This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2686
January 28, 2007
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MIM: The Muslim students at Guilford College who claimed they were attacked came from the pro Hamas Ramallah Friends School. http://www.lifebehindthewall.org/default.aspx?id=home Behind The Wall's Official Colors - The Palestinian Flag | ||||
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http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=cairguilford%2Ehtm
Guilford College Controversy Being Manipulated By CAIR
By William A. Mayer, Editor & Publisher PipeLineNews.org
January 26, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - CAIR, the Saudi funded Wahhabist pressure group is trying to whip up what appears at first blush to be an intra-student body dust-up at a Southern college, into a federal hate crime prosecution.
On early Sunday morning January 21, 2007 members of the Guilford College [a Quaker institution located in Greensboro, NC] football team including Christopher Barnette, Michael Robert Six and Michael Bates were involved in a confrontation with three foreign-born students from Israel's West Bank - Farris Khader, Omar Awartani and Osama Sabbah.
The football players have since been charged with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation and are free on $2,000 bail each.
Reports of the event vary.
The three alleged victims of the incident claim that with no provocation, they were attacked by members of the Guilford football team simply because of their ethnicity. They maintain that during the incident they were subjected to racial epithets.
However other accounts of the fracas differ markedly, alleging that the foreign students precipitated the fight, with at least one of them attacking first, using his belt as a weapon.
Complicating matters further, one of the foreign students involved in the incident, Farris Khader was suspended from Guilford during the fall semester according to Greensboro's alternative newspaper, Yes Weekly:
"Khader had been suspended in the fall semester"
When contacted by PipeLineNews, Guilford College spokesman Nic Brown declined to comment upon the nature of Mr. Khader's suspension or whether he indeed had been suspended.
A source familiar with the circumstances of the suspension has come forth to claim - so far unconfirmed - that it was due to an inter-ethnic confrontation that Mr. Khader himself initiated with another Guilford student.
In an article published in the Greensboro News Record - "Update: 'It was the most horrific experience of my life,'" all three of the alleged victims are identified as having come from the West Bank town of Ramallah.
In the Yes Weekly article one of the students, Mr. Arwatani said that the Sunday morning beating was similar to one he had received previously, but in a different setting, "I've seen Israeli soldiers doing this to me in Palestine."
Mr. Khader has made statements in the Guilfordian, the College newspaper, that seem at least nominally supportive of the terrorist group Hamas having won the recent Palestinian elections.
"We should be all proud at Palestine that elections took place in a democratic and transparent way…Fatah was responsible for a lot of corruption in Jerusalem and Palestine," Khader said. [source The Guilfordian, "Hamas wins majority in Palestinian parliamentary election, Israel and allies worried about future relations," by Olivia Honeycutt, February 10, 2006]
In the same periodical Mr. Khader charges Israel with increasing violence against Palestinians:
"Faris Khader from Palestine, 'violence has increased while the Israelis build a wall to separate themselves from the Palestinians for the purpose of "protection".'" [source The Guilfordian, Abbas elected Palestinian president, by Genevieve Holmes, January 21, 2005]
As has become standard-operating-procedure in such cases, CAIR has injected itself into the process with spokesman Ibrahim Hooper ratcheting up the spin machine and pushing the organization's bogeyman of "Islamophobia."
"It is important that political and religious leaders in North Carolina speak out against the kind of hate that apparently motivated this attack," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "The alleged bias motive of the assailants clearly warrants the intervention of the FBI in this case."
Why is Ramallah important?
The three students involved in this incident all hail from the city of Ramallah located in Israel's troubled West Bank [Guilford maintains an active admissions outreach program to Palestinian students] and were educated at that city's Friends School, which offers programs from kindergarten through high school. Approximately 500 student attend the high school.
The school maintains a website located at - http://www.palfriends.org/
The Quakers have operated this school for well over 100 years. As a private institution it has the reputation of being the most expensive school in Ramallah and hence, primarily serves an upper class clientele, many of whom then pursue an education in American and other foreign colleges.
