De Anza College’s Doubters, Agnostics, Myth busters and Non-theists club drew chalk illustrations of religious figures including Christ, Buddha, Confucius and a number of Hindu gods next to the administration building, turning nationwide “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” to “Draw Everybody but Mohammed Day,” on Thursday.
The DAMN club raised the question of why is it considered blasphemy to draw the Muslim prophet Mohammed by drawing a box with a question mark asking “Who is missing?” next to the Administration building.
The DAMN club’s original plan was to draw stick figures of Mohammed before it received an e-mail from their club president David Byars, stating the event had been canceled.
“We got an e-mail from our president saying that the event was canceled and De Anza stated that anyone who drew Mohammed would be subject to an unknown penalty,” said DAMN club member Vladamir Furman.
Byars, Inter Club Council Adviser La Donna Yumori-Kaku and members of the Muslim Student Association held a meeting Wednesday discussing the controversy and each club’s positions on the event.
Muslim Student Association’s members rallied together Wednesday outside of the De Anza Associated Student Body Senate chambers, printing T-shirts and posters reading, “value respect like you value free speech.”
“Personally, their argument of promoting freedom of speech and the Danish cartoonist’s freedom of speech by drawing pictures of the prophet Mohammed is a weak argument … I can’t tell you their intentions, but their actions are mockery and slander, and for them to try to justify themselves under the banner of free speech is just ridiculous,” said 20-year-old Mirela Puljic. “This is not just protecting freedom of speech, this is upholding [Kurt Westergaard’s] views and an attempt to get a violent response from the Muslim community.”
“I feel as a Muslim student at De Anza, my learning environment is being very negatively affected by this because I have to deal with this all around me,” Steven Wittkopf said.
“The repercussions of [this event] did concern me definitely. I do understand that they do have the freedom of speech, it was just a matter of what [the drawings] could invoke that concerned me. I just prayed that nothing happens that gives anyone a bad name. Looking at what happened today made me very pleased,” Rehan Chrishty said.
“I’m glad about the way things are turning out. I think it’s a lot better than the original plan. It’s a lot more open to debate and it’s the goal we want. I hope they understand that we’re not doing this out of disrespect to anyone but as a very open thing,” Furman said.
