Universities Disrupted: Remember General Napier
When the British gained control of India, they outlawed suttee, the custom of burning a widow alive on her husband’s funeral pyre. The British commander-in-chief in India, General Sir Charles Napier, was informed that suttee was an ancient custom with a religious basis, and that suppressing it would evoke anger. (Sound familiar?) Unimpressed, Napier replied:
You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.
I am not an admirer of multiculturalism. But if we must have it, let us practice the kind advocated by General Napier. If they insist on their customs of disrupting classes with homicidal slogans and assaulting students and professors, let us insist on our customs. In case you forgot, let me remind you:
● Our customs include freedom of education, where professors are free to teach and students are free to learn, including annoying, unpopular lessons.
● Our customs include freedom of expression, including annoying, unpopular expression.
● Our customs include equal rights for women, especially in regard to education, career, marriage, divorce, and child custody.
● Our customs include freedom of to practice our religion, or convert to another religion, or become an atheist, or criticize a religion.
● Our customs include standing up for these freedoms before the world, and if necessary fighting for them.
If they insist on following their customs, we must insist on following ours. General Napier had it right.