While we may disagree with many of Mr. Maher’s opinions, some in the Berkeley community have urged the University to respect the fundamental academic value of freedom of expression and to resist the call to withdraw his invitation. We applaud Chancellor Dirks's decision to uphold the tradition of free expression that is a vital component of the Berkeley intellectual community.

Read the counterpetition here:
https://www.change.org/p/un...

How else would you choose a graduation speaker except on the basis of statements that he or she has freely made? Maher has every right to make the statements he has made. And the students of UC Berkeley have every right NOT to choose him as a speaker.

Yeah, and they have every right to choose him for his courageous stand against an evil ideology. He's a great choice.
Funny how that works.

The point is, the student groups had a right to choose and they chose AGAINST him.

First, this small, unelected student group called the Californians made the choice to invite him. Then, after another small group of students got upset about it, the Californians caved to the pressure and made the decision to rescind the invitation.
Chancellor Dirks did the right thing in refusing to rescind the
invitation just because a small but vocal group was upset. The Californians group was trusted with the responsibility to make decisions about commencement speakers, but it's clear that they weren't able to handle it.

The point is Bill Maher is correct about Islam and you cannot stand this fact.

ucbgrad, ignore Arafat, he is anti-muslim TROLL who has no purpose in life but to annoy all those who disagree with him, I have refuted Arafat's arguments before and he just regurgitates them over and over again. Ucbgrad go to http://www.loonwatch.com/20... and you will see all his lazy arguments about Islam being refuted

Spammer

NoCal, NoSay nothing?
Do you disagree with my comment? Do you disagree with Bill Maher's opinions that Islam is a religion that embraces and encourages violence?
If so then how else do you explain Islam's history of violence dating back to their prophet (Mohammed)?

While you may be correct about islam, to be fair, you should include all abrahamic religions when you describe them as religions that embrace and encourage violence. All their "holy" texts contain horrible passages supposedly inspired by their "loving" deity about misogyny, torture, rape, slavery, genocide, and many other atrocities. Rational human beings should reject these ancient texts written by ignorant sheepherders, and start to figure out ways to more effectively be kind to ALL people, not just those who worship the same imaginary supernatural being as they do ...

Usng freedom of speech to push the ideology of a religion that suppresses freedom of speech is like someone slapping your face with your own hand thats just been cut off or cutting out your tongue and ramming it back down your throat

I'm confused.

i guess what i was trying to say is that !! religion use the constitutional rights being freedom of religion and freedom of speech to push their ideology on people to accept that!! religions beliefs that suppresses those very rights I just could not think of any metaphors to example it. Like biting the hand that feeds it . I ll try to think of a better way to be more descriptive.

Please don't tell me are/or have been, educated at Cal. and haven't learned that Stalinism and Fascism are not synonymous!!! If you want to hurl diatribes be accurate, be creative, be smart, be educated.

Actually the Stalinists supported the Fascists to divide up Poland, before Hitler became obsessed on Germans supposedly living in Russia.

OK, I'll give you that! But using those simplistic terms to paint people as political opponents is tantamount to the McCarthy witch hunts and is beneath someone who really want to disagree with a position. The accusation of "Communist" is beneath you.

Are you kidding me? Joe McCarthy's atrocities isn't amount to the same atrocities the Fascists or the Nazis ever committed. Where are all the mass graves? Found none. Only humiliated Lefties upset over being blacklisted but looking at how they treat Bill Maher being their own.

Well they shouldn't wail about McCarthy then.

Oh, pay attention to your own words. I know that reactionaries like you are not prone to changing your party line so I waste my breath. However, Joe McCarthy DID commit violence, do you demand 'mass graves' to identify atrocities? Does personal thuggery, character assassination, career disruption, forced displacement, resulting suicide in some cases, count in your narrow opinion? Do you condone polluting the social discourse, and corrupting public discussion with the kind of diatribe you employed in your "Stalin/Fascist" name calling?

Does not amount to the same atrocities that the actual Fascists really did. Stop throwing words around.

Then you were not affected by the red-baiting that took such a big toll on the majority of this society. The words that were first "thrown around" were "Stalinst/Fascists". Have a nice day!

So the Left likes to toss the word "bigot" around with Bill Maher and wail so much about McCarthy even though the Venona project showed that the Reds wanted to steal military secrets within the USA.

Who?

The Left at UC Berkeley.

You do not know much Berkeley do you?

Mr. Bill Maher will address this cowardice pathetic act on his show this Friday. I have never been so ashamed of the institution I graduated from. If MEMSA is a serious, they should protest the pathetic human right violations of the Muslim countries they come from. And Yes I came from one of those muslim countries and nobody needs to lecture me about the "religion of peace". I will spend everyday in this country to open people's eyes about the true religion of Islam which is everything but "peace."

