There’s a fun little scuffle going on at George Washington University. Conservatives on campus are planning an “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” soon, and — naturally — this has a lot of people in a tizzy. (It’s the equivalent of heresy to comment on the remarkable correlation between terrorists, dictatorships, and Islam. The race might not always go to the swift, the battle to the strong, and not all terrorists are Muslims, but that’s the way to bet.)
First up, the regular suspects all denounced the event. Then, a bunch of posters showed up around campus. They announced the event, proclaiming “HATE MUSLIMS? SO DO WE!” and featured a bunch of anti-Muslim sentiments.
This drove the regular suspects into absolute hysteria. Howls of outrage shook the campus, and several college officials talked openly of expelling the students responsible for it. The Young America’s Foundation — the sponsors of the Week — found themselves under heavy attack.
Then a rather inconvenient truth emerged: the posters were not the work of the YAF, or any of their supporters, but a “satire” cooked up by seven students who are staunch opponents of the YAF and their event.
So now the school is on the horns of a serious dilemma. They reacted very strongly (I would say overreacted) to the flyers, issuing all sorts of dire threats, when they thought that the conservatives were responsible for them. Now that the true perpetrators have been unmasked and the conservatives utterly exonerated (if not revealed as the true victims of the whole scam), will the school carry out the promised discipline? Will they let the “satirists” off with a slap on the wrist? Or will they just hope the whole thing just blows over?
This could be fun to watch.
