July 28, 2007

Student Arrested in Koran-in-Toilet Incidents at Pace U.

A 23-year-old man just a few credits short of a degree from Pace University was arrested on Friday for allegedly desecrating the Koran by throwing copies of the Muslim scripture into toilets at the university’s Manhattan campus last fall, the New York Daily News reported.

The man, Stanislav Shmulevich, was detained after New York police officers found him on a surveillance photograph leaving a room where the holy books are kept. Mr. Shmulevich, a Ukrainian immigrant who works at a European banking firm and who a roommate says took “a break” from his Pace studies, will face hate-crime charges for criminal mischief and aggravated harassment when he is arraigned. —Andrew Mytelka

Comments

1. And this is completely ok for the “Free speech” crowd. Would this be an outrage if it were a bible. Still more placating from the cowardly limp writed testoterone challenged academics. Keep sheepishly playing into hands of the Jihadists claiming “tolerance”, aka cowardice. Plead with you executioner that you felt their pain and understood their outrage as they sharpen their butcher knife for a quick and painful severing of your head. Oh well you can always say you kept the evil Bushbots from cutting student loans or some other useless self ingrandising drivel.

   — FreedomOfSpeech    Jul 28, 07:10 PM    #

2. And if it were a bible or an American flag, there would be no criminal charges, because the fact that no law was violated would have been recognized.

   Like it or not, expressing contempt for the beliefs of someone else happens to be perfectly legal, and should be.

   This is the United States where democracy and legal rights to express opinions means something, after all, not Saudi Arabia or a country living under some form of Sharia law where oppression of Christians and Jews is encouraged while the slightest perceived criticism of Islam is not to be tolerated.

   — Steve D    Jul 29, 11:48 AM    #

3. “And this is completely ok for the “Free speech” crowd. Would this be an outrage if it were a bible.”

   Um…yes?

   — Ben Regenspan    Jul 29, 03:37 PM    #

4. A G G R A N D I Z I N G This is the Journal of Higher Education?

   — Dan Mann    Jul 29, 08:51 PM    #

5. What this guy did is to assualt another’s religious belief; not materially differently than painting a swatstika on a synagogue or defacing a church facade with KKK symbols.

   There’s a difference between freedom of speech and saying whatever, whenever to whomever – that’s anarchy!

   — Rob    Jul 30, 08:08 AM    #

6. Shmulevich should be allowed to destroy a copy of the koran just as if it were a copy of mein kamp. Both books treat him in similar regard.

   — David Zager    Jul 30, 08:12 AM    #

7. I would like to commend “Freedom of Speech” for having the courage of his convictions and signing his own name to his comment.

   — Kelly J.    Jul 30, 09:25 AM    #

8. William James emphasized the following: “Let no youth have any anxiety about the upshot of his education, whatever the line of it may be. If he keeps faithfully busy each hour of the working day, he can safely leave the final result to itself. He can, with perfect certainty, wake up some fine morning to find himself one of the most competent ones of his generation in whatever pursuit he has singled out.” We need to focus on worthwhile pursuits and endeavors.

   William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
   Professor
   PhD Program in Educational Leadership
   Prairie View A&M University
   Member of the Texas A&M University System

   Editor-in-Chief
   NATIONAL FORUM JOURNALS
   www.nationalforum.com

   — William Allan Kritsonis, PhD    Jul 30, 09:33 AM    #

9. “was arrested on Friday for allegedly desecrating the Koran by throwing copies of the Muslim scripture into toilets”

   Interesting phrasing. It’s as though you believe he is charged with “desecrating the Koran”, which is obviously not the case. The charges are more likely along the theft, vandalism and destruction of property lines, but we don’t know because you have chosen this strangely misleading presentation. I wonder why.

   — david    Jul 30, 09:52 AM    #

10. Shmulevich should be allowed to destroy his own personal copies of the Koran, but the article mentions his leaving “a room where the holy books are kept.” Sounds like theft, to me, which is a crime.
    Of course it’s an outrage, that’s why he did it. As such, it’s protected speech, but that’s not the only issue in this case, I’m afraid.

    — Cal    Jul 30, 10:08 AM    #

11. This is outrageous! First of all the law he was arrested under applies when destroying $250 or more worth of property. The Koran was probably a free handout and if not it surely wasn’t worth $250. The other law he is being charged under, both felonies by the way, is for aggravated harrassment which must be comitted at a place of worship. Is this “Meditation Room” a place of worship? I think not, as the very reason it is named so is to make it very clear the University is not promoting a religion. (Although the Muslim students take these meditation rooms over and enforce their own rules at such places, not to mention leave their religious objects there such as this Koran.)
    This is nothing more than enforcing Islamic blasphemy laws, as if this was a Bible the University would have never turned this student over to the police. They may have charged him for the Bible and took away some school priveleges, while giving him a warning, but I doubt it.

