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UC Berkeley and the 'Islamophobia' Lobby

This morning at FrontPage Magazine, Cinnamon Stillwell, Campus Watch West Coast Representative, reports on a recent program at the University of California, Berkeley, by members of the "Islamophobia" Lobby:

The Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP)—a program of the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Race and Gender (CRG)—recently held its third annual conference, "Critical Discourses on Islamophobia: Symbols, Images, & Representations." As in previous years, speaker after speaker decried an imaginary racist, imperialist, Orientalist Western juggernaut, while disregarding the very real predations of Islamism.

The first day of the conference brought in approximately eighty people at its peak, including a number of women in hijab (head scarf), typing furiously on laptops. Others sported keffiyehs and dreadlocks; a smattering of Arabic and French could be heard; and a scruffy, bearded fellow wandered around with what appeared to be a journal under his arm, Historicizing Anti-Semitism, that one suspects is not exactly kosher. It was just another day in Berkeley.

To read the entire article, please click here.

By Winfield Myers  |  May 25, 2012 at 11:42 am  |  Permalink

MEF Special Report: A Look Back at the 2012 'Palestine Liberation Week' at UCI

[Ed. note: the following report was submitted by Irvine resident and MEF correspondent Gary Fouse.]

Another University of California, Irvine (UCI) week of hate against the Jewish state of Israel has wrapped up, and I would like to add a few post-mortem thoughts.

Several of my friends have remarked that the steam seems to have gone out of the Muslim Student Union's (MSU) Israel Apartheid, aka "Palestine Liberation," week. Perhaps it was the suspension over their disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's UCI lecture in 2010; perhaps it was the fact that they seem to be bringing back pretty much the same list of speakers with the same tired old message year after year. Attendance appeared to be down, consisting as it did of about thirty to fifty MSU students, a few curious on-lookers, or other students getting extra credit from their liberal professors to soak in the propaganda. A few people from the community attend to show support for Israel and provide some sort of intellectual challenges to the lies and exaggerations proffered by the speakers.

Hopefully, the MSU is catching on to the fact that the student body pays hardly any attention to them as they pass by the flagpoles on their way to and from lunch or class. For most students at UCI, the week of events has become more an annoyance than anything else. That said, I am not yet ready to proclaim this annual event dead, since another flare-up in the Middle East involving Israel will undoubtedly spur the activists to return to what they do best—congregate at the flagpoles.

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 17, 2012 at 12:24 pm  |  Permalink

MEF Special Report: Members of the 'Irvine 11' Speak at UCI's 'Palestine Liberation Week'

[Ed. note: the following report was submitted by Irvine resident and MEF correspondent Gary Fouse.]

On Thursday evening, the Muslim Student Union at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) wrapped up their week long anti-Israel extravaganza, "Palestine Liberation Week," with a panel featuring four former UCI students who were part of the so-called "Irvine 11." These and others repeatedly disrupted a speech by Israeli ambassador to America Michael Oren in 2010, for which they were convicted last year.

The four took turns describing their memories of the event, their arrest, and subsequent prosecution. Contrary to the claims of their supporters, these four young men have hardly been victims. They have continued with their studies at other institutions and enjoyed a celebrity status among their fellow activists. Case in point: Osama Shabaik, one of the "11" who spoke Thursday evening, is now a law student at Harvard and implied that his record was a plus in his acceptance.

All four are intelligent and articulate. Each spoke in a self-congratulatory manner, expressing no remorse for his actions and saying he would do it again. They claimed that shouting down an invited speaker was a legitimate form of protest, perfectly acceptable on an American college campus, and something that should not be criminalized. The audience of about fifty, mostly MSU members, applauded them as were heroes.

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 12, 2012 at 3:53 pm  |  Permalink

MEF Special Report: Hatem Bazian at UCI's 'Palestine Liberation Week'

[Ed. note: the following report was submitted by Irvine resident and MEF correspondent Gary Fouse.]

