UWM Defuses Walid Shoebat Controversy

620 WTMJ reports that UWM has refused to give in to the Muslim Student Association and its demand to cancel Walid Shoebat's appearnce.

The Shoebat event scheduled for December 4 is a go.

University officials really had no choice once they were outed and the story became major news. UWM had to reverse course when their under-handed attempt to ensure the cancellation of Shoebat's appearance by charging the sponsor of the event, student group the Conservative Union, an exorbitant security fee was revealed.

The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee has decided it will no longer charge a student organization a security fee for a speech planned on campus next week. The speech by Walid Shoebat caused controversy after a Muslim student group argued that it could cause hate toward Muslims on campus.

Here's UWM's explanation for its flip flop:

Statement from UW-Milwaukee Administration:

UWM Union Modifies Policy on Speaker Security Charges

From the beginning of our planning for the Dec. 4 appearance of Walid Shoebat at the UW-Milwaukee Union, campus officials have been most concerned with the safety of students and the others who will be coming to our university to attend the event. A safety plan for the event was created by the Division of Student Affairs after reviewing the experiences of other universities where Mr. Shoebat appeared. The cost for the required additional security services was based on a fee-recovery program developed by UWM Union officials over the summer.

It has become clear, however, that the additional security expenses have been perceived by some as a means to discourage speakers from visiting the UWM campus. Simply stated, that is not the case. UWM is committed to its long-standing practice of welcoming and encouraging discussion and debate of all issues no matter how controversial.

To ensure that the UWM Union remains a place where ideas are freely exchanged, the Union will explore other methods to recover such expenses. As a result of this policy change, the Union is canceling the additional security charges that were to have been applied to next Tuesday’s Shoebat speech sponsored by the Conservative Union and to a forum on the same day sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.

Throughout its history, UWM has kept its doors open to people expressing a myriad of perspectives. A particularly significant example was the Nov. 23, 1965, appearance of Martin Luther King, Jr. at UWM, which required extraordinary safety measures. In the following years, the university has welcomed numerous speakers who represented many perspectives. We will continue to do so in order to preserve and protect the right to free speech and, when necessary, we will take precautions to ensure the safety of all involved.

Blah, blah, blah.

You know the administration feels its back was against the wall on this one if it felt the need to raise civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example of the campus opening its doors to speakers with different perspectives. It seems tossed in there to deflect attention from the controversy at hand.

As far as the added security required for the Shoebat event, there's really no reason for "campus officials [to] have been most concerned with the safety of students and the others who will be coming to [UWM] to attend the event."

Shoebat has appeared all over the country and the world without incident.

Including: Chile, Mexico, Canada, UK and South Africa. He has appeared on national television also all over the world including CNN, CNN International, FOX News, ITN, RTE, NBC, CBS, and ABC. He has also been featured on BBC radio 4 and 5.

Speaking Highlights:

Harvard Law School lecture

Special forum on Capital Hill Washington DC

Columbia Unversity lecture

Concordia University

UCLA, USC, University of Georgia, Washington University, Penn State, San Diego State and many others.

Keynote address to more than 700 Jewish leaders and rabbis from all over the world and North America at its Partners Conference in Stamford, CT, which is the highlight of Aish's calendar, and again in New York later in November.

Encounter conference, largest gathering of orthodox Jews in UK.

Jewish communities of St Petersburg, Memphis, St Louis, Scranton, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Albany, Dallas, Tampa, W. Palm Beach, Seattle, Cincinnati, Toronto, Motreal, Winnepeg, Calgary, Vancouver, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rockville MD, Atlanta, St Louis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and soon Las Vegas and Cleveland.

The safety excuse is exactly that -- an excuse.

The UWM administration is putting on a holier than thou act now, but I think they were hostile to the idea of Shoebat speaking on campus.

For some reason, some vocal students and officials consider it threatening to have an event featuring a former terrorist who has seen the error of his ways. There's no evidence to suggest that having Shoebat come to the university to speak out against Jihad poses a security risk and endangers students.

Shoebat's message doesn't incite violence.

RADICAL Islam's message is the security risk.