    — Stephanie Anderson    Jul 30, 10:32 AM    #

12. Why was this person arrested? He didn’t commit any crime. The police, courts and the justice department are helping the jihadists.

    — Kan Chandras    Jul 30, 11:06 AM    #

13. Rest easy, Stephanie. If the facts are established as you conjecture, the charges will not stick. However, the charging officer, who I daresay has a great deal more knowledge of the case, and credibility, than you have, clearly disagrees with you. The rest of your rant is unfounded religious discrimination for which you should be ashamed. You should reserve such weirdness for Little Green Footballs where it is enthusiastically received.

    — david    Jul 30, 11:26 AM    #

14. Blog’s turning nasty! We can agree that the article is incomplete and invites conjecture. I would not want to conclude the “charging officer” is right or wrong, just that the article is poorly done and does not provide thorough information.

    — Tom    Jul 30, 11:54 AM    #

15. david – that was a great job trying to sound intelligent while arguing with Stephanie’s valid points, but is not “conjecture” a noun?

    — David II    Jul 30, 12:09 PM    #

16. sad to say that I agree with the comments so far that had this been a bible, very little would have been done. Indeed, many of us are familiar with Serrano’s ‘piss Christ’. I’m fairly certain nothing happened to him. If he’s arrested for theft or destruction of property, ok, but I would still have a hard time believing someone would get arrested if s/he did the same to a bible.

    — shawn    Jul 30, 12:25 PM    #

17. It’s a grey area of free speech. Mr. Schmulevich’s actions could arguably fall under the conventional provision of “fighting words”, that exception to free speech where intentionally provocative and imflammatory words and behavior are legally vulnerable to sanctions.

    — marci    Jul 30, 01:18 PM    #

18. Tom, who “concluded the charging officer was right or wrong”? Oh, that’s right, weirdo racist girl “concluded” he was wrong, sorry.

    David II, not that it matters, conjecture is also a verb. “Stephanie’s valid points”? It’s only fair to tell you, when you click the link, you are no longer in LGF land, where your deluded bigotry is considered normal. The lights are on and you are embarrassing yourself.

    Shawn, I get the feeling you are trying to communicate something. The funny thing about your speculation is that we appear limited to speculation. I could not find a reported case of bibles stolen and vandalized. Interesting that the same group does the whining and the vandalizing. Hmmm.

    Marci, where in the world would you get the impression this case has anything to do with free speech? Oh, that’s right, you were lied to and misled by the propagandist who provided you this link. Sorry. You should remember who lied to you and not trust them in the future.

    — david    Jul 30, 01:36 PM    #

19. “We need to focus on worthwhile pursuits and endeavors,” Dr. Kritsonis quotes the esteemed William James. That key issue should be asked of those who have brought criminal charges here. We are now living in such a “politically correct” system that we have law-enforcement authorities focusing on this rather than on their real job. The question is aren’t the “worthwhile pursuits and endeavors” of our justice system to prosecute real criminals involved in such activities as rape, robberies, murders, drug dealing, etc. We would like the prosecutor in this case to provide the statistics of how many serious crimes were committed in his district while pursuing this case; and how much attention he, his staff and the police department have paid to them. Or perhaps they are too busy preparing for crowd control regarding the next opening at a New York museum in which the beliefs of Catholics will be mocked.

    — steve    Jul 30, 02:49 PM    #

20. I doubt it. “Jerry Springer, The Musical,” which depicted Jesus Christ as an obscenity-spewing coprophiliac, apparently didn’t.

    — Gustave    Jul 30, 02:52 PM    #

21. Islamism is a malignant cancer. The first cells have metastasized in America. It will only get worse from here, with the help of our own guilty, Western lameness and our bulldozed into being, socialist leanings. We deserve what we get for being such pussies.

    — Dave    Jul 30, 08:55 PM    #

22. david in the above comments lacks class and the ability to argue without resorting to ad hominem attacks, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a kernal of truth to his arguments. A .pdf file can be found at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/pictures/20070730ShmulevichComplaint01.jpg (and yeah, it probably kills david to see a link to Little Green Footballs here). If you read through it, it appears that Mr. Shmulevich is on shaky ground (if the complaint is accurate) for the following two reasons: (1) he did not own the copy of the Koran that he “vandalized” and (2) he used a public toilet in his “protest.” Stealing another’s property can’t be condoned, and I can’t imagine any circumstances in which it would be good for a toilet and its plumbing to flush a book down the pipes. The whole “hate crime” charge is weak from the beginning, but Mr. Shmulevich sounds guilty of at least two misdemeanors.