Hatem Bazian

Of course, no data was given on the number of suicide attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, which have been drastically reduced in recent years by the wall that Bazian and other anti-Israel activists demonize. Similarly, he mentioned neither the massacre of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itimar in 2011, nor the number of rockets lobbed into southern Israel from Gaza.

Predictably, Bazian (as is his wont) took a couple of slaps at Congress and George W Bush. (Bazian doesn't like Republicans).

During the Q & A, I asked him if he presented his students with similar information in the classroom. Bazian replied that when he was giving the Palestinian narrative, he gives the Palestinian narrative. When he gives the Israeli narrative, he invites the Israeli consul to deliver it. I told him that, if this is how he teaches, his students receive a one-sided view.

The last "question" was from local activist Shaheel Syed, who apparently arrived with Bazian and asked him to comment on the amount of American aid given to the "Zionist Apartheid state of Israel." Bazian obviously knew the question was coming because he had his answer prepared in the form of a six-point response.

Hatem Bazian is a propagandist who takes his personal politics onto the UC Berkeley classrooms. He and his supporters cannot abide that America supports Israel.

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 11, 2012 at 9:07 pm  |  Permalink

MEF Special Report: Amir Abdel Malik Ali Speaks at UCI's 'Palestine Liberation Week'

Amir Abdel Malik Ali

On Tuesday, May 8, Amir Abdel Malik Ali returned to the UC Irvine campus, courtesy of the Muslim Student Association, to spew his message of hate. On his previous visit in 2010, he acknowledged that he was a supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. He then closed by telling the Jewish audience members, "You Jews. Y'all the new Nazis!"

This day, Ali delivered a rambling, invective-filled speech. Although Ali is a dynamic and fiery speaker, his lectures are unstructured, with no introduction, body, or conclusion. He also accepts countless conspiracy theories.

Today, he tried to cover all the world's ills in forty minutes. Early on he referred to University of California president Mark Yudof as a "Zionist Jew," as he railed against Yudof for a recent letter he made public on a series of racially and religiously tainted incidents on UC campuses. Yudof"s sin was that he didn't mention any Islamophobic incidents. (Here's a secret; there weren't any.)

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 9, 2012 at 7:05 pm  |  Permalink

MEF Special Report: Day One of the University of California, Irvine's, "Palestine Liberation Week"

UCI "Palestine Liberation Week" Wall

On March 7, the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union kicked off its week-long "Palestine Liberation Week." The first speaker was British freelance journalist Ben White, author of two books condemning Israel for its "maltreatment " of Palestinians (both received rave reviews from Iran's Press TV).

A small crowd of about fifty people were on hand. Even White's supporters in the audience looked bored. He spoke again Monday evening--double punishment for the MSU members who feel obligated to come out and support the event.

White delivered an off-the-shelf speech about the "injustices" Israel commits against the Palestinians. He complained of the controls on the movement of Palestinians but did not, of course, dwell on the possible reasons for such restrictions: Palestinian terrorism, suicide bombers, rockets lobbed into Southern Israel from Gaza. Rather, he attacked Israel's control of goods allowed into Gaza and complained of the "illegal settlements" in the West Bank, but never mentioned the murders of Israeli settlers by Palestinians, including the slaughter of the Fogel family in 2011.

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 8, 2012 at 7:22 pm  |  Permalink

MEF Special Report, UCI Under Siege: Amir Abdel Malik Ali Among Anti-Israel Speakers at University of California-Irvine May 7-10

Amir Abdel Malik Ali

Supporters of Hamas, Hezbollah, Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement to Speak at Muslim Student Union-Sponsored "Palestine Liberation Week"

Contact information for the administration of the University of California, Irvine:

Mark G. Yudof, president, University of California: President@ucop.edu

Michael Drake, chancellor, University of California, Irvine: chancellor@uci.edu

On Tuesday, May 8, anti-Semitic Oakland imam Amir Abdel Malik Ali will speak. In 2010, Malik Ali answered "yes" when asked if he supported the terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad.

A small sampling of his anti-Semitic remarks reveals the tenor of this year's events:

· Malik Ali advised against meeting with "Zionists," because:

It gives the impression that Zionism is like, it's okay, that it's okay. Now, you Jews, in all due respect, you wouldn't sit down with Nazis for tea and cake. No you wouldn't!

