Calif. Student Sees Free Speech Double-Standard on Campus
by Jim Brown
February 15, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Kuwaiti Arab Muslim student is speaking out after his community college approved an article indirectly comparing him to Adolph Hitler.Last semester, Foothill College political science professor Joseph Woolcock flunked Ahmad Al Qloushi and ordered him to get psychological treatment because he wrote a pro-American essay as his take-home final exam. Standing his ground on the essay, Al Qloushi explained that if it were not for U.S. intervention into Kuwait when he was younger, he would not have had the opportunity for furthering his education. "I owe America a lot of gratitude and debt, and I refuse to bad-mouth this country in any way," he said at the time. (See earlier article)
Woolcock filed a school grievance against Al Qloushi, charging him with intimidation and harassment for mentioning his name to the media.
Now comes word that the Foothill College Student Activities Office has approved an article that labels Al Qloushi "irrational" and accuses him of endangering Woolcock. The 17-year-old freshman says he cannot understand why the school would allow a "terrible personal attack" on him.
"I'm sure that they wouldn't approve something if any other student was in my place or if there was a professor in my place," the student says. "I just don't understand why they would approve something which personally attacks me and compares me to one of the most evil dictators on the face of the earth."
Al Qloushi happens to be chairman of the campus group Foothill College Republicans. Administrators have told that group it is not allowed to include the school's name in a press release regarding its chairman.
"They said ... you cannot really say anything with the school's name on it without [following] publicity procedures," Al Qloushi explains. "It's amazing they do not approve of our press releases, yet they approve of a personal attack against me."
The international student says he finds that "somewhat hypocritical."
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
