Righteous Indignation is now officially "hate speech"

and is also "threatening". This according to a report filed by WNBC . They cover the story of Arlene Scala, Chair of Women's Studies at William Paterson University, who filed a complaint for discrimination, intimidation and sexual harassment against 63 year old Jihad Daniel, an employee and student at Paterson.

His offense? After receiving an email from Scala, promoting a homosexual film (Ruthie and Connine: Every Room in the House', a lesbian relationship story") he responded to Scala (by clicking on the link provided ) and stated:

"Do not send me any mail about 'Connie and Sally' and 'Adam and Steve.' These are perversions. The absence of God in higher education brings on confusion. That is why in these classes the Creator of the heavens and the earth is never mentioned."

And that's it. In it's entirety. The whole shebang (did I just now violate some sexual harassment standard?). Upon receiving this request, Scala fired off a complaint to the university claiming that Daniel's email was "threatening" and was discriminatory. The school's President concluded that Daniel violated the school's discrimination policy and issued a letter of Reprimand which was to be placed in his file.

So now, a person with sincere religious beliefs, who does not want to be on someone's email list, who emails them only once and who gives his reasons privately for not wanting to be on the list, is guilty of discrimination? What's next, prosecute people who asked to be removed from spam lists for Restraint of Trade or some violation of the Commerce Clause?

It's simply not enough for liberal colleges to proclaim they are bastions of free speech and thought, they must actually pretend like it on occasion.


**UPDATE: Daniel's cause has been taken up by FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education). You can find out more at their site: FIRE