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Juan Williams Fired for Fear of Muslims

NPR fires Juan Williams over anti-Muslim remarks

Juan WilliamsOther than Fox, the media seems to be playing this as a just outcome because Williams violated an NPR’s code.  What code?  Williams was commenting to Bill O’Reilly about the Fox bigots all too blatant effort to provoke hate.  Williams said that he gets nervous when flying on a plane with people who are obviously Muslim.  Isn’t that a simple and valid admission of his own state of mind?  Are his concerns NOT representative of concerns many people have?

How would this be handled if a UW professor made a similar statement?  Personally, I feel very uncomfortable if I fly next to an obviously fundamentalist Christian , a Tea Party/NRA enthusiast or a lady wearing hijab or keffiyeh. This is especially true if, as often happens, I am flying with a kippah on my head.

Leaving aside my rights as a faculty member, shouldn’t every citizen have the right to state his or her real fears?  The UW, like NPR, purports to support free speech, but don’t we too have a code that enforces politically correct speech?


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