Muslim student investigated for hateful tweets

The McGill administration is investigating Haaris Khan, a McGill student who, using Twitter, threatened to shoot a roomful of other students at a campus film screening. Khan made the threats at a screening of "Indoctrinate U," a documentary, hosted by Conservative McGill and Libertarian McGill. "I want to shoot everyone in this room," he tweeted at one point during the film, adding, "I should have brought an M16." None of the 20 or so students at the screening knew about the threats at the time, the event's organizers said. Khan sat in the back of the room and tweeted quietly using his Blackberry. The event's organizers found out about the tweets later, said Kevin Pidgeon, a Conservative McGill member who attended the event. A friend of Brendan Steven, another Conservative McGill member, contacted Steven about the posts, Pidgeon said. After reviewing them, Steven and the event's other organizers decided to call McGill Security. Though Khan has since deactivated his Twitter account, Conservative McGill members, at the suggestion of the Montreal Police Department, took screen shots of his tweets for evidence. Over the span of about an hour and half, during the screening Khan railed against Jews and Zionists in 10 separate tweets. "I've infiltrated a Zionist meeting," Khan wrote in his first tweet, at 6:04 p.m., shortly after the event began. "Oh man, a Muslim girl just appeared," he wrote in another post. "I thought, like me, she's a freedom fighter. Unfortunately, she's a co-conspirator. Traitor." About half an hour into the screening, Khan's tweets turned violent. "My blood is boiling," he wrote at 6:38 p.m. "I want to shoot everyone in this room. I'm frightened, alarmed, and downright pissed. Never been this angry." "This experience has hardened me into a soldier for freedom and truth," Khan wrote about an hour later. He posted his last tweet, about bringing an M16, minutes later. Khan continued tweeting angrily for much of the next day. At 1:14 p.m. the next day, Khan tweeted, "The jihad begins today."