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The University of Michigan said late Wednesday that it will show the film "American Sniper" as originally scheduled after a protest by students and staff caused the screening to be scrapped.

University Vice President for Student Life E. Royster Harper called the decision to cancel the Friday night showing a "mistake" in a statement.

"The initial decision to cancel the movie was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters," Harper said. "The movie will be shown at the originally scheduled time and location."

Harper added that the university will also screen the family-friendly film "Paddington" as an alternative.

"American Sniper", which stars Bradley Cooper as former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, was originally scheduled to be shown as part of a university-sponsored social event called UMix. However, the screening was canceled after a protest letter garnered more than 300 signatures.

"The movie 'American Sniper’ not only tolerates but promotes anti-Muslim and anti-MENA [Muslim, Middle Eastern and North African] rhetoric and sympathizes with a mass killer," the letter read in part. "Chris Kyle was a racist who took a disturbing stance on murdering Iraqi civilians."

"Watching this movie is provocative and unsafe to MENA and Muslim students who are too often reminded of how little the media and world value their lives," the letter continued.

The cancelation drew a strong reaction, and The Michigan Daily reported that a third-year Law School student named Rachel Jankowski circulated a petition calling on the university's Center for Campus Involvement to restore "American Sniper" to the UMix schedule. The university's football coach, Jim Harbaugh, weighed in on the controversy by tweeting that he would watch the movie with his team.

Michigan Football will watch "American Sniper"! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 9, 2015

Before Harper's statement, the Center for Campus Involvement had announced plans to show "American Sniper" in a separate location from the UMix program, in what it said would be "a forum that provides an appropriate space for dialogue and reflection." It was not immediately clear whether the "forum" would be part of the revived Friday night screening.

Watching this movie is provocative and unsafe to MENA and Muslim students who are too often reminded of how little the media and world value their lives.

CID1990 wrote:I also find that reasoning spurious.

Islam is not going to have its own Enlightenment until its excesses are exposed to its own adherents - mollycoddling Muslims' sensibilities is not the answer.

But by all means, let's continue to self censor for fear of attacks, right? Because that is what this is truly about - when some nutcase preacher wants to burn a Koran, what is the government reaction? The first thing we hear is DoD wringing their hands about how it will endanger our troops overseas

It is time to stop

AZGrizFan wrote:So, they decided to cancel it because some muslims felt offended and scared.

Now, they've backed off THAT decision and are BACK to showing it at it's originally scheduled time and location.

The University of Michigan said late Wednesday that it will show the film "American Sniper" as originally scheduled after a protest by students and staff caused the screening to be scrapped.

University Vice President for Student Life E. Royster Harper called the decision to cancel the Friday night showing a "mistake" in a statement.

"The initial decision to cancel the movie was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters," Harper said. "The movie will be shown at the originally scheduled time and location."

Harper added that the university will also screen the family-friendly film "Paddington" as an alternative.

"American Sniper", which stars Bradley Cooper as former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, was originally scheduled to be shown as part of a university-sponsored social event called UMix. However, the screening was canceled after a protest letter garnered more than 300 signatures.

"The movie 'American Sniper’ not only tolerates but promotes anti-Muslim and anti-MENA [Muslim, Middle Eastern and North African] rhetoric and sympathizes with a mass killer," the letter read in part. "Chris Kyle was a racist who took a disturbing stance on murdering Iraqi civilians."

"Watching this movie is provocative and unsafe to MENA and Muslim students who are too often reminded of how little the media and world value their lives," the letter continued.

The cancelation drew a strong reaction, and The Michigan Daily reported that a third-year Law School student named Rachel Jankowski circulated a petition calling on the university's Center for Campus Involvement to restore "American Sniper" to the UMix schedule. The university's football coach, Jim Harbaugh, weighed in on the controversy by tweeting that he would watch the movie with his team.

Michigan Football will watch "American Sniper"! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 9, 2015

Before Harper's statement, the Center for Campus Involvement had announced plans to show "American Sniper" in a separate location from the UMix program, in what it said would be "a forum that provides an appropriate space for dialogue and reflection." It was not immediately clear whether the "forum" would be part of the revived Friday night screening.

While I could easily get pissed off about the bolded and underlined sentence, which is just fucking comical, what I REALLY find laughable is the next sentence regarding the "value" of muslim lives.

Watching this movie is provocative and unsafe to MENA and Muslim students who are too often reminded of how little the media and world value their lives.

What an absolute fucking joke. Their OWN RELIGION places zero value on their lives and suddenly the REST of the world is now supposed to give two shits?

Fuck them, and the horse they rode in on. If they don't like it, go watch Paddington Bear, you spineless fucks. And go back to the cave from whence you came.

