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CUA prez: Muslim students blameless

This statement was e-mailed by the president of the Catholic University of America to all the students, staff and faculty: Dear Students, Faculty and Staff, You may have heard or read news accounts this week about a complaint filed with D.C.’s Office of Human Rights regarding our Muslim students.  The complaint has been filed by […]

This statement was e-mailed by the president of the Catholic University of America to all the students, staff and faculty:

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

You may have heard or read news accounts this week about a complaint filed with D.C.’s Office of Human Rights regarding our Muslim students.  The complaint has been filed by John Banzhaf, a professor at a neighboring university who has no affiliation with us.  In a press release he issued October 19, Mr. Banzhaf claimed that Catholic University has “illegally discriminated” against Muslim students.  That charge is completely without foundation.  Worse, Banzhaf has created the perception that it is our Muslim students themselves who are offended by the symbols of Catholicism on our campus, and that they object to the absence of worship space set aside specifically for them.

The fact is that no Muslim student at Catholic University has registered a complaint with the University about the exercise of their religion on campus.  And today we learned from an article in the Washington Post that Mr. Banzhaf himself has not received any complaints from our Muslim students.  Instead, according to today’s Washington Post, he based his complaint on an article that appeared in that newspaper in December 2010.  Contrary to the impression Mr. Banzhaf would like to create, the December 2010 Post article spoke in overwhelmingly positive terms about the experience of Muslim students at Catholic University, and explained why they are attracted to us.  A considerable part of the attraction stems from the fact that our community, because of its own outward expressions of Catholic faith, makes them feel comfortable living their faith among us.  The evidence bears this out.  Since 2007 our Muslim enrollment has more than doubled, from 56 to 122.

I want to reassure all of you that our Muslim students are welcome at our University.  Our Catholic teaching instructs us to embrace our fellow human beings of all faith traditions.  They enrich us with their presence and help to promote inter-religious and inter-cultural understanding.  I regret very much that our Muslim students have been used as pawns in a manufactured controversy.  I urge all of you to continue to show one another the respect and goodwill that are the hallmarks of The Catholic University of America.

John Garvey

President

In this story from the conservative National Catholic Register, a spokesman for CAIR calls this a “non-issue,” adding that “American Muslims have very good relations with the Catholic community.” You know that if CAIR — CAIR! — sees no problem here, there really is no problem here at all.

 

This Banzhaf character is notorious for self-publicity. At my last newspaper job, seemed like every three days he was sending me another e-mail-blast press release touting his own bold, courageous activism on behalf of this or that cause. It was so annoying that I ended up directing his junk straight to the spam bucket, just to get relief.

He really ought to be called out and shamed by what he’s done here to Catholic U. and to its Muslim students. He could have caused real harm to them. By the time I heard about this story the other day, it had been widely distributed on the web that Muslim students were suing CUA. It was only when I saw the Washington Post story containing a quote from Banzhaf, who filed the official complaint against CUA with the city’s Human Rights Commission, admitting that no Muslim had actually brought a grievance to him, that I knew the real story. I wonder how many people are still under the false impression that arrogant Muslim students at CUA are trying to compel the private university to back away from its Catholic identity? On the websites you frequent, please do what you can to get the straight story out.

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