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(ANAHEIM,
CA, 10/21/2004) - The Southern California office of
the Council
on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called the
results of an investigation into anti-Muslim remarks by
a college professor who suggested genocide against
Muslims a "whitewash."
Imperial
Valley College (IVC) in Imperial, Calif., failed to
reprimand a business management professor who suggested
that "the only way to end Islamic terrorism is to
eliminate the Islamic religion."
Despite the
offensive nature of the remarks, the college's report
recommends little more than the professor "take more
care in the future in linking current events to course
material."
Earlier this
month, a student in the professor's class initially
reported to CAIR-LA that the professor said, "The only
way to end the war on terrorism is to kill all Muslims."
When confronted by the student in class, the professor
allegedly disagreed with the student's statement that
most Muslims are good people and instead said the
majority of Muslims are terrorists.
The student,
an attorney of the Hindu faith, says that after he
challenged the professor's bigoted statements, he was
told to leave the class for being "disrespectful."
CAIR
requested in an October 8 letter to the college's
president that an investigation of the incident be
launched and that appropriate actions be taken.
Though IVC
promised to organize sensitivity training, reinstated
the student in the class and the professor apologized
for his "out of context" remarks, CAIR-LA says the
college did not adequately address the seriousness of
the incident. IVC's report even seemed to equate the
student's challenge to the offensive remarks with the
comments themselves.
"We thank
this courageous student for standing up for Islam and
Muslims," said CAIR-LA Communications Director Sabiha
Khan. "Unfortunately, Imperial Valley College's decision
to whitewash this incident sends the message that
suggesting genocide is acceptable on an American college
campus."
Khan called
on the college to publicly repudiate the professor's
remarks and, at a minimum, issue a formal reprimand.
CAIR,
America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is
headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 29 offices
nationwide and in Canada. CONTACT: CAIR-LA: Sabiha Khan, 714-776-1847 or
714-390-0334
IMMEDIATE
ACTION REQUESTED:
Contact
Imperial Valley College and ask that they publicly
repudiate the
professor's
remark and issue a formal reprimand to the professor.
CONTACT:
Dr. Paul Pai,
Ed.D.
Superintendent/President
Imperial
Valley College
380 E. Aten
Road, Building 10
Imperial, CA
92251
Tel:
760.355.6219
Fax:
760.355.6461
E-mail:
paul.pai@imperial.edu
COPY TO:
kendra.jeffcoat@imperial.edu,
shirley.bell@imperial.edu,
louis@yumyum98.com,
nadase@adelphia.net,
flickamarian@yahoo.com,
cardenasfifield@aol.com,
kgkeithly@keithlywilliams.com,
rjmedina@hotmail.com,
rlramirez@icoe.k12.ca.us,
cal@cair.com,
cair@cair-net.org
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PLEASE COPY, POST, DISTRIBUTE, AND ANNOUNCE -
NOTE: CAIR
offers an e-mail list designed to be a window to the
American
Muslim
community. Subscribers to the list, called CAIR-NET,
receive news
releases and
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on
issues of
importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE
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http://cair.biglist.com/cair-net/
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