Rutgers GOP opposes cancellation of speaker

The Rutgers College Republicans are opposing the university’s cancellation of a speech by journalist Lisa Daftari for Islamophobia.

The speech was cancelled after a group of students signed a petition.

“We believe that the University’s decision to cancel her talk was cowardly and betrays the true purpose of university: to expose students to new ideas and knowledge,” the College Republicans said in a statement posted online.  Rutgers students have shown their own bigotry by calling Daftari, an Iranian-American woman, a ‘cockroach’ and ‘bitch’ instead of engaging with her ideas. It is disgraceful that Rutgers bureaucrats have cancelled her event.”

The College Republicans say that the university’s decision to cancel because Rutgers funds would have been used to pay Daftari’s speaking fee was an unfair excuse.

“President Barack Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton, Noam Chomsky, and Vice President Joe Biden have all spoken at Rutgers over the past three years with tuition money,” the College Republicans said. “In fact, Snooki from ‘Jersey Shore’ was paid $30,000 to speak at Rutgers several years ago.’

The uproar was caused, in part, by a speech Daftari gave at the Heritage Foundation in 2015.

“Islamic terror takes its guidance and teachings from the Quran, which is Sharia law,” Daftari said in her address. “When you go to the mosque and you’re part of a community, and you want to feel important and relevant, and want to give back to the cause — (ISIS) recruits you. You say ‘ I can be an ISIS wife.’”

Daftari was scheduled to speak at Rutgers on “Radicalism on College Campuses” on October 16.