Over the next several days, Frontpage
will publish profiles of individual chapters of the Muslim Students
Association and Muslim Student Union 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 MSA at Berkeley, click
here, "The MSU at UC Irvine," 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 Editor
Founded
in 1990, the Muslim Students Association of Brown University (MSA-Brown) seeks
to “raise awareness of Islam” on campus by means of “lectures, open houses,
social programming, and communication with other groups.”60
In
2006, MSA-Brown organized a “Palestinian Solidarity Week” that featured
displays depicting Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israeli “aggression.”
It also featured an “apartheid” wall on the campus’ Main Green to protest Israel’s
recent construction of a security fence -- which MSA-Brown characterized as an
assault on Palestinian human rights.
MSA-Brown
designated March 2007 as “Islam Awareness Month” (IAM).A featured presentation
of this event was “Censorship in Islam: Where is the Freedom?” a talk by Salam
Al-Marayati, Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council,61
an
arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. The
anti-Israel Al-Marayati was already on record as accusing Israelis of carrying
out the 9/11 attacks; had called for the U.S. government to unfreeze the assets
of two terrorism-funding Islamic charities, the Global Relief Foundation and
the Holy Land Foundation; had refused to concede that Hezbollah was a terrorist
group; and had asserted that Hamas was a group promoting social programs and
“educational operations.”
Another
IAM presentation was a screening of the documentary film, The
Road to Guantanamo:
How Far WillWe Go in the Name of Security? The MSA-Brown website
offered the following background for this film: “In 2001, four Pakistani
Britons ... travel to Pakistan
for a wedding. In an exploratory mood and assured that the Americans would not
bomb Afghanistan, the four drive into Afghanistan only to get caught up in the
most chaotic, and painful experience any of them ever had or probably would
have experienced in a lifetime....”62 The
message was that American troops had incarcerated innocent men and that this
was a regular occurrence.
The
IAM festivities also featured “Women in Islam: Respect or Repression?” – a talk
given by Hadia Mubarak, former president of the national Muslim Students Association,
and currently a national board member of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood front which has had four of its
executives jailed for terrorist activities. In 2004, Mubarak had been
previously involved in the Rachel Corrie “Day of Remembrance,”63
a
Washington, D.C. event sponsored by the anti-Israel group,
“End
the Occupation.” That same year, Mubarak exhorted all North American MSA chapters
to demand that Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan
al-Banna be permitted to enter the United States.64
Ramadan’s
visa had been revoked by the State Department because of his connections to
Islamic terrorism. In July 2006 she called America a land of “religious
bigotry,” “hatred,” and “intolerance” – a place where Muslims are “the closest targets
for bigots and extremists.”65
Mubarak’s
appearance before the MSA took place against the backdrop of the organization’s
success in intimidating the campus Hillel chapter into canceling an appearance
by Nonie Darwish, Palestinian born author of Now
They Call Me Infidel and a critic of the violent oppression
of Islamic women.
Another
event during Islam Awareness Month was a seminar itled “Under
Muslim Rule: A Palestinian Christian’s Perspective. The
presenter, Mazin Qumsiyeh, was a founder of Al-Awda, an organization which
refers to Israel
as “a genocidal Zionist state,” and has claimed that a Jewish “cabal”
manipulates American foreign policy.66
In
April 2007 the Brown University Middle East Studies Department, with the
support of MSA-Brown, organized an “academic” conference called “The Study of
the Middle East and Islam: Challenges after 9-11” which featured speakers such
as University of Michigan professor Juan Cole (who has branded Zionism as
“racist” and “fascist”) and Harvard professor Stephen Walt, author of a book
claiming that an “Israel lobby” controlled U.S. foreign policy.67
NOTES:
60
http://www.brown.edu/Students/Muslim_Students/about.html
61
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individual Profile.
asp?indid=1402
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6177
62
http://www.brown.edu/Students/Muslim_Students/
roadtoguantanamo2007.html
63
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individual Profile.
asp?indid=821
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/calendar.php?calid=193
64
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individual Profile.
asp?indid=1884
65
http://news.ibn.net/newsgen.asp?url=islmund
66
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individual Profile.
asp?indid=933
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6616
67 http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individual
Profile.asp?indid=1782
http://www.mererhetoric.com/archives/11272509.html