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Monday, January 19, 2015

On Martin Luther King Day We Wonder: Will Duke Controversy Come to UCLA?

Students demonstrate at Duke.
You are probably aware of a controversy at Duke University concerning a decision of the university first to play the Muslim call to prayer over a chapel tower loudspeaker and then to reverse the decision when protests were received. (If you missed the controversy, see http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/01/15/duke-university-reverses-decision-cancels-weekly-muslim-call-to-prayer/.)  By waffling, saying yes and then saying no, Duke created a bigger controversy than existed before. Yours truly was sent a link to a complaint over a similar practice of playing the call to prayer at UCLA, a practice which apparently has gone on without controversy or much notice. Probably because of the Duke affair, the issue regarding UCLA has been now been picked up in various websites on the right along with some religious ones. A quick Google search screenshot is shown below. [Click to enlarge.]  Whether the ACLU will join in - it often opposes religious symbols on public property on separation of church and state grounds - remains to be seen.  However, the US Supreme Court has tended to move away from strict separation recently.

Recent Google search: first few results.
Let's hope we can all get along here better than at Duke.

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