New York, Feb 8: A mock hostage-taking video showing five college students in ski masks, speaking in crude Middle Eastern accents and threatening a rubber duck has drawn complaints from local Muslim leaders.
In the video, five figures are seen threatening the duck, which serves as a mascot for a residence hall at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, Newsday reported in its Thursday edition.
The video was posted on the websites Google and YouTube, but has since been removed, the newspaper said.
The video was accompanied by a statement saying it was a joke, but university administrators saw it as insensitive and the five students – all in their final year of college – were dismissed from jobs as residence hall assistants and face campus disciplinary hearings.
“I think it’s not a prank,” said Ghazi Khankan, a board member of the American Muslim Alliance, a group which he said advocates for Muslim participation in the political process. “Campuses are for enlightenment and for teaching us to get along, to respect each other, to know how to live together.”
Another Muslim leader who also said he was a C.W. Post alumnus, described it as another example of Muslims being stereotyped.
“People are testing the waters again and again, and the Muslim community is always at the receiving end,” said Habeeb Ahmed, president of the Islamic Centre of Long Island in Westbury, New York.
University Provost Joseph Shenker said the tape was “an insult to the victims and families involved in hostage situations”.
Student employees were expected to serve as role models, and “we expect them to be instructing our students on being sensitive regarding all groups”, he said.—AP
