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StandWithUs.com: We Condemn the "Holocaust in the Holy Land" program at UC IRVINE

We Condemn the "Holocaust in the Holy Land" program at UC IRVINE
Posted: 5/14/2006 12:25:00 AM
Author: SWU, AJ Congress and ZOA
Source: http://www.standwithus.com


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STANDWITHUS, AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS,
AND ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA UNEQUIVOCALLY
CONDEMN THE "HOLOCAUST IN THE HOLY LAND" PROGRAM
PLANNED BY UC IRVINE'S MUSLIM STUDENT UNION MAY 15-19, 2006

(Los Angeles) -- StandWithUs, the American Jewish Congress Western Region and the Zionist Organization of America unequivocally condemn the "Holocaust in the Holy Land" program that the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union has planned for May 15 through May 19. Four radical anti-Israel speakers who tour colleges nationwide will address the student body.

"The four invited speakers will not promote education, dialogue or peaceful relationships. They are extremists who defame and foment prejudice against Israel, Jews, and the US through defamation and factual distortions. Such programs offend and alienate a large segment of the student body," stated SWU National Director Roz Rothstein."

"We have been deeply concerned about this pattern at UCI and many other campuses. For the past few years, the MSU has regularly sponsored programs that incite hatred. We hope that the UCI administration will use this as an opportunity to take a firm public stand and offer clear guidelines about the difference between hate speech and responsible free speech. Otherwise, California taxpayers end up subsidizing hate and incitement," declared Allyson Rowen Taylor, Associate Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress Western Region.

Though the invited speakers are marginalized even by the communities they supposedly represent, the Muslim Student Union continues to host them at UCI.

Muhammed Al-Asi, scheduled to speak on "Hamas: The People's Choice," was removed as Imam of the Washington, DC Islamic Center in 1981 at the request of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Middle Eastern governments because of his "fiery sermons" (1) and pro-Khomeini rhetoric (2) Saudi Arabia barred him from making the hajj to Mecca. He is notorious for his anti-Semitic comments, such as "You can take the Jew out of the ghetto but you cannot take the ghetto out of the Jew," for claiming that Nazi anti-Semitism was justifiable and for his close association with Ahmed Huber, the neo-Nazi Swiss convert to Islam who praised Khomeini as the "living continuation of Adolf Hitler."

Rabbi David Weiss, whose speech is "Zionism Hijacking Judaism," belongs to a fringe, ultra-Orthodox group called Netuei Karta, which was vehemently condemned by the Jewish Orthodox and Hassidic communities in 2002 and had been barred from their synagogues and communities for decades. (3) Neturei Karta has received funding from the Palestinian Authority.

De Paul University professor Norman Finkelstein's work has been condemned by the scholarly community for being "the hate campaign of a zealot," for "indifference to historical facts" and for being nothing more than "an anti-Semitic lampoon." The final speaker, Imam Abdel Malik Ali, is a firebrand rhetorician who uses street slang to vilify Jews and to rouse his audiences to fight for the victory of Islam in America. Notorious for such anti-Semitic comments as "The Zionists control the media, and the Zionists have spied in your classrooms," Malik Ali and others who shared the podium at a 2004 Berkeley MSA event shocked and embarrassed many Muslim students, according to the East Bay Express.

"Such programs pose a serious problem on campuses. These speakers represent the ugliest, most irrational element in today's political debates. Americans and campus administrators have a responsibility to distance themselves from these hateful programs, misinformation and prejudice when they occur on their campuses. Otherwise, universities appear to be giving tacit approval to bigotry and hate mongering and will fail in their mission to educate the next generation," state Daryl Temkin, executive director, Zionist Organization of America, Los Angeles/Western States and Campus Coordinator Julie Sager.
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(1) http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=3068

(2) www.iran.org/news/AS_9512.html

(3) "Angry Response to Neturei Karta Prayers for Arafat," Nov 12, 2004 at www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=71966

posted by Free Israel @ 9:18 AM