Over the next several days, Frontpage
will publish profiles of individual chapters of the Muslim Students
Association on a variety of campuses around the country, showing how
they work to advance the cause of radical Islam and to lead the
effort to stigmatize Israel. These profiles are compiled in our new
booklet, "The Muslim Students Association and the Jihad Network." To read the introduction, click
here, "The MSA at UCLA," click
here, "The MSU at UC Irvine," click
here, "The MSA at Brown," click
here, "The MSA at Columbia," click
here, "The MSA at Michigan State," click
here, and "The MSA at Ohio State," click
here, and “The MSA at Penn State,” click
here. – The Editors
The
Muslim Students Association of UC Berkeley says that its mission is to support “those
who wish to understand, appreciate, and practice their Islam without
compromising their morals and beliefs”; to educate non-Muslims “about the
misconceptions regarding Islam and the Islamic way of life”; and to “foster a
social community for Muslims.36
But
MSA-UCB’s interests extend well beyond issues related to education and personal
growth. Its constitution explicitly states that one of its chief objectives is
to “develop activism of Muslims on campus and in the community.”37
It
regards two of Berkeley’s Muslim faculty members
– Hamid Algar, who is a supporter of the Ayatollah Khomeni, and Hatem Bazian,
who has called for an “Intifada” in America – as role models, and its
website makes special mention of both.38
Algar
in particular works closely with the organization, and acknowledges its support
for Wahhabism, the doctrine of jihad as holy war. In his 2000 publication, Wahhabism:
A Critical Essay, he acknowledges MSA’s ties to radical
Islam: “Although the MSA progressively
diversified its connections with Arab states, official approval of Wahhabism
remained strong.”39 Algar further notes
that in 1980, MSA UCB published a translation of writings by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab,
the 18th century founder of Wahhabism, which went on to become the dominant
state sect in Saudi Arabia. And he calls attention to MSA’s role in the
creation of the Islamic Society of North America, which Islam scholar Stephen
Schwartz describes as “a branch of the Saudi religious militia operating to
impose Wahhabi conformity on all of American Islam.”40
MSA-UCB
has a history of hostility toward campus speakers who attempt to expose the
dangers of radical Islam. For example, the Israel Action Committee and Berkeley
Hillel jointly invited Islam scholar Daniel Pipes to address the Berkeley student body on
February 10, 2004. On the day of Pipes’ speech to an audience of approximately
700 Berkeley students, some 50 to 70 members of
MSA-UCB teamed up with the Berkeley chapter of
Students for Justice in Palestine
to silence him by interrupting his speech and repeatedly calling him a “racist”
and a “Zionist.” University police eventually had to eject the demonstrators
from the auditorium.41
In
the same month, MSA UCB hosted the sixth annual MSA West Conference. The
featured speaker for this event was the notoriously anti-Semitic Abdel
Malik-Ali,who angrily denounced “the Zionist Jews” and asserted that “neo-cons
are all Zionist Jews.”42
After reading aloud a newspaper article about Jewish leaders
who feared that the Iraq War might lead to an anti-Semitic backlash, he said:
“Let the backlash begin.”43
During
the week of October 22-26, 2007, the David
Horowitz Freedom
Center held Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week
(IFAW) activities at the Berkeley
campus in an effort to educate students about the grave threat that radical
Islam posed to the world. MSA- UCB organized a competing week of events titled
“Peace Not Prejudice Week” that opened with a screening and discussion of the
film Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,
which depicted American military personnel as barbarians eager to brutalize
defenseless Muslims for sport. By showing this film, MSA-UCB conveyed a clear
message: The real threat to humanity was not Islamofascism, but America’s
egregious disregard for human rights.
One
of the featured speakers at Islamo Fascism Awareness Week was Nonie Darwish,
the Palestinian-born author of Now they Call Me Infidel; Why I
Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror.
Darwish, whose father was the head of the fedayeen, the first terrorist group to
attack Israel, was raised in
a traditional Muslim home in Gaza.
She described the degradation of women under Islam, that led her to renounce
the faith. MSA-USB members repeatedly interrupted her speech, calling her a
“racist” and a “fascist.”44 At some points, the
disruption was so loud that Darwish could not speak. Campus police had to
remove the unruly protesters from the auditorium.45
To read the third profile "The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine," click here.
NOTES:
36
http://msa.berkeley.edu/new/index.php?option=
com_content&view
=category&layout=blog&id=44&Itemid=63
37
http://msa.berkeley.edu/downloads/Constitution.pdf
38
http://msa.berkeley.edu/new/index.php?option
=com_content&view
=category&layout=blog&id=42&Itemid=68
39
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Readaspx?
GUID=A4883334-B150-4E33-8602-942B118C6DD5
40
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.
aspx?GUID=A4883334-B150-4E33-8602-942B118C6DD5
41
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/999
42
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individual Profile.
asp?indid=2102
43
http://64.233.169.104/custom?q=cache:fLRy8rkHddoJ:www.
frontpagemag.com/Articles/
Printableaspx%3FGUID%3DC92C9ED4-F451-4987-9B2F-285C1
A11BCEF+%22muslim+students+association%22+and+berkeley&
hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=12&gl=us
44
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.
aspx?GUID=17069DA6-6C04-4E06-81C7-010C9F29AD55
45
http://www.vdare.com/asp/printPage.asp?url=http://www.vdare.
com/walker/071024_darwish.htm