    — J. Ward    Jul 31, 03:36 AM    #

23. Favorite propegenda of neocons these days is to create straw man and knock it down to generate hate against Muslims. This guy stole and vandalized book to target specific group. that is a hate crime.

    — Joe    Jul 31, 04:22 AM    #

24. The book ended up where it belongs.

    — Dave    Jul 31, 11:02 AM    #

25. This is no more a hate crime than the burning of The American Flag.These are both examples of freedom of speech. If you want people to be punished for these “crimes” you should move to Iraq, Iran, Pakistan etc. But you probably already live there.

    — Trace    Jul 31, 11:19 AM    #

26. If this is tried as a hate crime & he is found guilty, he faces up to 40 yrs in jail. This is not fair since most common criminals don’t get this kind of a sentence for real crimes. The charge should be theft at best. The goverment is laying down to the group who is pushing this issue.

    — Old Bill    Jul 31, 11:26 AM    #

27. To David, The Pacifier. It’s people like you,self haters, that only justify hatred against America and it’s Christian majority because your brain is bigger than it needs to be. Pick up a hammer or learn a trade and build something that can be seen and used for the betterment of the people around you. It would be much more valuable to live your life with something to show for it rather than the worthless thoughts in your head. After all, you have been molded by the same “scholars” who have infected you with your disease.. Only in NYC could this be called a hate crime. Beware of the ones who call you,“blue eye devil”, and can only rise to their heaven after martyrdom.

    — mark    Jul 31, 11:27 AM    #

28. Islam is a blood cult, sorry to state that for the multicultural nimrods here.

    Multiculturalism is an acidic construct that prevents threats to a society from even being discussed because the subject has been deemed a priori to be bigoted and “hateful”

    The radical Islamists and their idiot supporters like David are using this type of incident to incrementally advance Sharia.

    Just remember Dave, the Islamists hate the liberal/progressives even more than they hate the conservatives.

    — William    Jul 31, 06:00 PM    #

29. What Islam is as a “religion” can be argued pro and con forever.

    What Islam is as a culture is clear. Islam is a vicious culture of death. For 30 and more years now, we have witnessed the senseless, baseless, Satanic acts of terrorism and mass murder perpetrated on Israel and the rest of the world by that self-proclaimed “religiion of peace,” Islam.

    Over the past few decades, countries in western Europe have experienced huge influxes of Islamic people running from the filth, poverty, and negligence of many Islamic governments. Now, America is facing the same thing.

    It does not take long for these immigrants to start demanding that the cultures and governments to which they migrate literally change, and change radically, to meet the demands of the new immigrants.

    Such demands are both ludicrous and outrageous. These immigrants want jobs, and then they want special consideration and dedicated space to take 5 breaks a day to “pray” to “Allah.” In France, England and other countries, they riot, burn, and scorn the law to demand that whole towns and communities be rendered exempt from local, regional, and national government, and be declared “independent” Islamic territories, run under Shari’a law. They assault and kill police, fire, emergency, and other public workers who dare to enter “their territory.”

    In America, the demands and activities of CAIR are oriented toward the same goals and auger poorly for anyone who DARES to speak out against these outrages, or to criticize the insults, scofflaw attitudes, and total lack of respect by CAIR and its followers for the United States Constitution, the US system of justice, and laws and rule of law in the United States.

    The Schmulevich debacle offers a clear indication of just how far afield from clear thinking, patently clear law, and fundamental understanding of and respect for the United States Constitution we have come in this country.

    Secular Progressive and radical liberal blathering and ill-founded, irrational whining and demanding for ever-more self defeating “Political Correctness” has eroded and torn violently and inexcusably at the well-reasoned Constitutional basis for our political and justice systems for decades.

    It is from the collective and deep damage done by this filthy and vile attack on the very basis of our formerly sound, reasonable, and effective systems of politics and justice that the Schmulevich debacle occurs, and indeed is almost ordained to occur.

    Irrespective of the tripe and disingenuous babble disgorged to the point of nausea by the radlibs and SecPros, there ARE long-standing, valid, and very fundamental requirements for, and definitions of, being an American.

    What happened to Schmulevich is wholly antithetical to, and in fact an outright insult to, those requirements. What is propoesed, and promulgated, and pushed, and demanded here by CAIR is outrageous, ludicrous, without an iota of merit, and an absolute and unmitigated insult to America, to Americans, and to what it fundamentally means to be an American.

