While freedom of speech is sacrosanct, words (verbal and otherwise) have incredible power. By saying it is a political speech, Dean Lewis seems to be applying the Western sensibility to the speech. However, one should understand the tinderbox nature of the Hindu-Muslim conflict. Spiritual giants used to roam Kashmir. Now, both sides are engaging an endless cycle of retributions. The innocent are bearing the blunt. While Prof. Eck and her fellow refusniks may be losing a PR battle, Mr Swamy cannot take a freepass in the name of a personal worldview because he is very much a public person. Germany had no hesitation to throw Mr. David Duke out of the country even if he is merely a private person touring the country. Academia tend to be highly political anyway, so, it is hard to say who is absolutely right and who is absolutely wrong. But here is something for the readers to think about: Kent State happened more than 40 years ago and four were killed. Freedom doesn't amount to much if one is dead

After supporting "free speech", Dr. Faust has been silent on the subject since July. Was anyone really expecting that she would be a "Profile in Courage"? Now she appears to be a lap dog who growled but, when some other dogs growled back, she hid behind the couch. Leadership!

This is not a bad result. Faust did her job protecting freedom of academic expression. Yet freedom to express does not protect someone from becoming unpopular! If the summer school curriculum is determined by vote, then Swamy met the inevitable consequences of adopting a pariah's viewpoint. Nothing violent or illegal occurred when his peers voted his courses out. He has no special human right to teach at the summer school. The fact that Swamy skipped the vote and was then surprised about it shows that he is clueless about real life and about how his own local community operates. Such people may use intellect to justify extreme positions, but are unlikely to lead us to solutions.

Who is Eck? besides the call letters for Nantucket airport! On the other hand, a bigger question is how can ECK master such a devious plot against Harvard professor Subramanian Swamy, who is a world-renowned scholar?

Another case of "I" dont like it , so "I" want something done about it.

Herein lies a good lesson, Dear Harvard Student: IQ, knowledge of facts, social status, wealth, pedigree, connections, and the "expert" label have no correlation to a fundamental understanding of the principles of Democracy, to judgement, or to wisdom. With this blindsiding machination the faculty (some of whom should now be blushing) seem to be following Beacon Hill's backroom lead. Bob Dylan said it well: "don't follow leaders", and "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows". But some in the faculty try to hitch up their fig leaves as they must -- they seem to have slipped a bit and it IS a bit embarrassing what is showing...

Given that the Brattle Street Globe does not name most of the folks who called for Professor Swamy's ouster, it behooves at least one reader to ask if the current most desirable "progressive" Harvard professor and Harvardian political heroine lent her "Occupy" mentoring style to this debate. Did Lizzy Warren grasp the Eck woman's call for Swamy's exclusion from the exclusive Harvard academic ranks? And why does the Globe staff writer let off the hook the 30-plus Harvard thinkers who joined the Eckian flood of exclusion demands? And if Swamy loves Harvard so much, why is this article dumped on the public in the first place? After all, most of it took place months ago, and the Globe came to the scene late.

Free speech and Harvard? Oxymoron.

"...she [Eck] said, applies only to the summer school, and use of it in this manner is so rare that no one can remember another instance." __________________________________________ Just goes to show the lengths the apologists-for-Islamism crowd will go to defend the doctrines and practice of Islamism. They will use any instrument to protect Islamism and don't give a fig for free speech.

Free speech at Harvard is a joke! It is generally accepted provided that it does not "offend" anyone. Exceptions are usually made if you A) advocate the total destruction of Israel, B) think Sept. 11th was, somehow, justified or C) consider our troops serving oversees to be little more than rapists and murderers. At that point, free speech is cherished as Professor Eck and her fellow liberal elites welcome you with open arms!!!

He is a scum bag. I am glad there are wiser professors who have showed currage to get rid of hate mongering politician. Govind Vakil

Let's talk about real "hate speech": if Diana Eck and her liberal pc coterie were to actually read the Koran , they might learn that blasphemy against Mohammed is punishable by death. This is not in the abstract, there currently are scores of individuals in the Muslim world who have been charged or who have been executed for blasphemy. She and her ilk are swept up in a totally blind mindset as they are clueless to the realities of human rights abuses intrinsic to Islam. So does the amoral millennial liberal Harvard faculty represent any improvement over the 1930's Harvard faculty, whereby Nazis and their sympathizers graced the classrooms and faculty lounges of the Yard ? Are they aware that the greatest religious killings in history occurred in India , where Muslims killed hundreds of millions of Hindus ? What Swamy is correctly saying is that Islam is an alien Arabian tribal system that violently grafted itself onto the Indian subcontinent. It's a barbaric system that needs to be removed worldwide.

Dr. Swamy is more than a "prominent right-wing politician." He earned his doctorate in economics from Harvard and served on its faculty before returning to India: "In 1964, Swamy joined the faculty of economics at Harvard and since then has taught in the Department of Economics. He began as an assistant professor, and in 1969 became an associate professor. When he was Associate Professor at Harvard University, he was invited by Noble Laureate Amartya Sen for a position at Delhi School of Economics (DSE). He accepted the offer and came back. However, when he arrived for the position at DSE, his appointment was cancelled due to his views on the nuclear capabilities for India and market friendly attitude. Thereafter, he moved to the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and alongside... his teaching duties, he took special interest in talking to the hostel students. From 1969 to 1991, he was a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi." (Wikipedia) Conclusion: Harvard cannot tolerate conservatives even if they are its own graduates.

In institutions dominated by political liberals, free speech is reserved for those who espouse liberal values and opinions. Left-wing faculty at Harvard drove Larry Summers from Harvard Yard. This episode is of the same cloth.

Only at Harvard is the right of free speech subject to peer review.