This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4124

The Muslim Student Union And U.C. Irvine - Not A Hostile Enviornment For Jews?

October 19, 2009

The Muslim Student Union And U.C. Irvine - Not A Hostile Environment For Jews?

By WILLIAM MAYER

October, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Zionism - the belief in the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish nation - is elemental to traditional Jewish identity.

Through a process which one might hope would be more widely apparent, modern day anti-Semites have been allowed to foment hatred of Jews - with a ferocity often barely distinguishable from that which motivated the Nazi Holocaust - under the guise of merely opposing "Zionism." This has been made possible in large part due to the vagaries of current political discourse, rendering it not only acceptable but mainstream throughout the vast majority of the Islamic world and unfortunately among the American and European left.

This is especially apparent in organizations such as the United Nations where Zionism has been roundly condemned as being equivalent to racism .

A 2008 State Department Report, "Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism," boldly conflated anti-Semitism with this more clever terminology.

"Comparing contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis is increasingly commonplace. Anti-Semitism couched as criticism of Zionism or Israel often escapes condemnation since it can be more subtle than traditional forms of anti-Semitism." 1.

The study provided many real-world examples of the context in which this takes place, which make no real distinction between Jews and Zionism.

"Syria has documented proof of the Zionist regime's involvement in the September 11 terror attacks on the United States …[That] 4,000 Jews employed at the World Trade Center did not show up for work before the attack clearly attests to Zionist involvement in these attacks. - The Syrian ambassador to Iran, Turki Muhammad Saqr, at a conference held at the Iranian Foreign Ministry on October 24, 2001." [source, p. 19]

As a result, it is now politically acceptable to couch anti-Semitism in a coded manner which escapes the criticism which it deserves.

This is taking place increasingly in the United States, especially on college campuses where this methodology not only is accepted but often countenanced in the form of official funding.

Perhaps there is no better example of this than what is taking place at the Irvine campus of the University of California, home to a particularly well organized and pernicious Muslim Student Union [MSU], part of the nationwide Muslim Student Association - itself widely recognized as an arm of the Egyptian terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood. 2.

"During May 2008, the Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine...specifically requested and received $6,500 for their "Palestine Awareness" program which called for the destruction of the Jewish state under the banner "Never Again? The Palestinian Holocaust." The May 2008 Muslim Student Union hate-fest in support of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah at UCI included virulently anti-Israel and anti-American speakers such as imam Amir Abdel Malik Ali, imam Muhammad al-Asi and Norman Finkelstein." 3.

This level of official recognition has stoked perception that U.C. Irvine has either intentionally or through default, created a hostile environment for Jewish students and speakers critical of Muslim radicalism.

Examples of the hate and intimidation with which these students are subjected are numerous.

1. Anti-Semitic speakers, campus magazine articles, symbols, marches including the construction of an on campus wall used to symbolize the defensive shield separating Israel proper from the West Bank all of which have taken place during "Zionist Awareness Week."

2. Defacing a Jewish student's flag of Israel with a swastika.

3. Intimidation of Jewish students by Muslim and Arab students.

4. Anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas painted inside student housing.

5. The wearing of simulated Hamas paraphernalia at U.C. Irvine graduation ceremonies.

6. Destruction of a Holocaust memorial.

Additionally, as noted on these pages, a 2007 speech by Middle East historian Dr. Daniel Pipes 2. was disrupted by 70 Islamist goons, testament to the degree to which American college and university administrators have abdicated their supervisory roles, allowing radical Muslim rage to suppress the free exchange of ideas.

These and other charges have been addressed to the university's administration, with little effect, and a referral of the matter to the U.S. Dept. of Education languished for 3 years before being dismissed in a narrow parsing exercise that would have been comical had not the matter been so serious. [see, http://octaskforce.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/senjudiccom0208.pdf]

Consider this all background to the latest chapter of this controversy at U.C. Irvine in which the Zionist Organization of America [ZOA] working with terror expert Steven Emerson's Investigative Project, has made an official complaint to the university and the U.S. Justice Dept., that the Muslim Student Union has engaged in what amounts to Hamas fundraising, due to its hosting of George Galloway, the hard-left anti-Semitic MP, who created "Viva Palestina," an organization which according to the report, in March of this year, "handed a big bag of cash to a Hamas minister." 4.

So serious is the nature of this charge that the University has also referred the matter to the DOJ.

For their part, the Irvine MSU has responded with what has become the usual ad hominem attacks and charges of Islamophobia, excoriating critics of radical Islam, while failing to respond to the core of the complaint, that it might have been involved in on campus fundraising for the Palestinian terrorist group.

Despite the Irvine campus being shamed into taking the above noted initial step in remediating the problem, the totality of the school's record on this issue suggests that - despite being provided numerous opportunities - it has largely failed to adequately foster an intellectually and even sometimes physically safe environment for scholarship - especially among its 1,000 plus Jewish students - on the campus, afraid that any criticism of radical campus Muslims will lead to charges of racism.

Given the current leadership of the DOJ we are not especially hopeful that it will fairly investigate this matter. At the moment the proverbial ball is in Eric Holder's court.


Notes:

1. Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism, Released by the Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, U.S. Department of State; March, 2008.

2. Calls For Jihad Follow Disruption Of Address By Dr. Daniel Pipes At UC Irvine

3. The Muslim Brotherhood's plan for internal subversion: On The General Strategic Plan For The Group In North America which was presented in the successful federal prosecution of the Hamas fundraiser, the Holy Land Foundation, clearly lists the Muslim Student Association in "A list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends."

4. Front Page Magazine, Islamo-Fascism Week III: "Stop the Jihad on Campus"

5. PipeLineNews.org UC Irvine Muslim Student Union Guilty Of Hamas Fundraising On Campus? Feds Notified

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=irvine10.18.09%2Ehtm

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/4124