In this sense, I have never felt more personally dehumanized and vulnerable on campus as when I saw the JIZZLAM publication. Some of my Muslim sisters had to leave UCSD because they just couldn’t walk around that day thinking people might be associating their dress with the obscene images inside the newspaper. For all those who want to tell us, “”This is America, get used to it,”” we’d like to ask them, what if this publication was about your religion, about your race, about your mother? And by the way, many of us were born and raised here, so please don’t tell us about America like we don’t speak English or understand the Constitution.

In every period of history, there is always some group of people that it suddenly becomes OK to mistreat, publicly defame and talk trash about. I emphatically stress that there is no need for these mistakes to be repeated. We are a campus about promoting education, not one that protects the ignorance and hate-mongering of a few at the expense of the well-being of other innocent students.

Racism, discrimination, and degradation of any group on campus should not be tolerated. There needs to be an investigation to hold those responsible accountable for their hateful actions, so future generations of students are protected by the precedent of security that we set. As a vocal activist on many controversial issues, I am a firm believer in protecting the people’s freedom of speech. But I never thought freedom of speech meant freedom of hate.

ó Muslema Purmul, Muslim Student Association

As an alumna of UCSD, I am disheartened to learn that a hate-filled newspaper displaying Muslim women conducting lewd sexual acts was seen all over the UCSD campus [at the end of spring quarter]

At an institution that purports to civilize its students and help them mature into fine men and women, this type of behavior must not only be condemned, but it must be punished.

A resolution is not enough. The students responsible for creating and disseminating such horrific material should be apprehended and punished severely. While freedom of speech is something that I, as a law student at Pepperdine, hold dear to my heart, this type of publication does not fall under the protection the First Amendment has in mind.

This is plain violation of human dignity. This is malicious defamation at its height. This is the bigotry and callous hatred that took place against blacks before the civil rights movement.

As an alumna, I am asking you to please take strong action with regard to this matter. It is of the utmost importance to the dignity of UCSD and to the dignity of the students who have been targeted and deeply offended.

How can a Muslim girl who attempts to follow her religion by wearing the hijab feel safe walking around the UCSD campus? What are you offering her in terms of protection, counseling, nurturing and care? What types of encouragement are you offering these students who are trying to live morally and modestly? The entire Muslim community is outraged, but there are Muslim girls on the UCSD campus that need your support. I was one of those girls last year. Now, I look at them with concern and only a simple desire to have justice done.

Please take action quickly and decisively.

ó Cassandra Williams, UCSD alumna

There was a newspaper distributed on campus [at the end of spring quarter] that was solely based on putting down Muslims in the most obscene way that one could imagine. There are not enough words to express how this affects our campus. For starters, it adds to the continuous hate speech that exists on our campus that has occurred against various types of minorities. Secondly, it goes against everything Muslims stand for, especially Muslim women. Being a Muslim who covers, I have never felt more violated in my life. I cannot even believe someone would use so much money and take so much time to produce such an obscene thing ó and not even put their name on it! You know it’s because they know it’s wrong, hurtful, disrespectful and just plain unacceptable. I think the guilty need to stand up and take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences.

Or at least, if anyone has information, do everyone a favor and report it!

óAnbar Mahar

Eleanor Roosevelt College junior

I am extremely disgusted and appalled by the horrific 16-page newspaper JIZZLAM. The newspaper was extremely racist and degrading to Muslims, particularly Muslim women. As a Muslim woman, each day is a struggle to fight against the derogatory remarks. This newspaper is enriched with such repulsive remarks. This is no doubt a hate crime. It must be stopped. I feel that this newspaper violated my rights and my security on campus. I demand that our university conduct a full investigation and punish these ill-minded individuals.

ó Aliha Khan

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