I don’t have any insider information on this whole situation with an ad in the Collegian implying that the Muslim Student Association here at Penn State has ties to Al Qaeda, but I sure as hell have an opinion about it.

In case you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, there’s another group on campus called the Terrorism Awareness Project (that's whose logo decorates this post) who ran an ad in four papers, the Collegian included, that said the MSA "is a radical political group that was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of al Qaeda and Hamas, to bring jihad into the heart of American higher education."

We’ve got hundreds of student groups here at Penn State, and plenty of them have a little healthy rivalry going on: it’s one thing if heated debates start between Students for Barack and Students for Hilary; it’s not even so bad if the Greeks on campus resort to things like Juicy Campus to insult each other for no reason. But for one group to imply that another has ties to terrorism, a claim that apparently isn’t even true, is heinous.

We’ve got soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan so that we are able to keep the right to free speech. Whether you agree with the war or not, you’ve got to respect that. So why are we fighting for it when we are abusing the right by insulting our own classmates?

Go see the movie Stop Loss. I saw it last night. I’ve seen several war type movies with bombs and killings that are based on real life events, but this one sent chills up my spine because it’s actually occurring right now and I’m finally old enough to understand it. If in fact the MSA isn’t affiliated with Al Qaeda, then I empathize with how offended they must feel. It’s not fair to interfere with the education and spirituality of anyone as far as I’m concerned.