Speaking the Language of Islamophobia

"It is frightening that an educator is essentially a pro-Nazi zealot. If you say 'from the river to the sea' you're a Nazi. I'm not neutral. I stand with Israel. I stand against antisemites who want nothing but dead Jews; who take millions from their education and health care budgets and spend it on making war."

"Israel has a full right to their land. You stand with Palestine means you stand with Hitler. You don't want peace, you want dead Jews. Just like Palestinians who freely admit this to pollsters."

"They murdered 1,400 innocents and took 250 hostages and the people celebrated rapist monsters as heroes."

"They want a barbaric, primitive Islamic caliphate and hate all post-Enlightenment values."

"They murder their own people for being gay and you stand with them. Disgusting. Move there."

Paul Finlayson, marketing lecturer, University of Guelph-Humber

 

Paul Finlayson, 59, marketing lecturer at the University of Guelph-Humber saw a post on LinkedIn last month from an educator in Pakistan, making use of genocidal language relating to the conflict in Gaza. calling for a Palestinian state 'from the river to the sea'. He felt sufficiently incensed at the messaging's implications that he responded heatedly in a manner, he now says was "hotheaded and unwise". Which is to say in a spirit of self-preservation in an academic climate where students or faculty cannot be made to feel 'unsafe', in the opinion of the illiberal left. 

Professor Finlayson's post was seen by a student who responded: "REPORT, REPORT, REPORT". Presumably what she read made her feel 'unsafe'; at the very least self-righteously censorious. Another student reported feeling "absolutely ashamed" by her professor's comments which she characterized as "filled with hate and Islamophobia". Now THAT is a charge to be avoided at all costs: 'Islamophobic'. Obviously in the heat of the moment the spectre of being thus labelled hadn't occurred to Professor Finlayson. Now it clings to him. The sweeping equation of the Palestinians in general with Hamas appears to have hit a sour note.

The administration of Guelph-Humber informed the professor that he was suspended with pay pending an investigation. His scheduled courses for next semester are no longer to be seen on the university's curricula scheduling. A week ago the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research found that 72 percent of Palestinians believe Hamas to have been "correct" in slaughtering Israelis during its October 7 attack. As well. a majority of the population was prepared to vote for the terrorist group should elections be held; Mahmoud Abbas, president of the West Bank had a sky-high rejection rate in favour of Hamas.

Scrutiny of Professor Finlayson's message informs anyone with a modicum of intelligence that what he wrote may have seemed raw to some, but it was all correct; Hamas is proud of its mission to kill Jews and destroy Israel. It defunds the Gaza education and health budgets in favour of siphoning off funding for its endless war against Israel, and its prohibitively expensive tunnel system. When its terror operatives returned to Gaza with their booty and hostages they were feted as  heroic murderers and rapists. Gays in Gaza risk death on discovery.

The University of Guelph-Humber refuses to comment on employee affairs when approached to explain just how toxic the professor's speech was deemed to be in its harmful effects on the university, its staff and its students. Professor Finlayson, on the other hand is quite explicit that a group of students has mounted a concerted campaign against his further employment. On the other hand, redeeming of the study body, a counter-protest has emerged of students who marched to the office of the professor's departmental head to demand his reinstatement.

Professor Finlayson has taught at the university for 13 years with no disciplinary record and never has he committed to activism. It can be of no comfort to him to know that he is represented by the unions OPSEU and CUPE, whose Ontario president celebrated "the power of resistance" the day following the Hamas slaughter of hundreds of Israeli men, women and children.

Paul Finlayson has an unusually high popularity rating on the site 'rate my professor'. His students seem to feel he is an excellent conveyor of information, is personally helpful and goes out of his way to satisfy his students' needs. One of the respondents put it this way: "Honestly Paul is one of the best professors at Guelph-Humber. Unlike many profs who ignore their students and read off the powerpoints, Paul actually takes the time to engage with the class which actually helps you grasp onto the information more than just reading material off a powerpoint and being bored to death. Take him if you can!"

University of Guelph-Humber marketing instructor Paul Finlayson has been suspended pending an investigation into a social media post supporting Israel and denouncing Hamas. Photo by Handout/Paul Finlayson

"I'm hearing 'hate speech' and 'unsafe environment', with no concept of free speech. It is a cacophony of uninformed, screaming buzz words."

"It's Kafkaesque. This is my livelihood and my firing is being treated as nothing."

"I'm not a political agitator or an Israel zealot. I work hard, I care about my students and I feel they're getting shafted."

"I don't know how anyone who agrees with Fred Hahn [Ontario president of OPSEU union] can be on my side."

Paul Finlayson