    We need badly in this country NOT to get back to the fundamentals of William James, with all due respect to William Allen Kritsonis, but rather to the fundamentals of American Democracy, and defined in our founding documents, as preserved in our American rule of law and system of justice, and as kept in trust for us in the words, hopes, dreams, and astoundingly brave and sound actions and words of our forefathers, and of those who followed them, and kept faith with them, throughout our history.

    Education is wonderful. I have attained doctoral degrees, technical certifications, and many other evidences of a broad and wide liberal education in literature, the law, and the sciences, throughout my lifetime.

    But education is no substitute for for the fundamental political systems and values that have made and protected and kept viable out Democrace, and without which we would never enjoy the wealth, breadth and depth of education that we enjoy today in America.

    Nor is education alone a panacea for the social and political ills we face today. That is especially true for the treachery, damage, and unspeakable horrors of terrorism perpetrated upon peaceful, prospering nations by the likes of Islam and its ongoing culture of death.

    Education has nothing to do with what Mr. Schmulevich did when he copped a couple of cheap Korans and dumped them in the hopper.

    Who speaks for Schmulevich? Who speaks for his nation? Who speaks for people in Israel living under a constant reign of terror from the infidel, heathen purveyors of death who dump thousands of rockets on civilians? Who bomb school busses filled with small, innocent children?

    Who speaks for those of us who who are sick to death of seeing our Jewish brothers and sisters murdered wholesale, and over and over again, by these maniac, psychotic sons of Satan who revel in the practice of their culture of death?

    Politically Correct? Offensive to Islam? Good Christ! These are the phrases of madmen who have totally lost their way, who have no moral or ethical compass, and who sit and scratch their heads and their asses while pure evil operates in the open around them, and then demands their loyalty and support.

    Has anyone for ONE SINGLE SECOND stopped to think about HOW PATENTLY AND DEEPLY OFFENSIVE Islam is to the rest of the world, if only for sitting by and failing miserably to correct, or to counter, this overwhelming culture of death?

    Here is the truth about Islam and it’s hellbound advocates like CAIR: There are hundreds of thousands of active, vicious, extreme and well-trained Islamic terrorists. There are hundreds of millions of Islamic people who may not engage directly in such terrorism, but who support, encourage, fund, arm, feed, house, clothe, transport, and otherwise provide ongoing assistance to these terrorists. And finally, there are those in Islam who sit back, secretly agree with radical terrorism, delight in the morbid and lethal “successes” of Islamic terrorists, and if nothing else offer moral support and encouragement to terrorism.

    Islam IS terrorism. It IS a culture of death. It will manipulate you, con you, dissemble, lie, and do everything it can (e.g., CAIR) to convnce you that it is not what it really is.

    Wake up, America. Wake up before it’s too late to do so.

    Wake up and use your common sense. If you can’t do that, don’t blame Islam for what’s coming to you. Islam is already planning what it wants to bring to you. Islam is well aware of exactly what it wants to make out of America, and what it wants to do with the American saps and suckers and dummies who just couldn’t wake up and face reality.

    In the next two to three generations, we most likely will be fighting these people on our own soil. It will be a war of generations. And if we cannot find a moral and political base in the fundamental values of our Constitution, our rule of law, and the lessons taught to us by our founding fathers and those who followed them, and made and kept America what she is and must be as a nation, then there is little hope that we will prevail in that fight.

    Straighten up, America. Fly right. Get back on track here. There’s nothing wrong with common sense. There’s nothing wrong with loving your country. There’s nothing wrong with applying common sense to our Constitution, our Government, and our rule of law and system of justice.

    There’s everything wrong with letting some shitbag culture of death STEAL all of that out from under our noses and make a mockery of the nation and the government that was once a sound, solid, viable America.

    FREE STEFANOVICH SCHMULEVICH!!! DISCIPLINE AND FIRE THE JUDGE WHO ISSUED THE WARRANT FOR HIS ARREST! FIRE THE PROSECUTOR WHO SOUGHT THE WARRANT AND DEFILED OUR CONSTITUTION AND FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN LAW BY DOING SO! OUTLAW CAIR AND ALL ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS IN AMERICA UNTIL ISLAMIC WORLDWIDE MURDER AND TERRORISM CEASE!

    Stand up, hat up, lock and load, AND TAKE YOUR COUNTRY BACK!

