SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIV.: "ALLAH AKBAR!!!"

IN SAN FRANCISCO, STOMPING ON A FLAG (OR BURNING IT) IS ONLY FREE SPEECH IF THE FLAG AMERICA'S OR ISRAEL'S. IF IT'S HAMAS' OR HEZBOLLAH'S? THAT'S HATE SPEECH.

ASI Passes Resolution Against Flag Stomping (Golden Gate)
Preceding an ongoing investigation into SF State College Republican behavior, the Associated Students board unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the student group for purposely stomping on flags containing the Arabic symbol for God.

“Associated Students, Inc. deems the College Republicans’ actions as contrary to university values and feel they should be held accountable by the university for their actions,” the resolution says.

The Nov. 15 resolution comes on the heels of several student and student organization complaints at board meetings and the Office of Student Programs and Leadership Development, or OSPLD, which has also sparked a separate investigation and assembly of a special panel to decide if the College Republicans did indeed violate the university’s conduct rules. The resolution cited a rule outlined in the university’s Strategic Plan saying, “SFSU facilitates teaching, learning and work experiences among students, faculty and staff that promote equity and social justice within a respectful and safe environment.”

Moreover, the resolution sets the stage for the College Republicans possibly losing official student group status and or ASi funding.

Amid heavy campus police presence at an Oct. 17 anti-terrorism rally in Malcolm X Plaza, some members of the crowd turned angry when the College Republicans stepped on homemade Hezbollah and Hamas flags, though the student group claims they were not initially aware the flags contained the Arabic symbol for God.

After that, the College Republican-organized rally dissolved into a heated shouting match between the group and a mix of students, including some Muslim students, eventually resulting in formal complaints to student representatives.

‘They were voicing their concerns that this event was even allowed. They were offended,” said Kimberly Castillo, board member and chair of University Affairs, the committee that drafted the resolution. “We felt it our duty to respond.”

Administrators have been criticized for even allowing the rally to take place.

“The actions on the part of the College Republicans amount to no more than hateful religious intolerance, and constitutes an attempt to defy policies outlined and defined by San Francisco State University’s values,” the resolution says. “Members ... pre-mediated the stomping of the flags knowing it would offend some people and possibly incite violence.”