Radical students destroy 9/11 flag displays across country
Radical students across the country defaced campus 9/11 memorial displays.
'Campus Reform' reported this morning on the message 'In loving memory of those who died on 9/11' being erased at Mount Holyoke College.
As some college students across the United States commemorated the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 on their campuses, others subsequently destroyed their displays.
Members of Young America’s Foundation at Washington University in St. Louis placed 2,977 American flags on campus to honor the lives lost in the terrorist attacks. However, Fadel Alkilani, who serves as a student senator at the university, was caught later collecting the flags in garbage bags.
WOW: A student senator at @WUSTL was caught on video throwing away 2,977 American flags from conservative students’ 9/11: Never Forget Project memorial.
Despicable. pic.twitter.com/j6Wf1mdyLl— YAF (@yaf) September 11, 2021
Nathaniel Hope, a member of WashU College Republicans, recorded the incident.
When YAF reached out to Alkilani, he said, “I did not violate any university or legal policy. Now go away.” He told one Twitter user that he stole the flags to “protest against American imperialism and the 900,000 lives lost as a result of post 9/11 war.”
In response to the “harassment” and “misinformation” campaign against him, Alkilani said in a statement published on Saturday evening that he “did not deface, destroy, damage, nor steal” any flags and “did not violate any University Code of Conduct policy.”
“Muslims such as I have faced fear, harassment, and Islamophobia from those who unjustly use the victims of 9/11 as a political cudgel,” he added. “Those who died during 9/11 deserve better than to be used as a political tool by those who seek to excuse American imperialism and Islamophobia.”
He then pointed readers to Frederick Douglass’ essay “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
Washington University’s Executive Director of University News Susan McGinn directed Campus Reform to a statement from the school, which called Alkilani’s actions “reprehensible” and affirmed that the First Amendment did protect the 9/11 commemoration.
The school is “taking appropriate steps to investigate this incident and will follow our standard protocols as we do so,” the statement read.
A similar incident occurred during Saturday evening at the University of Virginia.
Over the weekend, YAF students discovered their flag display in disarray and their table flipped over. Campus police reviewed surveillance footage and saw two vandals upend the table.
“I find it disheartening that some students are not able to understand the tragedies of 9/11,” UVA YAF chair Nick Cabrera told the organization.
At Michigan State University, YAF students’ flag display and 9/11 memorial were vandalized. Originally, the display said “Never Forget.” The vandals, however, crossed out the word “Never” and spray painted the word “Israel.”
[RELATED: WATCH: Students think 9/11 lessons should omit ‘gruesome’ details, ‘avoid placing blame’]
“It’s stunning that someone would vandalize a memorial to the victims of the September 11th attacks, but it also underscores why we do this every year — to ensure that the innocent lives taken that day are never forgotten,” YAF reports MSU chairman Charlie Jones saying.
Mount Holyoke College Republicans chalked “In loving memory of those who died on 9/11” on the pavement adjacent to their flag display. Students later saw the message crossed out; below was a new message reading “There is blood on U.S. hands.”
Campus Reform correspondent Lela Gallery reported on the incident Monday.
Campus Reform reached out to the aforementioned universities for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
