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.
You Are Commenting On This Post:
Students responsible for "Hate Muslims? So Do We" posters confess
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.
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.
Please remember that Campus Progress' terms of use do not allow promoting or endorsing any particular political party or candidate for office. Posts or comments that do this will be deleted.
!
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.