that's not such a bad thing.