The Trick Was Coming As A Suicide Bomber. The Treat Was Posing With The University President.

MayorBob.

Posted to Etcetera on Mon Nov 13, 2006 at 12:58:36 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

Just like every Halloween, the president of the University of Pennsylvania hosts a costume party.  Faculty and students are invited to get dressed up for a night of fun and festivities.  Although there were about 700 costumed students in attendance this year at President Amy Guttman's house, there is only one costume the campus is talking about today.  As a matter of fact, the talk about the costume and the party and Guttman's reaction to what happened has extended far beyond the school's Philadelphia campus.

Saad Saadi is the name of the Penn student who caused all the ruckus.  He's also an Arab-American, so his choice of costume as a suicide bomber might be viewed as inflammatory.  One would think that Guttman, a Jewish-American, might have been a bit wary of posing for the camera with Saad "Suicide" Saadi standing next to her.  But, there's the picture showing her smiling as Glinda, the good witch from the Wizard of Oz, next to an AK-47 wielding Saadi with dynamite strapped around his body.  No sooner than the digital image was downloaded to a computer, it was making the rounds on the internet, being featured on local news (go to 6th page and view the fifth clip), and on to mention in the international print media.  Since the word of this hit the media, Saadi formally apologized on his web site and Jewish and Muslim student groups on campus voiced their disappointment about the incident.  Guttman, for her part, is taking a "Ohmigod, I was totally shocked" take on what happened turning it into a free speech issue:

"The costume is clearly offensive and I was offended by it. As soon as I realized what his costume was, I refused to take any more pictures with him, as he requested. The student had the right to wear the costume, just as I, and others, have a right to criticize his wearing of it."

If Guttman was expecting the issue to die quietly, she didn't get her Halloween wish.  Some critics are saying her explanation of what happened doesn't square with common sense and Penn's trustees "should direct Gutmann to apologize unequivocally" and conduct a thorough review of the school's Middle East studies programs they believe are responsible for such a "deeply entrenched intellectual perversity."  A pro-Israeli student activist at Penn registered her hurt and offense at "a disturbing disregard for the sensitivities of others."  And the Zionist Organization of America asked Guttman:

"We are frankly shocked and appalled by your gross error of judgment. How is it possible that you tolerated the presence at your party of someone dressed as a suicide bomber and lend credibility to this symbol of the radical Islamic terror war against the West by happily posing with him?  Would you have done the same if he had come dressed as the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan?"

Elia Powers, writing for insidehighered.com wonders if the picture will end up "haunting" Guttman.  Campus-watch.org's Winfield Myers, who was responsible for lauching the photo onto the web thinks so "I understand that everyone makes social foibles, but this goes well beyond this."  However, another commentator said that "scrutinizing" costumes at a costume party to look for nefarious messages "is silly."  And why wouldn't you find something evil and shocking at Guttman's party?  After all, the theme of this years party was "Wicked."