Lisa Daftari, an alumna of Rutgers University and an investigative journalist of Iranian Jewish descent, has had a speech delayed at her alma mater, the school has provided her with several dates in November to choose from.
Daftari was scheduled to speak at Rutgers University on October 16. Her speech is titled “Radicalism on College Campuses” and was said to also address the issues of free speech on college campuses in America.
Ironically, Daftari’s speech was canceled after a student-led petition circulated around campus, demanding that Daftari be banned from speaking. After this story was published, Daftari was contacted by Rutgers, which offered her four different dates in November to reschedule.
The petition was started by Adeel Ahmad, who is the president of the Rutgers University Progressives student organization. Ahmad accused Daftari of being an “unapologetic Islamophobe,” citing a speech she gave at The Heritage Foundation.
The petition read:
In a speech at The Heritage Foundation, Daftari remarked “Islamic terror takes its guidance and teachings from the Quran, which is Sharia law.” She went on to say, “When you go to the mosque and you’re part of a community, and you want to feel important and relevant, and want to give back to the cause — [ISIS] recruits you. You say- I can be an ISIS wife.” This statement, equating Muslims everywhere with ISIS, is undoubtedly hate-mongering. This is only a small sample of the type of harmful rhetoric Daftari has advanced and shared on various media platforms.
Daftari told the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Targum, that Ahmad had taken her quote out of context.
“The quote they have attributed to me is part of a much longer talk about ISIS recruitment practices in which I recommend working together with the Muslim communities in America to isolate extremism,” said Daftari, “I have always differentiated between Muslim people versus the distortion of Islam in politics and radicalism.”
On Friday, Rutgers Undergraduate Academic Affairs announced that Daftari’s speaking engagement had been postponed.
Daftari posted a tweet, reacting to the university claiming it had “postponed” her speech.
LET'S BE CLEAR- this was not a "postponement"- that is public relations talk for a cowardly CANCELLATION. @RutgersU told me the event was canceled.
— Lisa Daftari (@LisaDaftari) October 12, 2018
A Rutgers University spokesperson told Breitbart News, “Rutgers University has decided to postpone the lecture by Lisa Daftari, scheduled for October 16. The university will continue to go forward on events that reflect a wide variety of perspectives.”
After this story published, Rutgers replied to a Breitbart News request for additional information by providing a list of four dates in November it made available to Daftari for a reschedule of her talk. Breitbart News will continune to monitor the story for updates.
Update — After this story published, Rutgers provided potential reschedule dates for Daftari’s appearance to Breitbart News.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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