Irvine and the thin line between free and hate speech

UC Irvine has done something that many probably would never consider as an option for any campus in the UC system – it is recommending the suspension of a student organization on the grounds of hate speech. A Muslim student organization found it necessary to lie to campus officials about its involvement in an organized protest against Israel through the disruption of a speech given by an Israeli official. Yes, I am intentionally generalizing the details on this for a very good reason.

Consider this situation any way you like, inserting whatever group you like – switch Muslim and Israeli, if you like. Or maybe insert Christian and Atheist, or vice versa. Perhaps even Democrat and Republican. Then consider how outraged you happen to be with each situation.

The bottom line is that these students intentionally orchestrated an activity with the specific purpose of disrupting a school activity. The fact that it involved two specific racial groups that happen to be at war with each other exacerbated the situation, and raised the situation to not only a simple offense against school policies, but also made it an offense against laws forbidding hate crimes. They got lucky that they didn’t end up facing harassment and disturbing the peace charges with any applicable counts under hate crime statutes.

They should also consider themselves lucky that they are not at a school with much more stringent policies when it comes to making a mockery of the institution. That is precisely what they did. UC Irvine has suffered at least a little from this entire situation – it does nothing for their reputation with Israel, and undoubtedly other governmental entities.

The really disturbing situation is that student leaders have come out in defense of this group of students. Apparently the reputation of their institution is meaningless to them. If it was a matter of these students assembling outside the hall where this speech was given, carrying protest signs, it would be absolutely justifiable to defend their right to do so, assuming that they did so peacefully, without accosting anyone, or doing damage to any property. But interrupting a speaker on campus with hate-filled speech is utterly inappropriate, and indefensible.