On The DAILY’s website and across campus, Secular Humanists for Inquiry and FreeThought’s chalking of the Prophet Muhammad on Northwestern sidewalks Sunday night has sparked outrage, support and debate.
There can be no doubt that the action was provocative. We have to believe that SHIFT members knew this before they started chalking. That’s OK. According to SHIFT’s website, its mission is to “safeguard the freedom of expression by opposing censorship.” This action was a protest against censorship by religions and religious organizations. Protests often have to be offensive to achieve their goals. For this reason, The DAILY has no inherent problem with SHIFT’s actions, even though we understand why some students on campus are upset and offended. Similarly, though anti-abortion groups that use disturbing imagery may offend some people, that has a purpose. Especially on a campus like NU, where students are oftentimes not involved in political issues, a controversial action may be necessary to stimulate conversation.
What The DAILY does question, though, is how SHIFT went about this. From our point of view, the organization has been disorganized and lacking in communication. SHIFT may have drawn the images as a legitimate protest of what it considers to be oppression of free speech by religion. It never clearly communicated its ideas, however, so the chalking came across to many as a direct attack on Muslims in the NU community.
There are many ways SHIFT members could have been more clear and forthcoming. They could have met with the Muslim-cultural Students Association to discuss the ramifications of the chalking. They could have communicated through campus media what the drawings represented to them and, more importantly, what they didn’t represent. Perhaps most importantly, SHIFT could have found a way to protest religious oppression of free speech in a way that was clearly aimed at all religions, rather than an action that on the surface seemed a direct attack on a specific group of people. Instead of chalking 20 Muhammads, it could have diversified its targets.
A better understanding of what is going on around campus would have been beneficial as well. This week, students from Northwestern’s campus in Qatar are visiting Evanston to promote unity between the two academic communities. Some of these students are Muslim; what does it say to them when one of the first things they see upon arrival on campus is an image that has potential to seriously offend them? SHIFT may not care about this. But had it found out about the arrival of the Qatar students and planned its protest appropriately, it might have given SHIFT a better chance of being looked upon favorably by administrators and fellow students.
This is a university. It is a place where free speech and open debate is cherished and where students are able to express themselves as they want to, in private and in public. However, the NU community should also strive to make this a place where everyone feels welcome. The DAILY is OK with SHIFT taking an action that is offensive-we just want to know that it fully considered the consequences before it took the actions it did. We don’t know exactly what SHIFT’s thought process was when deciding to proceed with chalking-which is exactly the problem. The group could have offended fewer people and had a larger impact if it had been more clear what its intentions were.
