A Moment of Irony for UC Berkeley

You’ll recall that Bill Maher recently drew the ire of some on the Left for asserting that Islam contains a “connecting tissue” to violence, intolerance and illiberalism generally. Several liberals pushed back against Maher; actor Ben Affleck called these sentiments “racist” on Maher’s own show. Some on the right have found themselves in rare agreement with Maher, though I had some thoughts on why conservatives should be careful there.

Now, the always entertaining student body at University of California Berkeley has upped the ante. A student petition has launched and is gaining signatories calling for the school to revoke its invitation to Maher to speak at December commencement. Politico’s Jon Topaz quotes the petition as stating:

“Bill Maher is a blatant bigot and racist who has no respect for the values UC Berkeley students and administration stand for,” the petition reads. “Bill Maher’s public statements on various religions and cultures are offensive and his dangerous rhetoric has found its way into our campus communities.”

Hoo boy. I do not know if Maher is a “bigot” or a “racist,” but I do know this: If Maher’s views are “dangerous” to the most liberal university in America, schools like Notre Dame or Boston College should immediately apply for restraining orders.

Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik has some quotes from petitioners. They are quite something.

One statement on the petition site says, “As a Berkeley graduate and a former leader of the Muslim community on the campus, I cannot imagine anything more offensive to my own community than to have someone who has made statements that are as offensive as his to be on the stage at a commencement ceremony. While freedom of speech is a cornerstone of Cal values, bigotry and racism are not, and have never been.”

Another says: “As a recent graduate from UC Berkeley, I have always been proud of my university. However, the decision to bring Bill Maher as a speaker is offensive to me and my community of Muslims and Arabs. Free speech should always be protected, however when you use this speech to spread harmful stereotypes, you should not be honored for your speech. He has dehumanized Muslims numerously, he has used generalizations to speak about us, he disrespects those who speak out against his bigotry, and his views are toxic to audiences in that he only discusses Islamic extremism as if its representative of all Muslims, perpetuating fear and hatred of American Muslims in the U.S. Berkeley knows better than to support hate speech and bigotry.”

What strikes me in both quotes is that the speakers go out of their way to extol the virtues of free speech, right before explaining how Maher’s views disqualify him from speaking at the school. But isn’t this the kind of illberalism that Maher is speaking out against? The student petitioners are unwittingly proving Maher’s point; namely, that a generous, defensive view of Islam requires people to shut up. As Maher explained on Real Time, his is the consistently liberal position: The notion that no religion or religious culture is above humanistic critique.

Like I said above, I don’t know if Maher is truly a racist. I sincerely doubt, though, that any of the signers of this petition could produce a unequivocal example of racist language from him. Wouldn’t it be a better idea to allow Maher to speak, while producing literature or hosting symposiums for the university that explain why Maher is wrong? Doesn’t that sound more like a college education than screening commencement speakers?

But we seem to be nearing the point where gatekeepers of ideology are less bashful about outlining the academic culture they want to create. Remember Sandra Korn’s article about academic justice? UC Berkeley seems like a prime candidate to fit this chilling description of university as bastion of contemporary moral code:

It is tempting to decry frustrating restrictions on academic research as violations of academic freedom. Yet I would encourage student and worker organizers to instead use a framework of justice. After all, if we give up our obsessive reliance on the doctrine of academic freedom, we can consider more thoughtfully what is just.

The irony of UC Berkeley: Attempting to be more liberal, they have illiberally protested a liberal critique of illiberalism.