Report from Tufts
After a supporter of Revolution Books spread the word that professional Islamophobe Daniel Pipes, originally scheduled to speak at Northeastern University, had been rescheduled to speak at Tufts, organized resistance began to take shape. The Tufts Coalition Opposed to the War in Iraq (TCOWI) quickly got word out to their mailing list and started postering the campus. They reached out to the MSA, who were divided and hesitant about taking a clear stand against the Pipes visit because of their sense of vulnerability.
TCOWI put up a poster citing Pipes’ past statements, calling for a protest of his appearance, and announcing a meeting to gather in advance of his talk. TCOWI was able to get a new loosely organized group, concerned with the issue of hate speech on campus and the administration’s response to the issue, to endorse. They hoped to get the MSA to do so as well but after a meeting Oct. 21 they voted to only endorse, and another 6 groups signed on.
A TCOWI member then brought the Tufts Democrats on board. Fliers went out listing TCOWI, the Democrats, and a dozen faculty members as well as the Muslim chaplain by name as endorsing. This created additional space for others to move. The night before Pipes’ appearance, a small new Muslim group designed a poster that just said: THIS IS A HATE-FREE CAMPUS, with the word “hate” in a box, cancelled out, and started circulating it for endorsements.
Virtually every religious group on campus, from the Muslim Students Association to the Protestants, Bahai, and Hillel, as well as the Campus Chaplaincy Office, signed on within the next day. TCOWI was listed alongside them. Within half an hour of Pipes’ talk, students with lots of this flier arrived at the assembly point and at the hall where Pipes spoke. Over half those in attendance at the talk wound up holding them. The Tufts Chaplain (a Roman Catholic priest) stood outside with a poster opposing Islamophobia.
There were over 200 people in the hall---the best at Tufts, reserved at the last minute, and with the stipulation that all attending would have to pass through metal detectors (a point TCOWI ridiculed in their fliers). Over half were hostile. There was a good atmosphere before the talk, in which TCOWI people could distribute more of the HATE-FREE CAMPUS fliers going row by row. Campus administrators including the chief legal officer were friendly to such activity.
Pipes came across as very slick. We could have done more to challenge his presentation. As it was, many in the crowd repeatedly lifted up the fliers, the talk was truncated and followed by about 8 questions, all but one of were challenging. Then he escaped.
To sum up: good new ties were made between the anti-imperialist, anti-war people on campus and the Muslim community. The latter was emboldened by the actions of TCOWI. The resistance to IFAW at Tufts shows that a few people can accomplish a lot if they have the right political focus.