From PipelineNews:
May 17, 2007 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – During the height of the Danish cartoon controversy imam Khalid Latif – an advisory board member of New York’s proposed Khalil Gibran school [and chaplain at NYU, NYPD and Rutgers university] – protested a NYU student group’s intent to display the drawings by drafting an incendiary letter to university’s president John Sexton which contained veiled threats of violence.
“Dear President Sexton,
I hope all is well with you
I am writing to you in regards to an event that is scheduled to take place next Wednesday at New York University. This event is being sponsored by the Objectivist Club, an OSA club, and its purpose is to analyze the issue of free speech with an emphasis put on a series of cartoons recently published in a Danish newspaper that depicted the Prophet Muhammad , peace be upon him, and Islam in a highly offensive manner. These cartoons have lead to riots, protests, beatings, and even deaths on an international level and now the idea is being discussed whether or not they should be displayed at NYU at the aforementioned event…As such, I am asking you to not allow these cartoons to be displayed in any shape or form. The event itself and the topic that the students would like to discuss is not problematic in any way, but the pictures themselves are just hatred and there is really no justification in preaching something that breeds that kind of hate. One of the images shows what the author claims to be a rendering of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban that is shaped like a bomb, making it seem as if Islam is a religion that can be equated to terrorism. If ideas like that are not enough to keep these images from being displayed, the potential of what might happen after they are shown is something else that should be considered and not taken lightly.
As Chaplain for the Muslim community at NYU, my primary concern would be for those undergrads, grad students, faculty, staff, and admins who are Muslim and what kind of state displaying these cartoons would leave them in…
Aside from that, the repercussions that would take place outside of the university setting are potentially huge. All over the world Muslims have been coming together over this issue and in New York they would not hesitate in doing the same thing. New York itself is also one of the most metropolitan cities in the world and media attention that would be acquired would not limit itself to the city, but could go across the nation and even around the world as it already has with issues pertaining to these cartoons. NYU has facilities all over the world and Muslims also live all over the world. At that point in time no one will be thinking about the objectivist club that is an OSA organization made up of ten or twenty students. Rather, at that time all people will be thinking about is New York University and the decision it made. That decision however has not been made yet and I pray that, God-willing, when it is made, it will be the best one.
Best regards,
Khalid Latif
Emphasis mine.
I was going to say that it was a thinly veiled threat but let’s face it, Khalid Latif is being pretty up front with NYU. This man sits on the advisory board of a NYC public school even though he’s threatened NYU with violence, in fact according to the article he’s still employed by NYU! I’m not a proponent of any “themed” school, especially after working with kids from the Harvey Milk school and the Millennium Arts Academy but this one seems especially odious. The principal is rumored to be a 9-11 denier (though I’m not sure that’s the case) and most of those involved are proponents of the “Muslims as eternal victims” ideology that appeals to the vanity of white liberals and excuses the most vile acts of individual Muslims as “acts of desperation.”
But Latif’s letter to the NYU president is the clearest indication of the dangerous nature of those involved. Latif threatened violence against one of America’s most respected college institutions and their resources abroad and was able to garner international support from radical Muslims known to support Jihadism:
The circulating list also contained an endorsement of Latif’s actions by Yvonne Ridley a Muslim convert who is active in left-wing UK politics and has distinguished herself as a vile anti-Semite as well as being a supporter of suicide bombing.
“I did tell the students that I would try and rally support overseas – so let’s show the NYU administration that if they mess with our brothers and sisters in New York they mess with all of us. The following is a letter that has already been sent to President Sexton earlier by the imam of the Islamic centre.
Your sister in Islam
Yvonne Ridley”[source http://tajdeed-list.net/pipermail/activists_tajdeed-list.net/2006-March/000055.html
Yvonne Ridley is a “feminist” Muslim convert with a sordid history of supporting violent Jihadism so support from her could be rightly interpreted as threatening.
Is this the kind of man who should be advising a NYC school? Are these the kind of actions parents would be comfortable with from a person who will influence the curriculum of their children’s school? Is this safe, for the kids or the city? I don’t think so. One thing is for certain, if this school is launched with Latif on its advisory board, and more schools follow, one day people will be calling Brooklyn “Brooklynistan” and I’ll be moving out of the city permanently.
