Wisconsin Bookstore's Fight for Free Speech Victorious
November 12, 2003
On Thursday, November 6, Madison, Wisconsin's Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative and a local newsweekly were able to convince Madison Area Technical College (MATC) to reverse its decision to impose restrictions on a speaking event about the Middle East, featuring noted writer and University of Chicago researcher Ali Abunimah. MATC had attempted to limit the scope of the talk and to deny Rainbow's request to sell books in conjunction with the event after some residents protested the talk due to Abunimah's pro-Palestinian point-of-view. However, faced with an unexpected backlash from the public, MATC decided at the last moment to proceed with the event as scheduled the evening of November 6.
The speaking engagement featuring Abunimah was scheduled as part of MATC's "Reporting From the Middle East," which is sponsored in part by Rainbow Bookstore, and also is part of MATC's Global Horizon lecture series. However, some in the community who vehemently opposed Abunimah's point-of-view on the Middle East exerted pressure on MATC to cancel, or at the very least, limit what Abunimah could talk about at the event. Subsequently, the college "sent an e-mail to Abunimah telling him what he could and could not speak about," Allen Ruff, Rainbow's events coordinator, told BTW.
