Quite frankly I'm pretty shocked that there hasn't been more coverage of this. On Monday, The Collegian ran an ad from conservative nutjob David Horowitz which called Penn State's Muslim Student Association (MSA) a "front group for jihad." Strong words, but it's typical of Horowitz who sponsored the "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" last semester which brought Rick Santorum to campus. Well now, three days later we hear the MSA's response.

In addition to a letter which was sent to The Collegian (and can be seen here) from Judy Bowes, the MSA's PR officer, a Facebook group (of course) entitled "Petition to stop Racist and Islamaphobic Collegian Hate Advertisments" (sic) has been set up and as of 6:30 Thursday had 450 members.

Part of the MSA's argument is that under the policies on The Collegian's rate card it states: "Collegian Inc. reserves the right to refuse or to change advertising ... that maligns identifiable persons, races, religions or professions." In the letter to The Collegian, Bowes also says she feels the paper's decision to run the ad "was made hastily." But Collegian Business Manager Carolyn Yanoff says she sat on the ad for two weeks waiting for documentation from Horowitz' office.

I didn't see the ad on Monday, but it appears to be a half-page ad, which according to The Collegian's rate card, goes for $705.60. The MSA is asking that The Collegian "donate at least one page in the newspaper to the Muslim Student Association to use as they wish," as well as an apology from The Collegian for running the ad.

Well, if that's what the MSA is really looking for they probably shouldn't hold their breath. They're not going to apologize because technically they did nothing wrong in running the ad. I would assume that this exact ad has been run in other colleges across the country and it's probably carefully worded as to fit under the guidelines. And when was the last time you saw a newspaper apologize for anything?

So if the MSA wants to do something about it, gather together $705.60 (that's $1.50 from each of the members of your Facebook group) and buy an ad. But guess what, there's only six more Collegians left this semester, so you better act quickly.