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University of Maryland cancels ‘American Sniper’ after Muslim students complain


To downplay the role of SEE at the university is hilarious. Their own page indicates that they are the entertainment venue for the university. The campus Republicans were in collaboration with SEE to show the film. It was not until another group started complaining did they back down and restrict the goals of the other campus groups. The film is no longer to be shown because privilege was given to the bullying tactics of one student group over the other.

If a disability student group was working with a student activity group in screening a film critiquing the conservative movement for its view of people with disabilities and the Republican student group pitched a fit about it and as a result the disability group couldn't air its film-that is a form of bullying, because now in its place the Republicans only wanted to inject themselves into the conversation without giving fair audience to the disability group.

That's the difference. Had they aired the film and then put in a moderated discussion or the like, that would not infringe on the Expression of the group's that wanted American Sniper to be shown. Instead you cut down on the ability to watch the film in favor of then allowing people to attack it. It's a power imbalance pure and simple.

It's antithetical to the purpose of the university.
 
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They should be showing Lone Survivor anyways it's a way better movie.
 
MrVicchio said:
Because they feared some people might not like it, they chose not to do it, freedom of choice to be intimidated!"
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No, it's the freedom to choose not to be an asshole. I know that's difficult for some to understand.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
They chose to show it, and then chose to not, to prevent a negative backlash. That's free speech. They weren't forced to not show it. They chose to.
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Freedoms and threats don't go together. One isn't exercising his freedoms when he is being threatened into exercising them.
Perhaps in your ideal world they do, but not in the free world.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
The University had the freedom to chose to screen this film. They chose not to. That isn't an attack on free speech, that is an example of it.
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It was closed as a result of charges of "Islamophobia", the catch-all term which frightens many groups into silence. Of course the Muslims on campus could have shown the good Islam has done throughout the world, its contributions to the science, the arts, and so on, but chose not too.

In fact, judging from the petition, none of them even saw the movie. But the University, as well as SEE, knows perfectly well what happens when Muslims become annoyed by any possible criticism, real or imagined.
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Muslim cartoon fury claims lives
 
Apocalypse said:
Freedoms and threats don't go together. One isn't exercising his freedoms when he is being threatened into exercising them.
Perhaps in your ideal world they do, but not in the free world.
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There were no threats.


This post has no substance.
 

Christians hate Muslims, and fundies on both sides are doing their damnedest to bring about a Christian/Muslim war that culminates in Armageddon.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
There were no threats.
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To quote you yourself; "They chose to show it, and then chose to not, to prevent a negative backlash".

No one says it isn't within their rights and freedoms to voice their protest against the film.
It's just that claiming the university exercised its "freedom of speech" when it decided not to show a film it first desired to show purely because they are fearing the repercussions from those who protested against the movie, it's quite bizarre to label it as "a great example of freedom of speech". It's a classic example of intimidation. Fully legal intimidation but intimidation nonetheless.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
A negative backlash means upsetting other students. It doesn't mean there were any threats.
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It seems you believe threats to only come in the form of a letter in the mail with the title "I know where you live".
Negative backlash is something to feel threatened by. They were threatened by the Muslim students' fury over the film and they were intimidated by this so to cancel the film. A university canceling a film because of protests from a group of people is always a bad sign and never a "perfect example of freedom".
 
Funny how post 43 is being ignored. Same old hypocrisy at play.
 

Does it not occur to you that "let's not insult people" is sometimes a motivation that others have?
 

A truly open environment would have presented bestiality porn. You're free to discuss and critique it.
 
Deuce said:
Does it not occur to you that "let's not insult people" is sometimes a motivation that others have?
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They seem to have insulted way more people by canceling the film than they would have if they went on with showing it if it made it to the news.
 
I'm personally on the fence with this. The simple truth is that it is just a movie and shouldn't decide or influence your own morals or beliefs. Not showing the movie will not really impact your life any more or less than the day before the movie was even a thought. I do think people should be careful about nationalistic themed movies that are part of the present day reality since it can stir up hatred and judgment if people take the film too personally or realistically. I understand the movie is based on a real person but even with that it's not something that must be seen or must be part of your day or life. Highly emotional movies can be a great way to learn perspective but we need to be careful not to let it influence us. If the movie gets cancelled then it gets cancelled. You can always watch it at home.
 
Deuce said:
A truly open environment would have presented bestiality porn. You're free to discuss and critique it.
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Islam and bestiality. huh? Not the first time the connection was made, and in fact the Ayatollah Khomeini wrote a book on the subject, outlining the proper etiquette.
 
Yeah, it's always just a movie. Or just a book. Or just a speech. And there will always be those who go along to get along, losing their freedoms chip by chip and never realizing when they are gone.
 
Grant said:
Yeah, it's always just a movie. Or just a book. Or just a speech. And there will always be those who go along to get along, losing their freedoms chip by chip and never realizing when they are gone.
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The movie itself is not banned or illegal or anything like that though so you can't really make a connection towards a lost freedom or lost luxury. The university has the right to determine what activities occur on campus based on whatever reason they agree on. I don't think it's chipping away at our freedoms as much as it is just making concessions that probably didn't need to be made. The hype made both for and against the movie by overly passionate people I think contributed mostly to the movie being so controversial. Many people saw the movie as almost a religious experience that should be shown on repeat and other people saw it as a movie that glamorized war and emboldened negative passions towards Muslims, and so with that the movie became polarizing. I honestly just don't see it as anything other than that.
 
The Muslim students had a fit, and the University caved like a spineless little bitch. So typical.
 
Erod said:
The university feared an attack on campus. Period.
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If there was an attack over the movie, it would be ironic considering the reasons behind the whining of the Muslim students.
 

Christians currently aren't the ones going into newspaper HQs and gunning down editors over cartoons. In fact, show me when they have ever done such things over anything you listed (in other words, no abortion clinic references).
 
Grant said:
People peacefully protested, the movie was shown anyway and no one was killed or injured. What more is there to say?
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Muslims peacefully protested, do tell.
 
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