Masonic heresy

October 7, 2005 1:06 am

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY authorities hardly covered themselves with glory in the way they handled a Pakistani- American student's recent one-person protest of a visiting military recruiter. For the offense of peacefully exercising his First Amendment rights, they had him busted.

Though accounts vary slightly, it seems that the student, Tariq Khan--an Air Force veteran--was wearing an 81/2- by 11-inch "Recruiters Lie" flier at the GMU Johnson Center when he got into a slight scuffle with a young man intent upon relieving him of his signage. A college official reportedly told Mr. Khan to move on. Standing on his constitutional right to express his views quietly on public property (of which he is a co-owner), the student refused. Campus police then slapped the bracelets on him, and Fairfax County officers charged him with trespassing.

The ACLU of Virginia wryly notes that the arrest occurred "at a public university named after the person who may be most responsible for the Bill of Rights." Whether or not recruiters lie, George Mason U. is being patently untrue to its namesake's ideals if it fails to urge the Fairfax D.A. to drop charges against Mr. Khan.