A significant portion of the palfriends' website is devoted to the opinions of the school's students, a section which is antagonistically called, "Behind The Wall" a reference to Israel's security wall.
http://www.lifebehindthewall.org
There is a disclaimer at the top of that section of the website's index page, "The opinions expressed by students do not represent the views of Ramallah Friends School (FBS) and Friends United Meeting."
The need for a cautionary note becomes obvious as one navigates through the site.
"Israeli policies have destroyed the Palestinian people" - Bashar http://www.lifebehindthewall.org/default.aspx?id=familybusiness-nowages1
"I think this is one of Israel's ways to destroy the bond between Palestinians and to start a civil war." - Danah [source http://www.lifebehindthewall.org/default.aspx?id=familybusiness-nowages2
The following were taken from the section of the site entitled, "Are you optimistic about the future?" [source http://www.lifebehindthewall.org/default.aspx?id=q-optimistiq]
"the Israeli government is taking all our lands and making it Israel" - Ameed
"we see the Israelis leading us into a civil war between the "Hamas" and "Fateh" movements" - Pillar
"I recently saw how the Israeli army did in their war with Hezbollah. I discovered that the Israel army is weak, and can't have a real war with other counties. Also, Israel's enemies are getting stronger and stronger. So, Israel will lose in the end, but it will still take time." - Dauod
"I don't feel optimistic for the future, because Palestinians have no plans, no weapons, and no artillery bombardments to confront our enemy." - Marian"if we start losing hope, then it's the end of the Palestinian struggle against the inhuman Israeli occupation" - Reem
Under the heading, "What is behind all this violence and how do you find ways to deal with it?" [source http://www.lifebehindthewall.org/default.aspx?id=qanda]
"The problem is that the Israelis stole (and are still stealing) our land. We have to teach the world what is correct: Israeli people have no rights to our land. In 1948, they occupied our land; in 1967 they expanded this occupation. Now there is a war, and they are winning because they have weapons and military. We have rocks to defend ourselves. There is no ways to deal with them because they are a terrorist organization." - Waleed
"In 1948, the Palestinians suffered harshly as a result of Belfor's declarations in 1917. Belfor, a cruel British man, promised the Jews an Israeli country in Palestine. He declared that the Jews are with no land and that Palestine is a land with no people. In 1948, the Israeli Jew soldiers occupied Palestine and expelled the Palestinians living near the Mediterranean sea, then sending them to other cities near the Dead sea or other Arab countries such as Jordan. In 1967, they occupied the whole of Palestine until the Palestinian authority came to power in 1994 (in order to push the Jews back to the 1948 borders). The Israelis kept declaring war and occupying cities. That is the main conflict. Israelis believe that they own the land as the LORD (God) promised them it!" - Saher
"Israel is the reason for all the violence in the Middle East. Palestinians try their best to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the Israelis refuse to solve this conflict. They want to kill more Palestinians .They don't want Palestine to be a better place or to be a developed country, and they also don't want Palestinians to live as humans. Even though they are killing us, we try to solve this conflict in order to live a better life, and with no killing or violence." - Ahmad S.
Disclaimers aside, such comments bring to mind many questions that expand the scope of the Guilford controversy:
Why is such obvious rage being countenanced and affirmed within a school run by supposed pacifists? What manner of education results in such hateful children? To what degree is it advisable for American institutions to continue providing outreach to students who have attitudes not in keeping [in this case] with either Quaker standards of non-violence or more importantly, the norms of American society?
Back on American soil, on Thursday nearly 100 students and faculty members conducted a strike at Guilford College; a student leader explained the protesters motivation:
"We believe a hate crime was committed," he said. "We call for a general student walkout at 10:15 tomorrow. It is a mockery that we hold a meeting when our Quaker values were undermined. That's why we're holding this strike." [source Yes Weekly,"Guildford president urges patience with investigation as students plan walkout," Jordan Green]
With the travesty of Michael Nifong's political prosecution of members of the Duke University lacrosse team still in acute focus, the brawl at Guilford College assumes increased import, as does a process which seems inexorably to be drawing Guilford's student body and faculty towards a similar rush to judgment.
