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Jihad鈥檚 Struggle at William Paterson University

In Arabic, 鈥渏ihad鈥 means 鈥渟truggle.鈥 On March 8, 2005, 63-year-old Jihad Daniel began his own struggle when he faced, yet again, an inbox flooded with unwanted university announcements and mass emails. A little irritated by the proliferation of announcements in his inbox that he never signed up for, he encountered one email promoting a film about a 鈥渓esbian relationship story鈥 that he felt called for a response. Indeed, the email itself had a prominent 鈥渕ail to鈥 line that linked to an email address belonging to the organizer of the event.
 
Not knowing who the organizer was, or even whether or not that person identified as a lesbian herself, Daniel proceeded to reply. His subject line was 鈥淗omosexuality鈥 and his email began, 鈥淒o not send me any mail about 鈥楥onnie and Sally鈥 and 鈥楢dam and Steve.鈥欌 Daniel continued, 鈥淭hese are perversions. The absence of God in higher education brings on confusion. That is why in these classes the Creator of the heavens and the earth is never mentioned.鈥
 
Daniel, a devout Muslim who has worked at William Paterson University for almost 15 years, felt it was appropriate and fair to state his religious objections when opting out of receiving email announcements that promoted a positive view of homosexuality. He wanted to make it clear that such unsolicited emails were never welcome in his inbox. Also, as a communication and media studies master鈥檚 student, Daniel felt secure that he had done the right thing by expressing his dissent and letting whomever had emailed him know that he did not want to receive any more emails鈥攁nd why. He firmly believed in exercising his First Amendment rights, and, in fact, had learned in depth about those very concepts as a student at William Paterson: he had taken a course at the university about constitutional law and the media.
 
Unfortunately, in June the university charged him with 鈥渄iscrimination鈥 and 鈥渉arassment鈥 for this one-time email to a professor he never even met because the professor, who turned out to be the chair of the women鈥檚 studies department, didn鈥檛 want to 鈥渇eel threatened at [her] place of work when [she] send[s] out announcements about events that address lesbian issues.鈥 Daniel attempted to defend himself and appeal the charges with reason and by asserting that he had First Amendment rights equal to any other individual on campus. However, he was found guilty as charged without even a fair hearing, and he was told that the charges would be placed in his permanent employee file.
 
Incredibly, in his letter of reprimand to Daniel, the president of the university claimed, 鈥淸S]ince the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of 鈥榩erversion鈥欌s clearly a 鈥榙erogatory or demeaning鈥 term as it was used in your email to refer to gay or lesbian individuals, that you violated the Interim State of New Jersey Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment or Hostile Environment in the Workplace.鈥 In his response to Daniel鈥檚 appeal, he further revealed, 鈥淣ot every utterance is protected under the [F]irst [A]mendment. Whether the State鈥檚 policy that prohibits 鈥榙erogatory and / or demeaning鈥 comments is at odds with constitutional protections of free speech is beyond the scope of this finding.鈥 Apparently, the university president chose to ignore the fact that as a public university, William Paterson is bound to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and that no 鈥渋nterim state policy鈥濃攐r any other local, university, or state regulation鈥攃an trump the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
 
Daniel had even written in his defense (quoted in 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 July 5 letter to William Paterson University), 鈥淚 responded to the unsolicited email as a student and in conjunction with the tenets embodied in the three Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. You cannot invite me to reply to something and then become offended because I do not respond the way you want me [to].鈥 And in his appeal, he questioned:

How and what [c]ourt of [l]aw would you charge someone with a dictionary definition? I used my [c]onstitutional First Amendment right of [f]reedom [e]xpression to make a statement about a situation and clarified why I felt that way i.e., 鈥淚t conflicted with my [r]eligious [b]eliefs.鈥 That was it! I [p]ut my idea in the market place of ideas along with many others. Universities and institutions of higher learning are known for their tolerance and ope[n]ness to all ideas, hence 鈥淸t]he market place of ideas.鈥

Despite Daniel鈥檚 efforts to use common sense to convince the university of his right to free speech and of his innocence, William Paterson continued to punish him鈥攚ithout even giving him a fair hearing before finding him guilty. FIREintervened with a letter in July (including the Office for Civil Rights July 28, 2003, letter, which provides the true and accurate definition of unlawful harassment) in hopes that the university then would realize the absurdity of the charges and end its unfair treatment of Daniel. Instead, the attorney general of New Jersey responded to 果冻传媒app官方 by staunchly defending the university鈥檚 decision and re-emphasizing the troubling claim that 鈥淸c]learly speech which violates a non-discrimination policy is not protected鈥 by the First Amendment.
 
As FIREstated in our letter and in today鈥檚 press release, William Paterson鈥檚 and the attorney general鈥檚 decision blatantly contradicts decades of Supreme Court precedent, and the university and the state cannot choose to ignore the First Amendment whenever it becomes inconvenient. In a blatant violation of the right to free speech, religious freedom, and due process, the university and the attorney general have deemed Daniel as guilty until proven innocent. Along with Jihad Daniel, FIREwill continue to struggle against such injustice.

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