Does a university policy against harassment infringe on students' rights to free speech? That's the question raised by a case in Massachusetts:

A campus magazine at Tufts University has been found guilty of "harassment" by a disciplinary board, a decision that could establish "a terrifying precedent," according to an academic freedom group.

The Primary Source, a conservative monthly published by Tufts students, commemorated "Islamic Awareness Week" last month on the Medford, Mass., campus with a full-page "supplement" headlined "Islam -- Arabic Translation: Submission," that cited facts about Muslim history.

That unsigned article, along with a satirical "Christmas carol" in the magazine's December issue mocking the university's affirmative-action program, was cited as a violation of Tufts' "nondiscrimination policy." ...

Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), said the magazine's article about Islam was "one-sided," but warned that the Tufts ruling endangers students' rights to free speech.

"The students were responding to what they thought was a one-sided and overly rosy depiction of Islam during Islamic Awareness Week," the FIRE official said. ...

The panel's decision "appeared not even to raise the issue of whether or not the statements ... were true, but turned only on how they made people feel," Mr. Lukianoff said.

Last week, 22-year-old columnist Ben Shapiro -- who testified before the Tufts committee -- compared the university to Stalin's Soviet Union:

I attended a long, grueling show trial -- the kind of show trial that doubtless will be repeated at campuses across the United States. ...
The show trial was closed to outside media; I was only present because members of The Primary Source editorial board asked if I would give a closing statement on their behalf.

And a show trial it was. The room was filled to capacity with Dennis and MSA allies, who cheered, on cue, for Dennis and his MSA compatriot, Shirwac Mohamed. Dennis and Mohamed called witness after witness to complain of emotional distress: a lesbian student who whined that The Source opposed the homosexual agenda; a black female student who complained that she had -- horror of horrors! -- been engaged in a dialogue about the carol during one of her classes; a member of the MSA who carped that the quotes from the Koran were not placed "in context." Not one witness showed documented evidence of psychological harm.

And the CSL swallowed this gibberish whole.

The Tufts case has already become a rallying point for conservative bloggers, including Michelle Malkin, and prompting Ace of Spades to declare:

I'm not as easily intimidated as some touchy-feely tenured professors and their darling little leftists in the student body. So I'm going to republish the purely factual advertisement here that caused the thought-police to respond so aggressively, with a little message to the easily aggrieved at Tufts.

Tufts University? Fatwa this.

Remind me about this next year too. I would so love to re-run this when it's "Islamic Awareness Week".

Dan Riehl recounts his own conflicts with academia and says:

Naughty liberal faculties who love to crush dissent are nothing new, but they certainly have come a long way, baby, since the 80's, anyway. Fortunately, now with new media, there are a great many more voices willing to push back.

Eugene Volokh says of the Tufts committee's ruling:

Lovely: Harsh criticism of Islam doesn't -- in the Committee's view -- "promot[e] political or social discourse." Rather, it is an "unreasonable attack" (and it's up to the Committee to decide which attacks on religions are reasonable and which aren't).

As an old-timer who graduated college nearly 25 years ago, I cannot help but recall the 1979 movie "Animal House," in which the college dean placed the Delta Tau Chi fraternity on "double-secret probation." No word yet on whether editors of the Primary Source are considering a road trip, planning a toga party or working on a homecoming parade float.

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor