Students at The George Washington University claiming responsibility for anti-Muslim fliers posted around campus this week say their intent was to expose, in a hyperbolic fashion, Islamophobic racism and not to perpetrate it.
Nonetheless, in a time when nooses are being displayed to intimidate minorities, the fliers had students and faculty on edge and propelled them to do more to promote tolerance on campus.
Rumaha Ahmed, a Muslim student at GWU, shuddered when she saw the fliers posted on a bulletin board outside her dormitory. The posters appeared all over the campus Monday morning with the message: DO YOU HATE MUSLIMS? SO DO WE!!!
Campus police quickly removed the posters that were emblazoned with a photo of an Arab, described as the “typical Muslim,” wearing a suicide vest and a hidden AK-47. The fliers stated, “To find more information come to ISLAMO-FASCISM-AWARENESS WEEK!!! For more information contact the Young America’s Foundation.”
Members of the Young America’s Foundation, a conservative group on campus, denied having any association with the posters, and the culprits remained anonymous until a group of seven GWU students sent an e-mail to the The Hatchet, the university newspaper, claiming responsibility for the posters.
“It is to our great dismay,” the e-mail stated, “that the student body and the media missed the clear, if subtle, message of the flier: the hyperbolic nature of the flier was aimed at exposing Islamophobic racism. The poster, even if taken seriously, was not intended to cause any real harm.”
University officials have not taken any action against the group. According to the university’s Assistant Director of Media Relations, Michelle Sherrard, the case is still under investigation.
