U of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh meets with aggrieved Muslim students over American Sniper tweet

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh met with Middle Eastern, North African, Muslim and South Asian students in a private meeting in the Michigan Union on Wednesday to discuss the University’s April screening of the movie “American Sniper,” a film based on the autobiography of former U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle.

E-mails obtained by the Daily sent Tuesday to listservs for various student organizations — including Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, the Middle East and Arab Network, the Arab Students Association, the South Asian Awareness Network, Michigan Pakistanis, and Muslim, Lebanese, Malaysian and Persian students — announced plans for the meeting. The e-mails said several students requested the meeting in response to a tweet Harbaugh sent April 8 regarding the movie.

“Michigan Football will watch ‘American Sniper’! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!” the tweet read.

Harbaugh’s tweet came amid national media coverage of the Center for Campus Involvement’s April 7 announcementthat it would cancel the movie’s screening scheduled for April 10’s UMix. The CCI said it made the decision in response to a student petition that raised concerns about how the film portrays Arabs, Muslims, the Middle East and North Africa.

However, following another student-generated petition calling for the University to reverse this decision, E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, issued a statement April 8 saying, “the initial decision was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters.”...