Current talk-show host and former NFL quarterback
Boomer Esiason says he is cutting off the University of Maryland, his alma mater, after it decided to cancel a screening of the movie "American Sniper."
Esiason tweeted that he is "never donating another dime to the U of MD" after learning about the cancellation of the film, which profiles the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.
"I'm deeply saddened and insulted," Esiason added. Chris Kyle, he emphasized, "is a HERO!"
Esiason tweeted out an op-ed by Todd Starnes of
Fox News explaining why the film was canceled at the University of Maryland.
Starnes wrote that the school said it would postpone indefinitely an upcoming screening of the film after some Muslim students denounced it as "Islamophobic, racist, and nationalistic."
He quoted a petition launched by the
Muslim Students Association denouncing "American Sniper." It declared that the film "only perpetuates the spread of Islamophobia and is offensive to many Muslims around the world for good reason."
The movie "dehumanizes Muslim individuals, promotes the idea of senseless mass murder, and portrays negative and inaccurate stereotypes," according to the MSA's petition.
"American Sniper" was scheduled to be seen May 6 and 7. On Wednesday, the university's Student Entertainment Events panel said the film would be "postponed."
Although it did not mention the MSA's petition, the panel mentioned that it had a meeting about the film with "concerned student organizations."
Breyer Hillegas, president of the school's College Republicans, told Fox News' Starnes that he was furious about the cancellation.
"Universities are always trying to satisfy the political correctness police and worry about who they might offend — rather than standing up for principle and the First Amendment of the Constitution," Hillegas said.
He said preventing "American Sniper" from being shown "promotes intolerance and stifles dialogue and debate — and goes directly against the atmosphere that the University of Maryland is supposed to support."
But according to the MSA, the movie creates a "dangerous climate for Muslim students and severely devalues the community atmosphere."
The MSA said the only way to make the University of Maryland more inclusive was to prevent "American Sniper" from being screened on campus.
Hillegas strongly disagreed, calling the film "an accurate depiction of what went on" in Kyle's life — and in particular his fight against jihadists on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The University of Maryland is just one place where Muslims attempted to silence "American Sniper."
The University of Michigan canceled a screening there earlier this month, only to reverse itself after a firestorm of criticism from across the United States. One prominent critic was the school's new football coach, Jim Harbaugh, who said he was "proud" of Chris Kyle and planned to show "American Sniper" to his team.
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