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Metro Detroit
MSU prof's e-mail outrages Muslims
Speech protected, school tells students
April 25, 2006
Email this Print this BY LORI HIGGINS and NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Indrek Wichman says he has regrets about the message to a Muslim student group. The students want him disciplined.
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How should MSU respond to professor's comments?
What the professor's e-mail said
The following is the text of the Feb. 28 e-mail Michigan State University professor Indrek Wichman sent to an Islamic student group.
The message is printed as Wichman wrote it. Paragraph breaks were added.
Dear Moslem Association: As a professor of Mechanical Engineering here at MSU I intened to protest your protest.
I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches, the continued persecution of Coptic Christians in Egypt, the imposition of Sharia law on non-Muslims, the rapes of Scandinavain girls and women (called "whores" in your culture), the murder of film directors in Holland, and the rioting and looting in Paris France.
This is what offends me, a soft-spoken person and academic, and many, many, many of my colleagues. I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile "protests."
If you do not like the values of the West -- see the 1st Ammendment -- you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans.
Cordially, I. S. Wichman, Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Comments from other outspoken teachers
Last month, University of Texas biology professor Eric Pianka's comments caused a stir after a report that he advocated death for 90% of the world's population as a means to save the Earth.
After a speech on shrinking animal habitats and the explosion of the human population, the Gazette-Enterprise of Seguin, Texas, quoted Pianka as saying that disease "will control the scourge of humanity."
"HIV is too slow," he said, adding that an Ebola pandemic could wipe out much of the human population.
University of Texas officials didn't plan to take action, citing First Amendment rights.
Last month, the University of Leeds in England suspended lecturer Frank Ellis after he told the student newspaper that he supported a theory that blacks are genetically inferior to whites and that women don't have the same intellectual capacity as men. Disciplinary proceedings were launched.
Earlier this year, Northwestern University engineering professor Arthur Butz came under fire for commending Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertion that the Holocaust is a myth. University President Henry Bienan said Butz has a right to free speech.
Last year, University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill came under fire for an essay he wrote after 9/11, asserting that some of the World Trade Center victims were like Nazis who enabled the Holocaust. Because Churchill has tenure, his comments weren't enough to cost him his job.
Sources: Associated Press, Guardian, Rocky Mountain News, WMAQ in Chicago
E-mail excerpts: 'You are free to leave'
"I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders..."
"I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' "
"... You are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option."
An Islamic student group at Michigan State University demanded Monday that university officials publicly reprimand a professor whose Feb. 28 e-mail called on Muslims who don't "like the values of the West" to leave the United States.
But MSU officials said there's little that can be done to punish Indrek Wichman, 55, a tenured professor of mechanical engineering, because his comments essentially constitute free speech. Wichman sent the message to the Muslim Students' Association of Michigan State University while it handed out free cocoa during a public awareness event about controversial cartoons that depicted Islam's founder as a terrorist.
The cartoons, one of which depicted Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, sparked violent protests and riots around the world in February.
"I am offended not by cartoons, but by more mundane things like beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders," Wichman wrote.
He went on to say: "I counsul you dissatisfied, agressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' "
The Muslim Students' Association, along with 12 other student and advocacy groups, called Monday for the university to issue a letter of reprimand. They have met several times with university officials since Feb. 28 and went public with the e-mail Monday because the school had not acted.
Terry Denbow, spokesman for MSU, said Wichman's views in no way represent the university's views. But, he said, they do not violate the university's antidiscrimination policy.
"He was cautioned that any additional commentary ... could constitute the creation of a hostile environment, and that could ... form the basis of a complaint" under the policy, Denbow said.
He said he considers the comments "very inappropriate. And I personally wish he would apologize to the students."
To Farhan Abdul Azeez, an MSU senior studying human biology and the president of the student association, the e-mail was startling.
"Naturally, I was very upset. I was disgusted. All of those emotions went through my body," said Azeez, 20, of Canton.
In addition to a reprimand, the student group wants the university to implement diversity training programs for faculty and a mandatory freshman seminar on hate and discrimination.
"The best way to limit or to kind of defuse hate is through education, no doubt," said Maryam Khalil, 18, a sophomore from East Lansing studying journalism. Khalil is vice president of the association.
Denbow said discussions with students about sensitivity training are ongoing.
"We're not only willing to, but eager to listen to the students. Their commentary to date has been thoughtful," Denbow said.
Reached at home Monday evening, Wichman said he had regrets.
"I used strong language in a private communication that I would certainly not have used if this communication would have gone public," he said.
But he stressed the importance of free speech.
"I believe very strongly in free speech and free expression. It is one of the building blocks of this great republic in which we live. And any attempts to abridge or diminish it are serious matters."
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also is urging the university to take "appropriate disciplinary" action, saying the e-mail creates a hostile learning environment for students.
"It was upsetting, yet sad" that a tenured professor could make such comments, said Dawud Walid, executive director of the council. "It's scary when you think about the power that this gentleman has" as a professor.
Walid said that MSU has the academic and moral obligation to publicly denounce the e-mail, conduct a formal investigation and have sensitivity training on how to deal with Muslims on campus.
The university should "strongly and publicly disassociate themselves from the statement," Walid said.
Azeez said education is most important.
"There's a bigger problem here of racism and discrimination at Michigan State University. Faculty training and sensitivity training are very important to help prevent future incidents like this from occurring