· Boasts that, "The enemies of Islam know that when we come back to power we're gonna check 'em."

· Claims that, "[T]he Israelis were in control of 9-11," which "was staged to give an excuse to wage war against Muslims around the world."

· Insists that Israelis ought to return, "to Germany, to Poland, to Russia. The Germans should hook y'all up. You [Israelis] should go back to Germany."

· Predicts that, "When it's all over, the only one standing is gonna be us [Muslims]."

This week's other scheduled speakers further confirm the event as an anti-Israel propaganda fest. We will be filing daily reports on the events.

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 7, 2012 at 2:33 pm  |  Permalink

Action Alert: Six Northeast Ohio Colleges form Consortium, Partner with CAIR

NOCMES

Yet this mission is supported in part by the Ohio chapter of CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), an organization that has been linked by the United States government to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

On Wednesday, May 2, NOCMES will host a luncheon featuring Naif al-Mutawa at the City Club of Cleveland for a talk on "Art, Narrative and Muslim Identity." Later that evening he will appear at Baldwin Wallace College. Mutawa is the CEO of the company that has produced the first series of comic books with Muslim superheroes and primarily non-Muslim villains.

The talk is sponsored by NOCMES' series "New Perspectives on Muslim and Middle East Societies," a program funded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), which is funded partially by U.S. taxpayers through the State Department and the National Science Foundation.

CAIR: Linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, Shunned by the FBI

The FBI severed all ties with CAIR in January 2009. In March 2011, FBI Director Robert Mueller reaffirmed this policy to the House Judiciary Committee.

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By Winfield Myers  |  May 1, 2012 at 6:37 pm  |  Permalink

Ohio Colleges Partner with Hamas-Founded CAIR

Hamas

A group of six Ohio colleges in the Cleveland area are working together to help provide "new perspectives" about the Middle East and to confront "misinformation" about the region and about Islam specifically. However, the group has chosen a curious partner to represent the American Muslim community: the Muslim Brotherhood-founded and terror-supporting Hamas front group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

On Wednesday, the Northeast Ohio Consortium for Middle East Studies (NOCMES) will be hosting Naif al-Mutawa at the City Club of Cleveland for a talk on "Art, Narrative and Muslim Identity." Later that evening he will appear at Baldwin Wallace College. Al-Mutawa is the CEO of the company that has produced the first series of comic books with Muslim superheroes. The colleges sponsoring NOCMES include Oberlin College, Cleveland State University, John Carroll University, Kent State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Case Western Reserve University, and Hathaway Brown (an all-girls K-12 private school).

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

By Winfield Myers  |  April 30, 2012 at 6:13 pm  |  Permalink

Hartford Seminary's Shameful Ties to Syria's Dictator

Hartford Seminary

The Hartford Seminary has occupied a leading position among theological faculties around the nation in accommodating Islam, particularly in its radical forms, since appointing its first Muslim faculty member more than twenty years ago. Today, that accommodation extends to the murderous regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

Hartford maintains a highly questionable relationship with an Islamic religious and Arabic-language school, the Al-Fatiha Islamic Academy in Damascus, approved by, and allied with, the Assad family. Founded in 1956, Al-Fatiha promotes aggressively sharia-based finance (Islamic banking) and denounces the current international financial system.

On January 30, Hartford announced that "Omer Awass ... has been named Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations, starting in Fall 2012." Awass possesses unexceptional standing as a doctoral candidate at Temple University, where he earned his master's degree in religion, with attendance at al-Azhar, the prestigious Sunni Muslim religious university in Cairo. And by way of justifying this rather odd academic appointment, Hartford disclosed that Awass "is a graduate of Al-Fatih Islamic Institute in Damascus, Syria, which has enjoyed a partnership with Hartford Seminary and had students earn degrees at the Seminary."

To read the rest of this article, please click here.

By Winfield Myers  |  April 16, 2012 at 10:25 am  |  Permalink