Robert Spencer
Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week II has begun, following up on October's nationwide campus initiative with a new drive to bring a small bit of equal time to campuses. Last night I spoke at Stanford University.
It was a good evening: I was honored to be introduced by and have some give-and-take with Daniel Pipes, and to stay in a hotel that had the good sense to stand up for our threatened culture and pipe music including John Coltrane's "Vilia" and Thelonious Monk's "Crepuscule with Nellie" over the lobby sound system. After a conference in New York tomorrow, I'm off to Virginia, to the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary and Christendom College next week. And it's the same old story: I spoke last night under heavy guard, which turned out not to be necessary, as the Leftist and jihadist goons were not in evidence, but it is telling that such guard is ever needed on any American campus today. And on a related front, one of the organizers of the event sent me a series of emails he received in response to his announcement that I would be speaking, showing that character assassination, smears and libels are still the favored weapons of the intellectually bankrupt and inveterately thuggish when they are confronted with arguments they can't answer on the basis of evidence. Everywhere I go, I get slandered, libeled, I hear words I never heard in the Bible -- so goes the old song. But one thing I never get, and the anti-jihadists in general never get, is actually refuted.
And we will never give up.
"Islamo-Fascism Discussed on 100 Campuses," from FrontPage:
The Islamo Fascism Awareness Week II got under way yesterday at universities across the nation in what amounted to a two front offensive against the unholy alliance between radical and pro-jihad groups. By focusing on a Declaration Against Genocide, IFA Week speakers encouraged students to repudiate the genocidal threats against America and Israel issued by terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as their rogue-state sponsors in Iran. At the same time, they encouraged campus groups to condemn Islamic terror and to spotlight those groups -- particularly the Muslim Student Association, a group with chapters on more than 600 campuses nationwide – which have pointedly refused to do so.
Robert Spencer, one of the IFAW Week's key speakers, noted that the campaign provides a perspective seldom-heard in today's academic world: "Islamo Fascism Awareness Week gives college students an opportunity to hear an alternate view to the leftist propaganda that passes for academic discourse on all too many campuses these days. With the Middle East Studies Association appearing completely uninterested in allowing for viewpoints that go against the dominant mainstream, Islamo Fascism Awareness Week provides a small bit of equal time. What's more, this time around, with our call to denounce the genocidal statements of Ahmadinejad, Hassan Nasrallah, and others, we are providing a platform for moderate Muslims and others who have the courage to speak out against the barbarity and madness -- a platform they will most likely not otherwise find on their campuses."
One reason for the one-sidedness of the campus debate is the influence of groups like the Muslim Student Association and their effectiveness in silencing any debate over Islamic extremism. Founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian terrorist organization, the group retains troubling ties to militant Muslim groups. For instance, the MSA has sought donations from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the Islamic charity shut down by the U.S. government for providing financial backing to the terrorist group Hamas. (The Islamo Fascism Awareness campaign has produced a booklet, The Muslim Student Association and the Jihad Network, which documents this organization’s role in the radical Islamists’ “stealth jihad” which aims to sabotage American culture and institutions.)
"As the FBI has documented, this group was formed by the Muslim Brotherhood, godfather of the international jihad," said David Horowitz, organizer of Islamo Fascism Awareness Week. "It seeks to be is treated on campus like a religious or cultural group, but it is political to its core. All of its efforts are calculated to advance the cause of Muslim extremism and weaken America. It stands for subversion, not education, and it is a travesty that MSA chapters on campuses across America are receiving student government money, which means public funds in many cases, to pursue its agenda."
Indeed, the Muslim Student Association is often better funded than other overtly political groups. At Columbia University, for instance, College Republicans receive $1600 a year in student funds, while the MSA receives $15,000. At the University of Pennsylvania, the campus Democrats and Republicans each receive no funding, while the MSA receives $50,000 a year in student funds.
Against this background, it is not surprising that the MSA has refused to support Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. Asked to condemn Hizbollah and Hamas and repudiate the saying of the prophet Mohammed that redemption will come only when Muslims kill Jews, the organization has instead maintained a deafening silence, refusing even to endorse a non-partisan declaration opposing genocide. Indeed, only two Muslim groups -- Muslims Against Sharia and the American Islamic forum For Democracy – have been willing to sign the Declaration Against Genocide and support to the current campaign.
The MSA and other Muslim groups may be unwilling to acknowledge the central contention of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week – that Islamist terror poses a clear and present danger to the United States and its allies – but those involved in the jihad, leaders such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been less reluctant. "The accomplishment of a world without America and Israel,” the Iranian leader has said, “is both possible and feasible."
That Ahmadinejad nonetheless was invited to Columbia, and feted as a voice of reason by admiring faculty, only underscores how distorted the debate over radical Islam has become in academia. As Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week II unfolds over the next few days, students and faculty are hearing alternative voices to those which have drowned out one side in the argument about the crises America faces in an age of terror.
Below is a list of schools observing Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week:
Alabama
Asuza Pacific
Bloomsburg
Brown
Cal State Long Beach
Case Western Reserve
Central Michigan University
Christendom College
Columbia
Columbus State CC
CSU San Francisco
Dartmouth College
Drexel University
Duke University
Elon University
Emory
Eureka College
Evangel University
Florida Atlantic University
Florida State University
Furman University
George Mason
George Washington
Grove City College
Hampden-Sydney College
Hofstra University
Indiana State
John Carroll
King's College
Lawrence University
Liberty University
Miami University (Ohio)
Missouri Western
Montana State
New Jersey Institute of Technology
North Carolina A&T
North Georgia College
Ohio State
Oklahoma Wesleyan
Palomar CC
Penn State
Pepperdine University
Roger Williams University
St. Mary's College of California
Stanford
SUNY Binghamton
Temple
Texas - San Antonio
Texas A&M
Texas State
U Hawaii - Hilo
U Hawaii - Minoa
UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
UCLA
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Arkansas
University of Central Arkansas
University of Colorado - Boulder
University of Denver
University of Georgia
University of Indiana
University of Maine-Farmington
University of Maryland - Baltimore
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
University of Michigan - Flint
University of Mississippi
University of Redlands
University of Rhode Island
University of South Florida
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin - Madison
UPENN
USC
Valparaiso University
Wake Forest
William & Mary
Babson College
Boston University
Brandeis University
Cornell
East Mississippi Community College, Mayhew Campus
Idaho State University
Johnson & Whales University – Charlotte
Michigan State
Millsaps College
Monmouth University
Pace Law School
Palm Beach Atlantic
Syracuse University
University of Central Florida
UMASS
University of Cincinnati
University of Southern Mississippi
Wayne State University
Wellesley College
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