He was talking about the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which caused rallies and riots across the world, even in Philadelphia.

Nine months later, Democracy Project Director Winfield Myers posted some of Engineering senior Saad Saadi's Halloween photos. Completely forgetting the stance his organization had taken on free speech issues, he objected to Saadi's jihadi/suicide-bomber costume and his posing with Amy Gutmann at her Halloween party this week:

Myers, who is also a director at Campus Watch, somehow got the photos from Saadi's Facebook album.

Within hours, the photos were stirring up an Internet storm. The popular blog Little Green Footballs linked to the photos, highlighting the incident as an example of "Wacademic Antisemitism." People have also written to the University and The Daily Pennsylvanian expressing outrage at the costume.

"I'm not a Muslim, but I'm accused of being a Muslim extremist online," Saadi said in a telephone interview on Thursday night. Saadi was born in Syria to a Christian and Armenian Syrian Orthodox family. He has lived in the US since he was five.

"As a matter of fact, I got a lot of compliments," he noted. "Even the police were laughing and waving at me, sort of clapping. They liked the costume."

Of course, not everyone was as enthusiastic. Josef Fruehwald, a College senior (and my Sophomore year roommate) was out with friends on Saturday night when Saadi (in the same costume) came up behind them and started yelling in Arabic.

"Saad scared the everloving daylights out of me for about 10 seconds," Fruehwald said via e-mail. "I thought it was shocking and offensive, but such is the nature of creativity and free expression at times."

Caption from Saad Saadi's album: "Freedom fighter and freedom statue pose for a picture." (Courtsey of Saad Saadi)

Saad Saadi and an unidentified student at Gutmann's Halloween party (Courtsey of Saad Saadi)

So why did Saadi choose his costume? "My friends and I ... thought it would be kind of funny to dress like terrorists," he explained.

It is ironic to call Saadi an anti-Semite, as his costume inadvertently imitated an Israeli tradition. On Purim - which is sometimes considered the Jewish equivalent of Halloween - some Israelis dress up as terrorists and attend street parades. The tradition is based on the common-sense belief that the point of a costume is to mock someone.

Saadi's critics have forgotten that people who dress in Halloween costumes usually don't aspire to actually be whom they masquerade as. That's why they wear such outfits on Halloween, instead of every day.

Saadi's Halloween photo gallery features him posing with students, faculty and University Chaplain William Gibson. But it's the photo with President Gutmann that seems to be riling people the most.

"I really feel bad for her because she's getting the worst out of this whole situation," Saadi said. "I just stood next to her, and I asked if I could pose for a picture with [her]. As I took the picture, she asked 'how did they let you through security?' Like as a joke."

Clearly, most people at the President's Halloween party got the joke.

While shocking things can make people forget, free expression is important. Saadi's Halloween costume is just as valid of an expression as last year's Danish cartoons. And so is being able to laugh a bit.

I didn't laugh when I saw the photos of Saadi's satirical terrorist costume. But just because there are some at Penn - including our President - who can take the joke doesn't make them terrible people.