Power to all apostates!

“Islam was like a mental cage. At first, when you open the door, the caged bird stays
inside: it is frightened. It has internalized its imprisonment. It takes time
for bird to escape, even after someone has opened the doors to its cage.”

― Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel

you know what this means- graduation + protests! fun!

This is what happens at UC if you try to say anything that contradicts the student prejudices:

https://www.Youtube.Com/watch?v=7w96UR79TBw

Protests at commencement are pretty commonplace at Berkeley.

Dirks is the man!

It takes courage to stand up to a lynch mob with the herd mentality one regularly sees in Berkeley from the SJP and MSA. Kudos to Chancellor Dirks, and cootees to the SJP/MSA horde...

Not a fan of Maher, but I am a fan of free speech

And so it goes....my daughter is graduating this December...both of us not looking forward to listening to a joke like Bill Maher.

Man you are sad

The apple never falls far from the (stunted) tree... (BruinBearDad)

....with no branches!

Save it douchebag

Dude...get a life. I am entitled not to like the guy. I wouldnt likeit if it was Rush Limbaugh. Get someone to speak who will inspire kids! 4000 student signed the petition! That says something dont you think?

4000 people on the internet - not students. people can sign many times - its a freaking internet petition. Wouldn't be a surprise who signed it - once you analyse.

The official student group charged with electing the commencement speaker voted to rescind the invitation in light of Maher's recent statements in the press. The students do not want him.

Actually, to be as factually accurate as possible, without holding a plebiscite among the graduating students, we can't know if "the students do not want him" or not. All that's been established so far is that the group that initially voted to invite him have changed their minds. Considering the backlash, it's more likely that they decided to uninvite him to avoid said backlash, than because they actually don't want him to speak ...

Nope. Says absolutely nothing. You put your daughter on that university - and you have no clue what it stands for. Apparently neither has your daughter. But a father who thinks he should decide what his graduating daughter should listen to or not - that is pathetic loser who has no faith in his own daughters abilities to make up her own mind. She is not you. She does have brains.

Apparently you are the pathetic loser who has to resort to calling out even my daughter. For you to be in Berkeley and make these statements really makes me wonder how someone with such a tiny mind can make it in such a school. To even disparage my daughter you imbecile? Meet me anywhere and I will show the world how much of a coward and internet troll you are.

We live in a free country. Maher is free to speak at the commencement and you and your daughter are free to either not attend or wear earplugs...

Sure is. Did I say anything that stated otherwise or you just had to inject your "wisdom" by stating something irrelevant? Do you know the meaning of.."and so it goes?"

That is Bullshit. He was only "free to speak" there IF invited. Did someone drop you on your head? The students were told they were FREE TO CHOOSE who spoke at their commencement. THEY HAVE EVERY RIGHT not to want a BIGOT who spreads hatred for 1.5 billion people and their religion. Maher's views are entirely divisive, ignorant, and destructive. Berkeley administrators must be ignorant bigots themselves, or simply do not care how uncomfortable many of the students will be to have this divisive bigot speak on their important day. Screw Berkeley.

You're a clown. First of all Bill Maher has been more than abundantly clear that he is not speaking about "1.5 billion people". He almost always uses the expressions "large numbers" or "vast numbers" when talking about some of the distressing retrograde attitudes that public opinion polls have suggested exist among Muslims. Only an idiot or a deaf person would assume that he is speaking of "1.5 billion people".

Also no one is under any obligation to accept the politically correct, vanilla view (which is clear nonsense) that everything is all hunky dory with religion and that no one takes many of the barbaric things written in the various religious texts seriously particularly when the fact that some people do is staring us right in the face.

The problem isn't that Bill Maher is "islamophobic". The problem is that too many religious people--particulary of the Islamic belief--can't handle the mildest criticism of their beliefs or are simply in denial about some of the things that are in their texts.

Maher is a perfect speaker for a student body which says it rightfully opposes bigotry. According to their own polls, a majority of the 1.6 billion Muslims, who have been poisoned by the sickness found within their own religion, say they wish to live under Sharia Law. Derived from the Koran, Sharia Law turns women into chattel, justifies GFM, the marriage of child brides, the stoning of women who have been raped, the amputation of the left hand of thieves, the brutalization of gays, and other actions unacceptable to civilized people the world round (although it is not clear if Islamists-stuck in the 7th century-even believe the world is round). And speaking of bigotry, the likes of SJP and MSA along with a majority of Palestinians support Hamas, which advocates Jewish genocide. But then again, NT, people of your ilk probably don't see that as the bigotry you claim you loathe.
Since you say, "Screw Berkeley," NT, you should be reminded that unlike most Islamic societies, this is a free country and you don't have to come to Berkeley if you don't wish to...