September 06, 2008
Irony: Muslim Student Group That Advocates Censorship Outraged Over Censorship
Last month the provost at the University of Southern California required the Muslim Student Union to remove a passage from an oft cited hadith calling for the murder of Christians and Jews which was hosted on the USC server.
The USC MSA is outraged over this censorship.
This would be the same group that was up in arms over the airing of Obsession and of Fitna.
And which 5 years after 9/11 still had up the testimony of Adam Pearlman on why he became a Muslim and changed his name to Yayihe Adam Gadahn.
I think USC is wrong in this instance. They should keep the offensive hadith up. Since it's considered authentic in nearly every corner of the Muslim world, it's an important reminder that both the original texts of Islam (Quran and hadiths) and the example of Muhammad (sunna) and his companions (sahaba) are steeped in violence. Censoring not only makes USC look bad, but it whitewashes Islam in the very way that many Muslims wish it to be whitewashed.
Related: USC Trojans beat Ohio State (next week's headline)
