MUN condemns Islamophobic posters appearing on campus

Memorial University acted quickly Sunday to condemn hate-filled posters appearing on campus.

Marine biologist Samantha Andrews discovered a poster titled The Islamic Domination of the West first in the Bruneau Centre for Research and Innovation and tore it down.

She later found several more posters around campus on message boards and in the MUN tunnels and removed them as well.

"My first thing was, 'Where did they get this from?' There was not even anything to back up what they were saying," she said.

The posters falsely suggest that refugees have lied about their status to move to western countries, infiltrate politics, implement Sharia law and kill people who do not submit to Islam.

Power hopes the culprit is disciplined, but also says a deeper discussion is necessary to figure out what led to the development of their viewpoints.

"It's more than saying, 'You can't put messages like this. It's wrong.' You also need to find out what's underlying that." 

MUN responds

Noreen Golfman, MUN's provost and academic vice-president, tweeted that the school was looking into it, and encouraged anyone finding any to tear them down.

Golfman declined to comment to CBC but directed inquiries to MUN president Gary Kachanoski.

"I was just appalled and disappointed that this kind of activity would happen," he said.

He added that campus enforcement is currently removing the posters and is investigating the source. 

"I'm condemning the message strongly and we are going to try to follow up as best we can," he said. 

If a student or group of students is found to have put the posters up, Kachanoski said they will be disciplined in accordance with the school's code of conduct.