I just got home from a class at University, signed onto the computer to check my email, got some emails from Facebook so logged in there. On the News Feed I saw that one of my friends had joined a group specific to my university: Demand FAU Denounce Employee Spitting on Muslim Student

Just from reading the title, I was shocked. So I clicked the link and read. Not only was I shocked about the incident, I was shocked that I hadn’t heard about it–in classes, on the news, etc.

The basic scenario: FAU had a guest speaker, Daniel Pipes, come speak. He was known for being anti-Muslim and Islam because of the terrorist attacks and extremist groups. A group of Muslim students got together to silently protest in front of the auditorium, holding signs. A professor at FAU attending Pipes’ talk told one of the the students “You don’t belong here” and then spat on her. The girl decided not to press charges because she didn’t want to be responsible for the professor’s termination but FAU has done nothing in response.

So I signed the petition: “A University is supposed to be a safe place for students to come and learn, grow, and expand as people. Every person is equal and has the right to express themselves unless it is harmful to somebody else. The student protesters were practicing under free speech and did nothing wrong. However, the professor DID do harm. If FAU does not do its part to eliminate these occurances, and make up for those that have, it goes against one of the biggest things students learn in university–that each and every person is equal. Instead, the university will be saying something completely different: that it is ok to discriminate against someone just because of their skin color, religion, ethnicity, race, and/or nationality. That isn’t what I want in my university.”

You don’t have to be a student there to sign the petition. In fact, it might help if non-students sign because it’ll show that the word is getting out and they can’t hide it. So, sign the petition?

See also: Muslim students draw backlash during protest