There’s been a good deal of comment about the City University of New York law school student graduation speaker (Fatima Mousa Mohammed) who devoted a good deal of her speech to harshly condemning Israel and “Zionism,” as well as capitalism, the New York government, and America more generally. (I include the transcript of the speech and a link to the video at the end of this post.)
Beyond just the criticism, the CUNY Board of Trustees and Chancellor put out a statementsaying,
Free speech is precious, but often messy, and is vital to the foundation of higher education.
Hate speech, however, should not be confused with free speech and has no place on our campuses or in our city, our state or our nation.
The remarks by a student-selected speaker at the CUNY Law School graduation, unfortunately, fall into the category of hate speech as they were a public expression of hate toward people and communities based on their religion, race or political affiliation.
The Board of Trustees of the City University of New York condemns such hate speech.
This speech is particularly unacceptable at a ceremony celebrating the achievements of a wide diversity of graduates, and hurtful to the entire CUNY community, which was founded on the principle of equal access and opportunity. CUNY’s commitment to protecting and supporting our students has not wavered throughout our 175-year existence and we cannot and will not condone hateful rhetoric on our campuses.
A few thoughts: