Dear experts: It's not the debate that's the problem. It's the framing. From Tablet, an online magazine:
According to Jordan Trafton, a student from Claremont McKenna College, who judged at the tournament, the motion failed to arouse controversy when announced. "I look around and nobody is doing anything, and I'm so shocked," he said. "This is Morehouse, a historically black college where everyone is up in arms about social justice."
From the press release that just arrived from the Anti-Defamation League:
Greenblatt added, "It is hard to imagine that the organizers would ever have asked students to defend Al Qaeda's attacks against the U.S. on 9/11, and this shouldn't be any different – there is no legitimate justification for terrorism. While ADL is a fierce advocate for freedom of speech and the role of debate in the public square, whoever devised the question exercised extremely poor judgment."
ADL called on organizers of the United States Universities Debate Association, which organized the event, to publicly apologize for this incident and use it as a teachable moment so that future debates do not include questions that require them to defend immoral positions that are anathema to reasonable and rational debate.
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