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Students responsible for "Hate Muslims? So Do We" posters confess
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The students who canvassed GW’s campus with anti-Muslim posters Monday sent a letter to the GW Hatchet today admitting their role in the controversy.

Hate Muslims?  So Do We!

 

We’d all realized that the posters were a satirical shot at Campus Progress’ archenemy, the Young America’s Foundation, which is sponsoring Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week at 140 campuses around the country from October 22-26, including GW where Campus Progress’ other archenemy David Horowitz will be speaking. But at least now we know who the students responsible for the posters were. One was Adam Kokesh, “a graduate student and Iraq War veteran, [who] gained celebrity over the past year because of his vocal opposition to the war.”

Kokesh and six other students wrote in an e-mail to the Hatchet:

"It is to our great dismay that the student body and the media missed the clear, if subtle, message of our flier: the hyperbolic nature of the flier was aimed at exposing Islamophobic racism.

There’s still a great debate raging on Jenny Odegard’s original blog post on this Monday about whether this satire is funny, whether racism is ever funny, and shitting on Paris Hilton.


Reader Comments
  
poor taste
By Jenny Odegard Oct 11th 2007 at 9:47 am EDT
I hope that the student's "great dismay" is in response to the fact that they realize the poster was done in poor taste and was not an effective piece of satire.

Putting other organizations, including GW's logo, on the poster placed the responsibility on other parties, confusing the message and making suggestions about the school's own politics.
In addition, the message they sent was not a clear, concise objection to religious discrimination. Instead, they posted something that was a mixed message of sort-of-jokes and familiar anti-terrorist rhetoric (hatred towards women has been said countless times, and we've all been through an airport security line).

The Muslim student group at GW already made a statement saying that the posters were hurtful, which is reason enough for me to say that the people responsible did more harm than good.

I stand by my statement that there are better ways to have a conversation about anti-Islamic sentiments.
Re: poor taste
By Guy Oct 11th 2007 at 10:04 am EDT
Of course I have to disagree with you Jenny. Though of poor taste and hurtful to the Muslims, it did open up dialog. I've had talks now that I normal wouldn't have had. And look at your last post, probably one of the highest commented blog posts in a long time.

Why is everyone up in arms about the poster but not about the Islamo-fascism week?

Did anyone google that video at the bottom of the poster either? Link
  
Here is where we get it wrong
By Brian Oct 11th 2007 at 11:31 am EDT
I'd have to agree with Guy on this one as to asking why everyone is so up in arms over this poster but not about the event that caused this poster's comming into being? As with the General Petreus/betray-us controversy created by MoveOn, we keep getting it wrong when it comes to generating debate and we always stand by it! The MoveOn ad was basically to say that we should question the testimony on the surge given by the General. It turned into a debate as to whether or not the left supports the troops if they stand by this ad (Ironically those criticizing our support of the troops aren't questioning Rush Limbaugh's support but that's for another time). Same with this poster, while I do agree that it was satire, I think it could have been done differently to expose the racism of the event in question but to also not get too close to seeming racist itself. I'm tired of being criticized by Fox News and Conservatives and (although hypocritical) having them be right. If we want to spur discussion, let's not give Conserviative ammunition.
Re: Here is where we get it wrong
By Superduperficial Oct 11th 2007 at 11:43 am EDT
The use of the word 'Betray' in the MoveOn ad was colossally stupid.

Also stupid is the idea held by some that if, on a given issue, we simply push our side hard enough, that means we win, and thus any given mini-scandal that turns out badly for us just means we didn't push hard enough.
Re: Here is where we get it wrong
By ryad Oct 11th 2007 at 10:17 pm EDT
Please take the time to go and actually read/listen to the ENTIRE commentary by Limbaugh before questioning is support of the troops. If you do so you will find out that Media Matters took the quote completely out of context (the phrase "Phony Soldiers" coming from ABC originally) and decided to translate it into something completely different.

Mr Limbaugh was referring to ACTUAL "Phony Soldiers" and not participating in name calling of liberal solders. Phony soldiers being people who:

- claimed to be a soldier but never served

and

- people who completely lied about the extent of their service
(He was actually referring specifically to Jesse Macbeth in this particular instance. He is the guy who washed out before the end of boot camp, 44 days into his service, while claiming to have been ordered to kill innocent civilians in Iraq, a country he had never been to)

and

-the mayor of Atlantic city who claimied to be a Green Barret and ended up getting $25k in additional salary because of it.

and
-any other person who lies about their (nonexistant) service to our country to further their political cause


He was NOT name-calling democratic soldiers that do not believe in the war. Soldiers, whether conservative or liberal have every right to voice their opinion whether for or against this war, especially since they are the ones that give their lives to make sure we all keep that right. He is very vocal about this point.
Re: Here is where we get it wrong
By Brian Oct 12th 2007 at 2:26 pm EDT
Perhaps you should listen to the comments of Rush Limbaugh again. Yes he did mention that example of (at that point in the program) a "phony solder". However the clip in question is when he is speaking with a caller and (here is where the context really sets in) the caller make the claim that if one were to speak to a "real" soldier that said soldier would be for the war and Rush agreed whole hartedly and repeated his "phoney soldier" remark with the implication that cannot be denied that any soldier who is against this war is not a real soldier at all. So take your feelings of admiration for Limbaugh and bury it!
Re: Here is where we get it wrong
By ryad Oct 12th 2007 at 7:55 pm EDT
The (mis)quote directly from media matters website:

"CALLER 2: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.

LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.

CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve."
---- End quote

Caller 2 (line 1) is DIRECTLY speaking about the talking points that Limbaugh spoke about (which are not quoted in the media matters press release) The caller probably should have not used the word "never" in their statement because there are soldiers out there that do not believe in the war, though a huge majority do believe in it seeing as how a large portion signed up during the war. The ones that go overboard like the "soldier" in question have quite often been "phony soldiers" (in the literal sense of the phrase) because that is all that the FAR left can come up with to spew their talking points. The fact is that most Americans including democrats do not believe in what the far left (or right for that matter) are saying.

The phrase "phony soldiers" had already been defined by both Limbaugh and ABC (which is where he stole the phrase from) to mean literally people who claimed to be soldiers but were not. Now how can you state that in this case he means something completely different? Put the clip in context of the show. During the show he brings up this criminal who he labels a phony soldier.

The caller says "they never talk to real soldiers". The "they" that they are referring to is moveon.org, media matters etc, the liberal non profit companies that make advertisements with the phony solders talking or being quoted in them. Per the comment earlier that it was plural "soldiers", you are absolutely correct, it was plural. According to the VA there about a dozen ongoing cases totaling about 1.4 million in fraud due to phony soldiers. This was all being discussed on the show.

I was listening to the show and I knew exactly what he was talking about. I have never heard him say anything but great things about our soldiers, including ones that do not believe in his politics.
Re: Here is where we get it wrong
By Brian Oct 14th 2007 at 1:12 am EDT
Just because there was one case in which a "spokesperson" did not have the "credentials" of a soldier doesn't mean that every time there is an anti-war voice comming from those who have served, that that voice is from a "phony soldier". Again the implication being that only "real" soldiers are for the war. Check out VoteVets.org and other websites that speak for the anti-war voice of our veterans. Although since you're such an apologist for Rush I doubt you will since apparently Rush beleives that VoteVets.org is akin to suicide bombers in their tactics. At least when MoveOn was caught with their pants down on their NY Times ad in terms of payment, they rectified the situation by paying the difference. Rush simply digs a hole for himself.
Re: Here is where we get it wrong
By ryad Oct 17th 2007 at 12:01 am EDT
"doesn't mean that every time there is an anti-war voice coming from those who have served, that that voice is from a "phony soldier"."

EXACTLY MY POINT!. He said nothing of that sort! Rush has been pro troops since long before this war! The only time you will hear him say something defamatory about anyone in the military about their contribution, liberal or conservative, is towards a particular person when that person is doing something hurt the troops. (ie: calling them killers or rapists) I would be completely out of character for Rush to have meant what Media Matters said he meant. Votevets and other EXTREME liberal organizations have the potential of quoting potentially hundreds or thousands of troops that are against the war but that is not good enough for them. Instead they decide to go out and find the biggest nutjob they can to say the most extreme things that are COMPLETELY ANTI-TROOPS and Anti American. They got caught in their lies and Rush decided to let everyone know. He coins the phrase phony soldiers. Again since you did not seem to get it before, he had already spoken of "phony soldiers", it was a literal definition and he was using that phrase to combat those people who were slandering our military and/or stealing from our country. Why would he have felt the need to define it again everyone who listens knew what he was talking about.


Also, Moveon paying the difference was the dumbest thing I have heard in years... Moveon was caught with their pants down regarding the slander of a great American, but it was the NY Times who was caught with their paints down because of this "mistake". Because of that leftist bias, they caused a potentially huge sales problem when everyone and their brother, rightfully so, wanted that rate.

Once a service has been paid for and rendered, the NY Times had no right to even ask for the difference from Moveon or Juliani.



"Check out VoteVets.org and other websites that speak for the anti-war voice of our veterans. Although since you're such an apologist for Rush I doubt you will"

How the hell do you think that I ended up here?? I have been all through them. I am completely fine with them quoting the people that I believe to be heroes in my eyes. And yes I am refering to the ant-war soldiers. Anyone who risks their life for my freedom, whether liberal or conservative is a hero in my book, and in Rush's.

Again, the only issue is that extremists groups lie and while doing so hurt America and our soldiers. I highly doubt you would agree with me on such a simple obvious point since you are obviously an extremist left moveon.org apologist.
  
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