""While anti-Semitism has indeed been shunned by the civilized world, things are quite different in the Muslim/Arab world, because anti-Semitism is an integral part of their religion and culture.""
It takes a tremendous amount of ignorance, racism and stupidity to write something like that.
It takes poor, troubling judgment—based on a gross misreading of our nation's constitution and the responsibilities of reputable news organizations—to run an ad with that statement as its thesis.
But there's something else about that ad, which was printed in The Badger Herald Oct. 19, something we've heard in the days since it ran: A deafening silence.
Since the ad came from a group calling itself Facts and Logic About the Middle East was printed, we have waited for a response to it. And we have been sadly disappointed, as little more than scattered disapproval has echoed from our campus community after a vile, ignorant attack on our fellow Wisconsin students.
Sure, there have been statements against the ad at a student government meeting and there have been students who wrote directly to the newspaper responsible for running it. Their actions are commendable.
But the rest of our student body, including the multi-cultural student groups who have requested seven-figure budgets to handle situations just like these in which our fellow Badgers come under attack, has been disappointing in its lack of action.
There have not been, nor does it appear there will be, any discussions to address the problems of racism that act as the foundation of an ad like that one. There will not be any rallies on Bascom Hill or any panels in Union South to address the backward world view showcased in the pages of one of our campus newspapers.
There will be none of that because Muslim students on this campus are so few in number, and it would sadly appear, have so few allies that even the student groups created to respond to controversies such as this one are making their voices heard loud and clear through a troubling and disappointing silence.
This board and this student body are part of a community that prides itself on coming together when outside forces challenge us with racism and ignorance.
We did it when Bradley Smith and his national group of anti-Semites placed an ad in the Herald denying the Holocaust.
We did it when the Center for Equal Opportunity launched an attack on our university's already meager efforts to diversify Wisconsin's student body.
But when FLAME, a national group with a PO Box in San Francisco, hurls ignorance and stupidity at our fellow students, our campus responds not with the deafaning roar of a univeristy united, but the whimper of a few people standing alone.
So to the Muslim students of this university, to our colleagues and our classmates, our board says this: We stand with you. We stand against bigotry and hatred. We stand against FLAME and against The Badger Herald's decision.
It goes without saying that this newspaper would have never allowed an ad such as FLAME's to disgrace its pages, that we would have declined the group's message and its money.
The Daily Cardinal believes in free speech and holds dear the values of open debate, but we will never support or condone content that attacks our fellow students. We will not dignify print material built upon ignorance and stupidity.
What should also go without saying, though, is that Wisconsin students as a whole will not stand for such bigotry either. It should be a foregone conclusion that Badgers will rise up and defend their fellow students when they come under attack.
Regrettably, that has not been the case in the past week, and that's something we must act to change. Our Muslim students, like other students of color and students of Jewish descent, must know that our university respects their faith and their beliefs, and dismisses as hopelessly misguided the ideas expressed in FLAME's ad.
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