Opinion

Why has the Collegian lacked any reporting on the sale of the Y Cross Ranch lately? The Wyoming papers, along with the UW student paper, are covering it. It’s something that seems like a big deal for the university.

The bit today about abortion? I’m going to assume that someone named “Cole” is male, and therefore runs no risk whatsoever of becoming pregnant. As such, maybe he should keep his stupid opinion to himself.

I was having a bad day Monday, and then I made the
mistake of opening the Collegian, which made it get a whole lot worse.
What I am referring to is the anti-Muslim ad that ran near the front
page. You know, the one for “Islamic Apartheid Week?” First, I want to
stress that I am not a religious man, although I have studied and
participated in many world religions and spiritual traditions
extensively both before attending
CSU. That being said, I would call myself an atheist if that didn’t
imply that I believe there are no gods or a God. The thing is, I don’t
know, and science can’t know either. Science and religion, just like
government and religion, ought to be separated. That is one reason why I
have a problem with an ad running in a newspaper at a public university
that is clearly part of a religious agenda, and a racist one at that.
Why racist?

Well, just as campaigns against languages are often masks for
racism, so are campaigns against individual religions. I do not know of
one major religion in which fundamentalist or orthodox members have not
committed atrocities against their own. Christians, Jews, Hindus, and
just about every other group has members that kill and abuse people-
people inside or outside of their group. I also do not know of any
major religion, including Islam, that does not have a little known and
beautiful esoteric or mystical tradition that includes meditation and
nonviolence. So why single out Islam? Well, there are a lot of reasons
for that. One reason may be that some groups of Christians need the
state of Israel because its existence is critical to their apocalypse
narrative, and they see Muslims as enemies of Israel. Maybe it was the
wave of anti-Muslim sentiment and propaganda that flooded our nation
post-911. Never mind that many (most?) terrorist attacks on U.S. soil
have been attempted or committed by white Americans.

The effect that this ad will have is that it will generate
hate against Muslims. It will not induce critical thinking. It helped
you pay your bills, let’s be frank. That it appeared during Holocaust
Awareness week is shameful. Would you have run an ad that questioned
Israeli abuses on the West Bank this week? How about an ad criticizing
the oppression of women by orthodox Jews? Would you run those ads any
week? I think not. I spoke with your advertising director today, and
she informed me that your ads are “student reviewed.” I questioned
this, as I wonder if the political or religious orientations of your
student reviewers would influence their decisions. Just as the
hypothetical ads I stated would be wrong because they take the crimes of
a few and attribute them to the entire group, so was today’s ad.

I want to clarify that I am not anti-Israel or
anti-Judaism, or pro-Muslim (although some will undoubtedly accuse me of
that). I am pro-human. I am not qualified to comment on the situation
in Israel. But I believe I am qualified, as a human being, to say that
killing, by anyone, of whatever religion is wrong, racism is wrong, and
singling out one group for something every other group of its type is
guilty of is wrong. The advertisement you ran is wrong, and you are
wrong for running it.

In my opinion.

Although I am open to listen to whatever opinion that may be published in this newspaper, I am slightly disappointed and confused because there are few, if any conservative-leaning columns. Why is that?