Letter: An account of sexual assault at UW-Madison +OPINION, page 6
University of Wisconsin-Madison
New arena, same woes The Badgers continued to struggle in their first series at the new LaBahn arena. +SPORTS, page 8 Complete campus coverage since 1892
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dailycardinal.com
Monday, October 22, 2012
Panel explores issues behind Islamophobia By Aarushi Agni The Daily Cardinal
on campus
Kickin’ Axe
The Wisconsin Badgers celebrate their 38-13 victory over rival Minnesota Saturday, Oct. 20 to earn Paul Bunyan’s Axe for the ninth year in a row. Read more on Sports, page 8. + Photo by Shoaib Altaf
Elections heat up with start of early voting By Tyler Nickerson The Daily Cardinal
The eyes of the nation are watching closely to see who Wisconsin will vote for Nov. 6. But as of Monday, Wisconsinites can begin casting ballots early, upping the ante for campaigns battling over what seems to be an evenly divided electorate. Historically, early votes have constituted a significant portion
of total votes cast. The percentage of voters voting via absentee ballot, or early voters, jumped from about 6 percent in 2000, to about 12 percent in 2004, to more than 21 percent in 2008, according to a Government Accountability Board report. The trend is consistent with voting habits nationwide. But GAB spokesperson Reid Magney said he does not expect this election cycle to see a sig-
body after the bomb squad had deemed the building safe to enter. His exact motives are still unknown, but police suspect Haughton was targeting his estranged wife, a hairdresser at the spa. Mrs. Haughton had won a temporary restraining order from the Milwaukee County Circuit Court against her husband Oct. 18. Evan Schmitz, a senior at a Brookfield High School, said the event has shocked the usually safe Milwaukee suburb. “I have always felt safe the ‘Brookfield Bubble,’ you think that nothing can go wrong in an affluent community,” Schmitz said in an email. “The bubble has been burst though. It real-
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nificant increase in early votes, as was the case for the past three elections, because this year there is less time for early voting. “We’re working with a compressed period of time; two weeks instead of three plus weeks [in 2008],” Magney said, adding voters could see longer lines at polling locations Nov. 6 because of
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Brookfield shooting shocks community Seven people were shot around 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning at a day spa in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield. The shooter, Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, a 45-year-old man from Brown Deer, Wis., was found dead at the scene. Three of the seven victims died on the scene, and the remaining four have been hospitalized in non-critical condition, according to Brookfield Police Chief Daniel Tushaus. While the shooting occurred around 11:00 a.m., authorities believed Haughton was on the run for several hours. Their investigation was stalled during this time after officials discovered an improvised explosive device on the scene. Police quickly located Haughton’s
“Do you hate America?” This was one of the questions Saad Siddiqui, secretary of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Muslim Students Association, remembers hearing while growing up as a Muslim in a post-9/11 world. A panel on the origin, impacts and iterations of Islamophobia in the United States, where Siddiqui told his story, brought together UW-Madison professors, students and experts Friday. The MSA and the MuslimJewish Volunteer Initiative, along with the Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions, cosponsored the event, which featured six speakers and two First Wave performances, each touching on a different nuance of Islamophobia. Islamophobia is a form of bigotry that blames an individual’s religion, gender or race for the crimes they have committed, according to speaker Ahmed Rehab, the leader of Council of American Islamic Affairs in Chicago.
“When someone commits a crime,” Rehab said, “that person is responsible for their action, not everyone who happens to come from the larger domain they come from.” Islamophobia, he said, is an act of generalization and oversimplification of Islam caused in part by the narrative about Islam perpetuated by the media. For many Americans, the first introduction to Islam was through a “limited, myopic lens of conflict,” Rehab said. Even prior to 9/11, American media coverage associated Islam with violent conflict, such as the Iranian Revolution of 1970, the Iran hostage crisis and the IsraelPalestine conflict, Rehab said. Siddiqui said that this type of portrayal affected his own perception of Islam. “If you asked me a year ago [why the terrorists attacked the US], I would have said, because they were Muslim,” Siddiqui said. “I had internalized everything bad I heard about Islam in the past 10 years.”
ly makes a person think twice about how safe they really are.” Sunday’s tragedy brought back painful memories from seven years ago, when seven people were shot and killed at a Sheraton hotel only one mile away from the Avana Salon & Spa. “You think there is no way it could ever happen again, but then it does,” Schmitz said. “It’s terrifying.” Gov. Scott Walker expressed his condolences for the victims of the shooting in a statement. “Senseless acts of violence leave us with heavy hearts and many questions,” Walker said Sunday. “Our state will stand with the victims and their families.” —Andrew Haffner
shoaib altaf/the daily cardinal
Saad Siddiqui speaks about how misconceptions of Muslim Americans have affected his self perception at a panel Friday.
Ejections down at Minnesota game University police ejected and arrested significantly fewer students at the Badger football game Saturday than at previous home games. University of WisconsinMadison Police Department officers ejected 18 students from Camp Randall and arrested 10 at the Wisconsin vs. Minnesota game, according to a police statement. At the Sept. 22 against University of Texas at El Paso, which also had an 11 a.m. kick-off time, university police ejected 91 and arrested 14 students at the game.
UW-Madison sophomore Lauren Peterson, who has attended every game this year, said she observed tighter security and seating policies at Saturday’s game than at previous games this year and games last season. “[Security and police officers] are much more adamant on getting you to your seats and sitting in the exact spot you’re supposed to,” Peterson said. “Before, I felt like we were all treated like adults...and now they are controlling it a little more.”
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”