THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY
for a fairly up-to-date and non-partisan list of information surrounding this incident see: http://rpi.freeculture.org/wiki/Wafaa_Bilal%27s_%22Virtual_Jihadi%22_exhibit_at_RPI
Some of these materials have been copied from the above wiki under creative commons license. Wafaa Bilal's Virtual Jihadi Exhibit The exhibit opened at 7:00pm on Wednesday, March 5th, with Mr. Bilal's lecture beginning at 7:30pm. On March 6th, the next day, William N. Walker, RPI's Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Relations, issued a memo stating that the administration "has suspended [the exhibit] pending a more complete review of its origin, content, and intent." A similar email was sent to the Rensselaer community on March 8th

Several individuals in the Arts Department mentioned that the administration told them that they had been contacted by the FBI regarding Mr. Bilal and his exhibit. The FBI told the administration that Mr. Bilal is not a person of interest.

The College Republicans initially caught the attention of the administration by posting an article on their blog which called the RPI Arts Department a "safe-haven for terrorism". On Monday, March 10, the club was accused of slander and their blog officially removed from campus servers. Then……

Arts Department Lockout
Various faculty found themselves locked out of the building and got a variety of stories from the security guards, who were employees of a private security firm.

University Shuts it Down
After suspending the exhibition indefinitely, the RPI administration eventually issued a statement that "Rensselaer fully supports academic and artistic freedom," the administration opted for censorship on the grounds that 1) the exhibit is derived from the product of a terrorist organization, and 2) it suggests the killing of the President of the United States. The first point sidesteps the complex nature of the origin of the video game in question, as it was created by an American as anti-Saddam Hussein propaganda and only superficially modified by Al-Qaeda. Wafaa Bilal and many members of the Department of the Arts and the Rensselaer community strongly disagree with the second statement.

When RPI shut the show down, National media outlets, including the Washington Post, began to cover the Bilal story, helping it to grow into a case of international interest.

Art Offered Refuge The local community media center, The Sanctuary for Independent Media, gave the artwork refuge and host an opening artist talk in the hopes that they could provide an opportunity for the public to come, see the work, dialogue with the artist, and judge the work for themselves.

In response the this decision, local Republicans, led by County Legislature Majority Leader (and Troy Commissioner of Public Works) Bob Mirch, organized a protest against the non-profit. Sanctuary supporters rallied to defend the Sanctuary. With both supporters of Bilal and the Sanctuary as well as protesters present, the result was a dialogue about the art on the street. Many of the protesters, despite their various opinions were against war and current US foreign policy. Many of them seemed to be friends, relatives, of city employees and were either confused at the content of the exhibition or entirely unaware of it.

Video Footage from the Scene
Wafaa Bilal's talk was well-received by a large crowd, and generated an hour-long conversation between the artist and attendees. Here is an excerpt from his speech:

Click To Play

On the same day as the re-opening of the controversial exhibit at The Sanctuary for Independent Media, the Troy City codes inspectors and Fire Department officials visited the facility. The Sanctuary did not receive any notice of any citation or any call from the City. The Sanctuary did, indeed have previous violations for which improvements were underway. This documentation was presented to the code enforcement officials to their seeming approval. Since the city was well aware of the event and the crowd it would draw, the staff of the Sanctuary assumed that they were in compliance. It is worth noting here, that Bob Mirch, the Commissioner of Public Works (the protest organizer) oversees code enforcement operations in Troy.
This video clip depicts clearly the timeline of the events. they were shutdown for code violations. But, the closure came the day after the exhibition.

As seen in this video clip, The Sanctuary received a phone call effectively shutting down there operations with respect to any public assembly.

Sanctuary volunteers and supporters are again springing into action to bring the building up to code as soon as possible. The next scheduled event is a presentation is the Yes Men Live on Tuesday March 18. The event will be held 'in exile' at a venue in downtown Troy (TBA).

The apparent use of codes violations for political maneuvers is not a new thing in the city of Troy. The case of Wafaa Bilal and the Sanctuary is only the latest in a string of similar events. However, this time city officials have found themselves in the center of a story of international interest and importance. The story is still developing.

An ad hoc group, The Troy Committee on Free Speech has set a meeting date for Sunday to discuss a march on city hall to demand the removal of corrupt city officials and the end to abuse of codes violations for political ends, among other actions.

learn more: http://rpi.freeculture.org/wiki/Wafaa_Bilal%27s_%22Virtual_Jihadi%22_exhibit_at_RPI
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