Skjellyfetti wrote:Yeah, college students are really lacking for things to protest these days... and will find any cause to cling to. I don't get why they give two shits about what movie is being shown - not like it's mandatory.

What's even harder to figure out is why some old man who lives thousands of miles away from the university cares what movie they show?

kalm wrote: Banning shit is stupid.

But Z, have you read up on Kyle? The dude was sketchy at best.

kalm wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:So, they decided to cancel it because some muslims felt offended and scared.

Now, they've backed off THAT decision and are BACK to showing it at it's originally scheduled time and location.



While I could easily get pissed off about the bolded and underlined sentence, which is just fucking comical, what I REALLY find laughable is the next sentence regarding the "value" of muslim lives. What an absolute fucking joke. Their OWN RELIGION places zero value on their lives and suddenly the REST of the world is now supposed to give two shits?

Fuck them, and the horse they rode in on. If they don't like it, go watch Paddington Bear, you spineless fucks. And go back to the cave from whence you came.

Banning shit is stupid.

But Z, have you read up on Kyle? The dude was sketchy at best.

AZGrizFan wrote:

kalm wrote: Banning shit is stupid.

But Z, have you read up on Kyle? The dude was sketchy at best.

Do tell.

travelinman67 wrote:

kalm wrote:
Banning **** is stupid.

But Z, have you read up on Kyle? The dude was sketchy at best.

Cowardly, offhanded, Slander.

More direct: "Hillary Clinton ordered the murder of Vince Foster. Bill Clinton is a child molester."

kalm wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
Do tell.

His vigilantism with Katrina and beating up Jesse Ventura for starters.

houndawg wrote:

travelinman67 wrote:
Cowardly, offhanded, Slander.

More direct: "Hillary Clinton ordered the murder of Vince Foster. Bill Clinton is a child molester."

Just like the kind that caused Kyle to lose a million dollar lawsuit.

kalm wrote:

houndawg wrote:
Just like the kind that caused Kyle to lose a million dollar lawsuit.

Boom!

kalm wrote: Banning shit is stupid.

But Z, have you read up on Kyle? The dude was sketchy at best.

AZGrizFan wrote:

kalm wrote:
Boom!

That's it? That's all you got? THAT makes an American hero go from hero to "sketchy"?

GrizFanStuckInUtah wrote:

kalm wrote: Banning shit is stupid.

But Z, have you read up on Kyle? The dude was sketchy at best.

There are 3 types of people you will encounter on the battlefield and I am pretty sure Kyle had it figured out.

1) Your allies
2) Enemies
3) Potential Enemies

The days of civilians in a war zone are long gone and our enemies prefer it that way and do their best do make it as confusing as possible. It really is they only way they can win, they can't do it facing us conventionally and it isn't like our enemies gave 2 shits about the civilians to begin with. We (as a nation) do a damn good job of mitigating the civilian casualties, as they are called by most, and I for one am not going to throw stones at how 99.999% of our soldiers behave under fire.

GrizFanStuckInUtah wrote:

kalm wrote: Banning **** is stupid.

But Z, have you read up on Kyle? The dude was sketchy at best.

There are 3 types of people you will encounter on the battlefield and I am pretty sure Kyle had it figured out.

1) Your allies
2) Enemies
3) Potential Enemies

The days of civilians in a war zone are long gone and our enemies prefer it that way and do their best do make it as confusing as possible. It really is they only way they can win, they can't do it facing us conventionally and it isn't like our enemies gave 2 shits about the civilians to begin with. We (as a nation) do a damn good job of mitigating the civilian casualties, as they are called by most, and I for one am not going to throw stones at how 99.999% of our soldiers behave under fire.

houndawg wrote:

GrizFanStuckInUtah wrote:
There are 3 types of people you will encounter on the battlefield and I am pretty sure Kyle had it figured out.

1) Your allies
2) Enemies
3) Potential Enemies

The days of civilians in a war zone are long gone and our enemies prefer it that way and do their best do make it as confusing as possible. It really is they only way they can win, they can't do it facing us conventionally and it isn't like our enemies gave 2 shits about the civilians to begin with. We (as a nation) do a damn good job of mitigating the civilian casualties, as they are called by most, and I for one am not going to throw stones at how 99.999% of our soldiers behave under fire.

Thats a remarkably stupid thing to say given one of our enemies favorite tactics is hiding among civilians.

GrizFanStuckInUtah wrote:

houndawg wrote:
Thats a remarkably stupid thing to say given one of our enemies favorite tactics is hiding among civilians.

Do tell...........
What I am saying is the enemy doesn't consider anyone a civilian, period. We do as good of job as can be expected. Many of the rules of engagement are completely wrong and should be loosened IMHO. They are just adjusting to our tactics and we need to adjust again. I am certainly not condoning killing any innocent people just for the hell of it but when you can't defend yourself in a warzone, we need to change our rules.