Hate is certainly an element in any violent confrontation, however in this instance the concept seems intentionally minimized...circumscribed within a narrow boundary and applied only to those who may have perpetrated an ethnically motivated assault.
Entirely missing from the discussion so far is the larger issue in which the Quaker committment to the ideals of non-violence and pacifism have been called into question by its association with Ramallah's Friends school - an institution which from all outward appearances has become a hate factory. At question also is the status of the relationship between Guilford's American and foreign born students, even before this event took place.
While the exact nature of the altercation between members of Guilford's student body remains unclear, what is far more certain even at this early stage of the investigation is Guilford's association with the Ramallah Friends school, its active courting of students from that radicalized campus and the degree to which tensions from the Middle East have now been
injected into a formerly staid Southern college campus.
For more information see:
| On the blogs: Nothing to hide? |
| Photos of Player's Reported Injuries |
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) -- On a campus founded by pacifists, a war of words has broken out.
And as the events of the week since the fight at Guilford College have unfolded, uncertainty over what happened has increased as allegations grew, minor details were revealed and speculation abounded.
That which is known for certain is scarce: The FBI is now investigating a fight involving three Palestinian students and a number of football players. Five players -- Michael Bates, Michael Six, Christopher Barnette, Jazz Favors and Jonathan Underwood -- have been charged with assault, battery and ethnic intimidation. The Greensboro police and Guilford College are each conducting their own investigations, and five unnamed students have been temporarily suspended from the school.
Everyone involved appears to be trying to prevent the rush to judgment and storm of accusations that turned the Duke lacrosse case into a national sensation.
The school's dean for campus life, Aaron Fetrow, acknowledged the lack of certainty about the events early Saturday morning: "There are so many varied things out there [that] I don't know what happened, or I would've decided."
Parents of one of the football players said they know what happened: their son was beaten with a belt by one of the Palestinian students. They have photos taken, they said, by Guilford College security personnel as evidence of Michael Six's injuries.
The football players say the right thing is for the Palestinian students to be charged with assault. They said that, after the Palestinian students had sworn out their warrants with the magistrate, the football players were denied the same opportunity...(click url above for complete story)
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MIM: The Director of Multicultural Education Sekinah Hamlin who also works with several left wing 'pacifist'groups wrote this letter trying to incite students and prejudice them against the non Muslim players by claiming the incident was hate crime, making no reference to the fact that the arrested students claim they were attacked and had sustained injuries.
Ironically two of those arrested in the alleged assault are "students of color".
http://www.myfoxwghp.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=2175238&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
January 21, 2007
Students of Color and/or International Students:
By now, most of you have heard about the situation that occurred on Friday night between some football players and Faris Khader, Osama Sabbah and Omar Awartini (a student from NC State). Faris, Osama and Omar were defending themselves against students (and possible perspective students) that were attacking them physically and simultaneously verbally with phrases like "sandnigga", "terrorist", etc. The incident was a hate crime.
We must be united as people of color more than ever. What happened to these three young men could have happened to any one of us. This is the reality of racism and no institution, including Guilford, in this country, is free of it.
We are concerned about your safety and your mental, spiritual and emotional health. If you feel unsafe, need to talk, or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact us. In addition, we will have a gathering to discuss how this is affecting you/us/people of color Monday, January 21, 2007 (tomorrow) at 9pm in the International House. This meeting is ONLY for students of color. This affects us in a different way than our white allies
and we only need to have a safe place to discuss how we are feeling.
