Provost C. L. Max Nikias has approved the deletion of part of a Muslim student group website that hosted religious documents urging Muslims to kill Jewish people. The material was
removed from a collection of scriptures known as hadiths, historical sayings of the Prophet Muhammad not included in the Quran. The hadith in question, along with thousands of others, are hosted in
their entirety on a USC server as part of the now defunct Muslim Student Association's website.
Nikias first heard of the hadiths' phrasing when Rabbi Aron Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human-rights organization, approached USC trustee Alan Casden with his concerns. Hier was
troubled by five hadiths advocating Muslim violence against Jews to hasten the coming of the "final hour."
Nikias reviewed the site, and responded that "the passage cited is truly despicable. … We did some investigations and have ordered the passage to be removed."
Personally I don't see why the Wiesenthal center had to make the fuss. This is religous texts, not an opinion piece or propaganda. And like one of the commentators mentioned you can't just take it out of context. In that case why don't they censor the Torah for saying that you should stone the man who lies with another man. That's incitement to homosexuals in just the same way. Except for the fact that one must understand the history and religious commentaries, and the oral law etc.
As Charlotte Korchak said, "is this really going to help?" In my opinion it only creates more tension and unnecessarily villainizes the Muslim groups.
It's interesting anyhow, the whole story. USC makes every organization sign a statement which includes not inciting violence, and that also goes for a student website. So USC needs to decide whether religion can be analyzed seperately or not. In this case they deemed Islam as inciting violence, the small decision has huge implcations for Muslim students at USC in how they now represent themselves.
But then again...two Jews three opinions right?
2 Comments
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#1
I have to say, I completely disagree. No religious group should be allowed to promote hatred or violence, whether it's part of their religious doctrine or not. Taking the phrase out of context may be a problem for students who do not read carefully into the text.
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#2
USC was founded by a Methodist horticulturist, an Irish Catholic pharmacist, and a German Jewish banker. These founders came from diverse backgrounds. They are fine examples of tolerance; not hate. Yet, hate appears to be the tone and root of the ‘text’ in question. Provost C. L. Max Nikias, understanding fully that USC is not about hate, acted in the best interest of the university and America. I am thankful he took this stand against hate, and had the text removed. Nikias did us Americans proud. Nikias' actions make me proud to be an American.
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