CAIR-MI seeks disciplinary action over Islamophobic e-mail

(LATHRUP VILLAGE, MI, 4/24/06) - The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) today called on Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing to take "appropriate disciplinary action" against a professor who sent an Islamophobic e-mail to Muslim students.

MSU engineering professor Indrek Wichman used his faculty e-mail account to send a "Dear Moslem Association" message to the university's Muslim Students' Association (MSA) containing a long list of charges, including a claim that Muslims rape "Scandinavain [sic] girls and women (called 'whores' in your culture)."

The February 28, 2006, e-mail also stated: "I counsul [sic] you dissatisfied, agressive [sic], brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Ammendment [sic]--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans."

Representatives from CAIR-MI and the MSA met several times with MSU officials to urge the university to take appropriate action in the case as well as to address the increasing religious and racial tensions on campus. The university is considering a response to Muslim student concerns.

"It is unconscionable for a professor to use his university e-mail account to foster a hostile learning environment for Muslim students," said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid. "The university needs to take appropriate disciplinary action in this case to demonstrate through its actions that anti-Muslim bigotry will not be tolerated on campus."

Walid also said there have been a number of recent incidents on or near the MSU campus targeting minorities.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 32 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

- END -

CONTACT: CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid, 248-842-1418, e-Mail: director@cairmichigan.org; CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair-net.org; CAIR Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org

-----

CAIR
Council on American-Islamic Relations
453 New Jersey Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20003
Tel: 202-488-8787, 202-744-7726
Fax: 202-488-0833
E-mail: cair@cair-net.org
URL: http://www.cair-net.org