Harbaugh to meet with students regarding American Sniper tweet

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh will meet with a small group of Muslim students next Wednesday after the controversy at the school surrounding the movie 'American Sniper.'

The movie was scheduled to be shown at Michigan in April as part of a movie series for students. After the movie was announced, a petition was created criticizing what some felt were anti-Muslim sentiments in the movie.

Following the backlash, the movie was canceled and, amidst the backlash to the backlash, eventually reinstated with another viewing option made available to the (optional) viewing of American Sniper. During the time the movie was called off, Harbaugh made the following tweet.

Michigan Football will watch "American Sniper"! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 9, 2015

Lamees Mekkaoui, of the Michigan campus organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, originally said in an email obtained by The College Fix that the meeting with Harbaugh would include an apology from the coach about his tweet. However, according to The Fix, Mekkaoui subsequently issued a correction.

From The College Fix:

A few hours after Mekkaoui sent the email, it was retracted and replaced with a different message.

“I would like to make a correction in my email,” her second email stated. “I made the mistake of assuming that an apology would be issued. However, Coach Jim Harbaugh was simply invited to a private meeting with us in order to talk about the screening of American Sniper and get a dialogue going about how a university leader’s social media can impact campus climate. I take full responsibility for this assumption and I am very sorry for any confusion I may have caused.”

Harbaugh's Twitter account has quickly become the most popular account of any college football coach.

A Michigan spokesperson told The Fix that Harbaugh was meeting with the group to hear their concerns. The spokesperson also told MLive.com that the meeting had been scheduled for "several weeks."

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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