Dear Editor: The UW made the proper decision to allow Kevin Barrett to teach his course on Islam, even if he includes his belief that the U.S. orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. As Voltaire is reported to have said to Helvetius, “I disapprove of what you say and will defend to the death your right to say it.”
To allow politicians, columnists and the general public to dictate course content is to embark on a slippery slope. UW students are intelligent, thinking adults. As such, most of them will not swallow Barrett’s beliefs any more than they will accept that the Holocaust never happened or that the world is flat. Which leads me to one more quote: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”