One would think that mocking ISIS, now that the forces of the civilized world are closing in on the Islamic State, would be noncontroversial. ISIS, after all, practices sexual slavery, decapitates and burns prisoners alive, throws gay people off the roofs of buildings, and carries out mass casualty terrorist attacks around the world. However, as a 21-year-old law student named Robbie Travers at the University Of Edinburgh found out, that proposition would be wrong.
Mocking ISIS is Islamophobia?
The trouble started when Travers, on the occasion of the dropping of a MOAB on an ISIS tunnel complex in Afghanistan, exalted on his Facebook page, "I'm glad we could bring these barbarians a step closer to collecting their 72 virgins.” The sentiment was common across the world, weary of the megalomaniac threats being posed by ISIS and its string of increasingly grotesque crimes.
However, a second-year history student named Esme Allman choose to take offense.
Ms. Allman filed an official complaint with the university that stated, in part, that Travers “--puts minority students at risk and in a state of panic and fear while attending the University of Edinburgh.” The university is actually conducting a serious investigation of the matter.
Travers responds
Travers, for his part, believes that Allman is retaliating for calling Allman on allegedly stating that “Black men are trash.” Then, according to him, she added, “All men are trash.”
It should also be noted that by conflating mocking ISIS with Islamophobia, Allman is suggesting that members of ISIS are, in fact, mainstream Muslims.
She is implying, whether she knows it or not, that all Muslims rape women, murder gay people, chop off heads, burn people alive, and commit mass murder in European and American cities. She then goes on to suggest that being afraid of such people is a bad thing. One is forced to wonder what sort of history is being taught at the University of Edinburgh.
Why is the university taking this sort of thing seriously?
College students have believed stupid stuff since time immemorial and have not been shy about stating such beliefs. The role of universities has traditionally been to lead students like Allman from folly into some form of enlightenment so that they can function as sensible adults.
The University of Edinburgh seems to believe that its role is to take stupid stuff seriously. It is persecuting Mr. Travers and is doing Ms. Allman a disservice by conducting an “investigation.” Ms. Allman should be called in for counseling and be told that the opinions of others are none of her business, especially since she is alleged to have expressed a few of her own. Perhaps she should go someplace and think about how she is wasting the university’s time in this matter.