    — Edju    Aug 1, 12:28 AM    #

30. I’m glad I saw this article. I was going to barbeque pork over a pile of smoldering Qurans this weekend. I think I’ll switch to steak instead.

    — David Slater    Aug 1, 12:20 PM    #

31. Placing a religious text in a toilet is not a hate crime. It is hateful, yes, but that’s not the same thing. The law requires more for such a distinction. This incident has been labeled repeatedly as ‘intimidation’, but based on the – admittedly rather limited – information we have been provided it is not; at least not to the point of being criminal. A swastika on a temple wall is intimidation. A burning cross on a lawn is intimidation. Why? Well, the swastika in modern context represents a political group dedicated to the eradication of the Jewish people. As such it amounts to a threat on people’s lives. For the burning cross, feel free to ask someone with a relative who was lynched why that might be threatening and intimidating.

    The degree of an action is important, and this man’s actions do not measure up. If you want to find intimidation then I suggest one take a look at the violence that erupted over a political comic in Denmark. How many papers held back publication due to fear of safety? Better yet, compare this act to people receiving public death sentences for criticizing a religion in a book. Suddenly a holy book in a toilet, while being repugnant, just doesn’t seem so threatening.

    Do I agree with what was done? No. It was a crude, sophomoric act, and a perfect example of what is the necessary evil of freedom of speech – that even those with nothing of value to say have the right to express themselves. Hence why we can have crucifixes hung in pee, the Madonna covered in feces, and even Klan rallies. I’m embarrassed that no better way to express one’s anger could be found at an institution of higher learning. More so, I find his act insulting, and I’m not even Muslim. That being said, if it wasn’t his book (and it sure as hell wasn’t his toilet) then send him up for theft and destruction of property. That, along with our contempt, he most certainly deserves. Anything else is up to the university to enforce.

    — Kyle    Aug 2, 05:50 AM    #

32. Here, here, Edju! Well stated and based on the latest threat from those who preach and follow islam to this nation today (coupled with a burning picture of the White House), when will we stand for our rights to be the nation we are; one that does not follow the hatred of the “infidel” found in islamic “law.” Are we to live in fear when we defeated nazism? Let us NOT forget that the entire political spectrum of America was changed by a Palestinian terrorist (whose double name we refuse to mention and may he never be released from his California prison until he stands before the Justice of God) in the first act of terrorism on American soil when he shot and killed Robert Kennedy over the senator’s pro-Israeli stance. Our nation was changed forever by that evil act and yet we continue to cuddle those who have murdered us in the midst of our nation’s biggest city. Have we forgotten the cheering and dancing of the Palestinians on that infamous day?

    — steve    Aug 2, 01:21 PM    #

33. “Are we to live in fear when we defeated nazism?” Steve and Edju – both of you are very frightened and fear doesn’t help you address and solve problems. For example, your frightened rants are nothing more than masturbation…it makes you feel better for awhile. Don’t get me wrong. I masturbate. I’m sure too much. The difference is that I don’t say I’m making babies. Oh and by the way, the constitution and our laws and our rights that you “want to restore” are all liberal. Saying otherwise doesn’t make it so. Therefore, our founding fathers would be doing much of what we are doing now in response to terrorism….only alot more efficiently and in a lot less frightened manner.

    — steve perrett    Aug 4, 08:13 PM    #

34. “Let us NOT forget that the entire political spectrum of America was changed by a Palestinian terrorist (whose double name we refuse to mention and may he never be released from his California prison until he stands before the Justice of God) in the first act of terrorism on American soil when he shot and killed Robert Kennedy over the senator’s pro-Israeli stance.”

    No doubt you were about to disclose that Sirhan Sirhan is a Palestinian Christian, right?

    — Nullifidian    Aug 6, 05:33 AM    #

35. This where “political correctness” has taken us in America today. Even Rod Serling could not have predicted this wrong minded behavior by our government. This should scare us all.

    — Chas    Aug 6, 09:19 AM    #

36. Uh – Nullifidian – let us not forget that Sirhan Sirhan was raised by Christian parents (not necessarily a practicing Christian himself) and also dabbled in the occult. His motivations not coming from religious grounding but supposed anger over Israel’s creation. His murdering RFK was deranged – not Christian.

    — jg    Aug 7, 02:07 PM    #

37. I love how the true American spirit comes out on the internet! Hate, bigotry, revenge, fanaticism… all that we claim the “Islamists” or “Jihadists” carry with them are right here in this blog.

    And we call ourselves followers of Christ or for my Jewish friends Moses.

    Once we have placed the black cloth of hate over our hearts we will never remove it.

    — John    Aug 9, 03:53 PM    #

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