Journalism is, by definition, writing du jour — and sometimes it does not last that long. My latest piece, on Duke University’s decision to permit the Muslim call to prayer from the university’s chapel bell tower, seems to have been overtaken by events. Via WNCN:
Duke University has canceled its plans to have a Muslim prayer announcement broadcast from Duke Chapel’s belltower on Friday afternoons.
The university announced its plans to facilitate a call to prayer on Thursday, but Duke officials acknowledged the decision resulted in unintended backlash.
“Duke remains committed to fostering an inclusive, tolerant and welcoming campus for all of its students,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. “However, it was clear that what was conceived as an effort to unify was not having the intended effect.”
To be clear, though, this is a capitulation on policy, not principle. Schoenfeld’s statement implies that the university would have gone forward with its plan had the blowback been milder — ergo, the university is not recognizing its plan as wrong, just imprudent.
I have little doubt that the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, will sound on college campuses eventually — because, as I write in my piece today, one can make no principled objection to doing so given the intellectual premises accepted by the modern liberal university. Duke merely jumped the gun.