Earlier this month Townhall reported that on a number of colleges campuses throughout the U.S., hundreds of freshmen are taking a course about 9/11—one that happens to be taught from the perspective of the terrorists.
“The Literature of 9/11,” which teaches students that that the US was to blame for the attacks and the jihadists who killed nearly 3,000 people that day were in fact freedom fighters, has students reading books like “Poems from Guantanamo: Detainees Speak.”
Thanks to uproar from the College Republicans at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, which is among the schools where the course is being taught, the controversy drew national attention.
"Our concern over the 'Literature of 9/11' course and its one-sided portrayal of the perspectives surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks has not abated,” Frank Pray, chairman of the UNC College Republicans, wrote in the letter to UNC Chancellor Carol L. Folt. “We continue to feel that this class is not even-handed scholarship and therefore cannot claim to truly be educating students about this issue, but rather indoctrinating them with a viewpoint that paints this nation in a negative light and is sympathetic to the terrorists' perspectives."
While Folt stood by the university’s decision to allow the course, noting that “part of the college experience is the opportunity to learn from those who have differing points of view,” she’s also allowing The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s “9/11 Never Forget Mobile Exhibit” to be displayed on campus next week.
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While the course is still in extremely poor taste and regrettable, it’s at least a welcome sign that the chancellor has given permission for the exhibit to be on campus.
A press release gives the details:
The organization said the exhibit--which contains actual steel and other artifacts from the World Trade Center--and also depicts the first attack on the Twin Towers in February of 1993--would be open at the Chapel Hill campus for students and the public to tour on Tuesday, September 22nd immediately following a ceremony at 11 a.m. […]
Tours of the 1000 sq. foot trailer will be conducted by FDNY Battalion Chief (Ret.) Jack Oehm--who lost a third of his battalion of firefighters on 9/11. Oehm will offer students and members of the public eyewitness accounts of the carnage that day. There is no admission charge. The exhibit has been recognized by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory for its work on behalf of first responders, resulting in him declaring September 12th "Tunnel to Towers Day’ in North Carolina.
The students enrolled in the freshman-level course were just 4 years old when the attacks took place, and if they are anything like students at George Mason University, they likely have no idea why it happened. This in turn makes them all the more receptive to anti-American propaganda taught in courses like “The Literature of 9/11.” With the truth coming to UNC-Chapel Hill next week, hopefully students will learn once and for all what really happened on 9/11 and forcefully reject courses like “The Literature of 9/11” in the future.
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