I have included cell numbers for myself and Jorge Zeballos, International Student Advisor and Latino Initiative Coordinator. We have been working with Faris, Osama and Omar are meeting continuously this weekend. If you have any questions or concerns, we will be able to answer them. In addition, if you would like to reach out to other Multicultural Education staff members, I have included their information as well.
Thanks and I see you on tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Sekinah Hamlin
Director of Multicultural Education
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MIM: The parents of one of the accused issued this statement.
Jan 26, 2007
http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070126/NEWSREC0101/70126004
It is very apparent that the media and many uninformed individuals have unfairly prejudged Michael Bates, Michael Six, and Christopher Barnette of the beating of three Guilford College students during an unfortunate altercation involving several students last Friday night. Since media coverage has been so one sided the Bates, Six, and Barnette families issue this statement to allow for more balanced reporting of this event.
None of these accused young men have yet to be interviewed by any college official. The Greensboro Police Department has refused to take their statements and declined to review physical evidence including pictures of a vicious stabbing and belt whipping that was inflicted by Khader (an alleged victim) upon Michael Six during the altercation.
We also believe that a letter emailed on Sunday, by a college official, to all students of color greatly inflamed emotions needlessly. Here is the first paragraph from that letter from the Guilford College Director of Multicultural Education:
"By now, most of you have heard about the situation that occurred on Friday night between some football players and Faris Khader, Osama Sabbah, and Omar Awartini (a student from N.C. State). Faris, Osama, and Omar were defending themselves against students (and possibly perspective students) that were attacking them physically and simultaneously verbally with phrases like "sandnigga," "terrorist," etc. The incident was a hate crime."
We are deeply saddened by the inaccurate portrayal of these young men in this altercation by their school. When all of the FACTS are revealed, we believe that those who are sensationalizing this story will be rightly embarrassed and hope the retractions will receive the same level of visibility as premature and false charges. Under our system of government, our sons are presumed innocent of these charges and we hope that the community and the media will let the system run its course in determining their innocence or guilt.
The Bates, Six, and Barnette families would like to thank those in the communities, who know the true characters of these young men, for their continued support throughout this ordeal.
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MIM: CAIR jumps in the fray in order to add another another bogus 'hate crime' to add to their bloated statististics.
In addition to spinning the truth CAIR has also chosen to invent new english language terminology and has determined that the term "terrorist"is now a racial slur and constitutes "ethnic intimidation". Only problem is that neither Muslims nor terrorists constitute a race.
If terrorist is an ethnic slur in CAIR's parallel universe does this mean that they now regard anti terrorists as "anti racists" as well?
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-23-2007/0004511350&EDATE=
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MIM:What could the poor innocent victim Awartani have been doing to have warranted (what he claims) was a beating by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah?
Being part of the mob that lynched two Israeli soldiers perhaps?
According to a fellow student whom was victimised by him Awartani has a history of harrassing people.
"I've seen Israeli soldiers doing this to me in Palestine, but I've never seen this with citizens".
Blogger comments:
I think this quotation, ""I've seen Israeli soldiers doing this to me in Palestine, but I've never seen this with citizens," is unfortunate and moves the attention from where it should be placed: on the specific Guilford college students who did what might be a criminal act - we'll know when all the facts are in. Trying to enlarge this to include the typical anti-Israel smear denigrates the people who I believe might be victims, here, in Greensboro, at Guilford College. Using the aged and tired anti-Israel sentiment when the President of the United States has called for "dead or alive" to terrorists and engendered anti-US antipathy globally, to select Israel as their summary statement smacks of another agenda.
Nope, not good for Greensboro. Not good for anyone.
Hey! I know that kid… One of the "accused". He is a fellow alum in my 2004 class at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, NC.
Being one of my worst "harassers" at Reynolds, I really don't find it surprising that he has gotten himself wrapped up in this. I'm not saying he did it, because we don't know all the facts, but I think he should ask himself, if he didn't really do it, "How did I put myself in a situation to ever be accused of something like this in the first place?"
http://www.hoggsblog.com/?p=1925
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2686