Providence College Newspaper Censors Dr. Trifkovic

By Tim Dionisopoulos
Tuesday, 2 Nov 2010

On October 21, members of the Providence College chapter of Youth for Western Civilization along with fifty of their peers attended a presentation by Dr. Srdja Trifkovic. He gave an eye-opening talk that revealed the complex inner nature of Islam and its inherently antagonistic relationship with Western civilization.

Dr. Trifkovic veered away from the politically correct script that conservatives typically spout based upon egalitarian, assimilationist premises, and instead deconstructed the first principles of Islam to expose the danger it poses to Western civilization. Although a few leftists tried to derail Dr. Trifkovic’s focus by either theatrically crying during the middle of the presentation, or belittling his stellar credentials during the Q&A session, the majority of the crowd was in overwhelming support of his message.

Given the significant turnout for the event, I was under the naïve impression that Dr. Trifkovic’s presentation would receive some fairly significant coverage from the student run weekly newspaper, The Cowl, whose representative attended the speech to take notes and observe the lecture.  A few days later I ran into the writer who attended the presentation who informed me that The Cowl would not be running an article relating to the event, with some vague mumblings about it being too controversial. I later on emailed him asking for a more clear reason why the event would not be covered. Some excerpts from the email response I received from this writer stated that he "did not feel comfortable with the message [Trifkovic] was portraying... Also, I felt that his speach [sic] was not really geared towards politics and since the event was labeled as a College Republican Event it should have been. Instead it was more of a Youth for Western Civilization Event which is an organization not recognized by the school... [E]ditors from The Cowl don't not [sic] feel comfortable publishing material that is offensive and does not fall in line with the school's mission."

I waited for this week’s edition of The Cowl to be released last night, and, true to their word, there was not a single mention of Dr. Trifkovic’s visit to campus. Ironically, one of the main articles in The Cowl this week was a pieced on political apathy at Providence College.  I refuse to believe that students at Providence are politically apathetic. I think the greater likelihood is that the school only gives recognition and funding to boring, hackneyed supplications to the altar of political correctness that the majority of the student body could care less about. 

It is obvious that the writers and editors of The Cowl are biased and are actively seeking to suppress the news they don't find palatable. The Cowl never asked for a transcript of Dr. Trifkovic’s presentation, and I am curious which part of his lecture they found particularly "offensive," or more importantly, if they thought anything he stated was untrue. Although I have attempted to contact the editor in chief through email asking for a formal explanation, I have yet to receive a response.

Of course, Dr. Trifkovic’s true sin during the presentation was in proclaiming one too many "hate facts" – facts that everyone knows to be true, but that cannot be said because they are too "insensitive." Long past are the days when college was about discovering the truth of the matter through reasoned discourse and debate. We have since entered into the post-truth era, where truths must be cleared through the gauntlet of "niceness," "tolerance," and "sensitivity" before we are even allowed to think them, much less read about them in the student newspaper.

Much like the argument that world must be made safe for democracy, the university must be made safe for tolerance. And if facts, reason, culture, and curriculum must be sacrificed, then so be it. The end is noble.  Despite efforts to shut down, ban, and censor us, Providence YWC is still find ways to exist and remain active. The fact that The Cowl ignored this event at Providence College reveals their fear that students are seeing beneath the multicultural cosmetic painted onto the face of modern academia – and what they're seeing sure isn't pretty.

Below are some videos and photos from Dr. Trifkovic's presentation.