Bob McCarty Writes

Does a double-standard exist at Saint Louis University? Recent events at the Jesuit university might cause you to believe one does.

This weekend, SLU’s Muslim Students’ Association hosted a three-day conference, “Saving Our Deen: Living a Muslim life in a not-so Muslim world,” at the school’s Busch Student Center. Part of the conference agenda — which included speakers from Chicago, Dallas, Maryland and Canada — was a 45-minute presentation entitled, “Recognizing Our Enemies,” by Shaykh Khalid Abdul Sattar of Maryland.

Three months ago, SLU officials blocked David Horowitz from coming to their campus to deliver a speech entitled, “An Evening with David Horowitz: Islamo-Fascism Awareness and Civil Rights.” They cited fears that his subject matter might include an attack on the Muslim faith.

Is there a difference between the two?  Without attending each presentation, I cannot say, so I decided to look deeper into the people and organizations behind each presentation.

In researching the background of the MSA, I learned that, according to this article, documents seized by the FBI and entered as evidence in a Texas court revealed that MSA is a legacy project of the Muslim Brotherhood.  In another article, this one by Douglas Farah, I learned the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda includes “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.” Violence.

In researching Horowitz’s background, I found the organization that bears his name (David Horowitz Freedom Center) was established to institutionalize his campaigns against the Left and its anti-Americanism and that DHFC’s mission is to defend the principles of individual freedom, the rule of law, private property, and limited government.  Non-violence.

Clearly, a double-standard exists at SLU.

Despite the fact that officials at SLU promote “an academic environment that values and promotes free, active and original intellectual inquiry among its faculty and students,” it appears they don’t follow through on everything in their school’s mission statement.  As a result, they’ve created a double-standard based on faith and “tolerance” that is detrimental to freedom of speech as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

To voice your concern(s) about this double-standard, contact the SLU official listed below:

Lawrence Biondi, S.J. (President)
biondi@slu.edu
(314) 977-7777