Yesterday’s scheduled speech by controversial author and human rights activist Nonie Darwish at Princeton University was canceled after the student groups sponsoring the event withdrew their support.
Darwish, founder of Arabs for Israel and Former Muslims United, has written critically of radical Islam, and many opponents argue her views extend to the religion overall. Her speeches have been met with protests on several other college campuses.
On Tuesday, Tigers For Israel and the American Whig-Cliosophic Society withdrew their sponsorship.
“She’s not anti-Islam. She makes very clear the distinction between radical Islam as an institution and the religion of Islam,” said sophomore Rafael Grinberg, co-vice president of TFI. He opposed the decision and attempted to bring Darwish to campus after the groups withdrew, though her speech was canceled.
Robert Day, a senior and the publisher of Princeton’s conservative magazine the Tory, which offered to sponsor the event instead, said that Darwish’s opinions were being “unduly silenced.”
“This is not an attempt to silence her,” said junior Addie Lerner, TFI president. “We did not want to associate ourselves as her sponsor because we didn’t want it to seem like we believe in her views on Islam in their entirety.”
When students raised concerns about Darwish’s views to the university’s Muslim Chaplain, Imam Sohaib Sultan, he passed along their thoughts — and a selection of Darwish’s more incendiary quotes — to Rabbi Julie Roth, the executive director of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life, and TFI, which later decided to drop its support.
“Any notion of Islamic intimidation is just ridiculous,” said Sultan, who said he reached out to raise awareness of the potential divisions Darwish’s speech could create on campus. “I never once pressured anyone to withdraw support from this event.”
Ben Weisman, a junior and Whig-Clio’s president, said that the group opposed Darwish’s views.
“Our decision to rescind our co-sponsorship was not based on pressure from any groups,” he said. “We fully understood the controversial and offensive nature of her views.
“Because TFI initially indicated through their invitation that they not only consider her views relevant enough in the mainstream discourse to be presented at Princeton, but also that there was possible support for these ideas, Whig-Clio deemed it worthwhile to bring this controversial figure to Whig Hall so that her views could be understood and challenged.
“After TFI pulled out, that justification sort of evaporated,” Weisman said.
Darwish was left without a venue because university policy requires events to be sponsored by student groups, Grinberg said.
“I decided though both groups were withdrawing, it was even more important to have her speak because I still think she’d have a very positive impact, and because at this point it’s important to show that at least for me, I’m not afraid of what other people think,” said Grinberg, who suggested that TFI was concerned about its public image.
The Tory offered to sponsor the speech, but it was canceled because Grinberg ran out of time to arrange for university security guards for Darwish after the initial groups withdrew, he said.
“The fact that someone holds such critical views of a particular religious faith should never justify the silencing of her opinion,” Day said. "(The Tory) believed this to be particularly important for a university that is committed to the promotion of open, intellectual discourse.”
University officials did not return phone calls on the matter.
TFI stands firm in its decision to rescind sponsorship. “This wasn’t anything we were pressured into. This was a long, thought-out decision,” Lerner said. “We’re standing up for what we believe in. We don’t believe in anti-Islam rhetoric.”