Islamist Campus Group Gets ‘A+’ in Radicalism
While it would be silly to believe that MSA students are engaging in any kind of conspiracy, Muslims typically have no alternative to the MSA when they first arrive on college campuses and become involved with this extreme organization. As an undergraduate student I recall several students who could have easily been described as moderates — and whom I was friendly with — joining the MSA during their first year. These students, who were initially amicable and reasonable, grew increasingly radical as they became more immersed in MSA activities.
It is crucial to recognize that the MSA was initially financed by Saudi Arabia. A New York Times piece says that the organization’s leaders, in return for the financing, “pushed the kingdom’s puritan, Wahhabi strain of Islam.” In the 1960s and 70s, adds the Times piece, MSA chapters “advocated theological and political positions derived from radical Islamist organizations and would brook no criticism of Saudi Arabia.”
Recent controversy surrounding the MSA shows a relationship between this student organization and the Holy Land Foundation fiasco in which money was allegedly being allocated to a Hamas front group. The MSA had apparently fundraised for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, whose assets the U.S. government seized in December 2001 because that organization was giving financial support to the terrorist group Hamas.
The MSA has also become increasingly influential. MSA has published the MSA Starter’s Guide: A Guide on How to Run a Successful MSA, which states: “It should be the long-term goal of every MSA to Islamicize the politics of their respective university. … The politicization of the MSA means to make the MSA more of a force on internal campus politics. The MSA needs to be a more ‘in-your-face’ association. … For example, the student body must be convinced that there is such a thing as a Muslim-bloc.” The MSA Starter’s Guide further advises: “Aim to rise within the ranks of the Union [student government] and to get on selected executive committees. … I cannot stress this enough, the Union has vast powers that Muslims need to control.”
Though the MSA often presents itself as a fairly innocuous religious organization catering to Muslims on campus, the behavior of student leaders and members of the MSA has been anything but innocent:
- October 22, 2000, Ahmed Shama, then-president of the UCLA Muslim Students Association, led a crowd of demonstrators at the Israeli consulate in chants of “Death to Israel!” and “Death to the Jews!” One guest speaker at the event was Hamid Ayloush, a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which co-sponsored the rally. In his speech, Ayloush solicited contributions for the aforementioned Holy Land Foundation.
- In recent years, MSA members at UCLA raised money for Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists at their annual “Anti-Zionist Week.” In March 2003, speaker Muammad Faheed told an MSA meeting at Queensborough Community College in New York, “The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it!”
- At its annual conference in 2003, the Iowa Muslim Student Association invited, as a guest speaker, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad, who had told a college audience in 1994 that “I am a supporter of the Hamas movement.”
- The University of Southern California MSA invited Taliban ambassador Sayyid Hashimi to speak on campus six months before 9/11.
- The MSA chapter at California State University, Northridge, held a fundraiser for Islamic Relief Worldwide, an organization that received a $50,000 contribution from a pro-Osama bin Laden front group based in Canada.
- In 2002, James Madison University’s MSA sponsored a “jihad” panel that included Dr. Abdulrahman Hijazi, who had once extolled an Islamic suicide bomber as a “martyr” whose actions were animated by a hope of securing “the mercy of Allah” by means of “one of the greatest good deeds, which is jihad.”
- In 2003, University of Idaho MSA President Sami Omar Al-Hussayen was ordered deported because he worked for the Islamic Assembly of North America, which has ties to al-Qaeda. While on campus, Al-Hussayen had sought access to a chemical lab containing nuclear material.
- Alkalima, the newspaper of the Muslim Student Union (which is an MSA campus chapter) at the University of California, Irvine, once published a special report called “Zionism: The Forgotten Apartheid,” which glorified Hamas and Hezbollah as noble warriors fighting Israeli oppression. Alkalima‘s June 2004 edition contained an opinion piece praising Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. It also described Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and former Hamas senior leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi as “martyrs.”
- At the seventh annual MSA West Conference held at the University of Southern California in January 2005, former MSA UCLA member Ahmed Shama said: “We want to restore Islam to the leadership of society. … The goal … is the reestablishment of the Islamic form of government.” Shama praised Hamas and Hezbollah for being “uncompromising” on their principles, and for refusing to “shake hands with the other side.” He lauded the terrorist leader Muqtada al-Sadr for “legitimately fighting against [U.S.] occupation” in Iraq. He identified Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as part of the “mainstream Islamic movement.” He praised Hamas’ resolve that “the only solution to the current occupation is military resistance. Not shaking hands. Not dialogue.” And he declared, “We have an obligation to make sure that our MSAs are part of the global Islamic movement.”
- At the February 2006 MSA West Conference at Sacramento State University, guest speaker Abdel Malik-Ali praised the late Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and rejoiced at Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s poor health.
- MSA co-founder Ahmad Totonji was a major figure in the Virginia-based, Muslim Brotherhood-dominated SAAR network, which, according to federal investigators, had financing ties to al-Qaeda, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas.
Perhaps the most notable and shocking case concerning an MSA member is that of former member Asan Akbar, an American Muslim extremist who attended the MSA-controlled student mosque at the University of California, Davis. After college, Akbar joined the U.S. Army and, in the early hours of March 23, 2003, he intentionally detonated a grenade amidst sleeping members of his 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division stationed in Kuwait — killing two and wounding fifteen.
Unfortunately, the MSA has refused to condemn terrorism and radical Islam. The group decided not to participate in or endorse a crucial rally on May 14, 2005, “Free Muslims March Against Terror,” an event with the purpose to “send a message to the terrorists and extremists that their days are numbered … [and to send] a message to the people of the Middle East, the Muslim world, and all people who seek freedom, democracy, and peaceful coexistence that we support them.”
Considering their other activities, the fact that MSA chapters refused to participate in or endorse a rally denouncing radical Islam suggests that their alliances are not innocent.
Despite the disturbing behavior that Muslim Students Associations have engaged in throughout North America, they are in good standing with universities across the United States. Various MSA chapters have brought anti-Semitic, anti-American, and even homophobic speakers to campus. While the MSA has the right to exercise their First Amendment rights, it is unwarranted that such a hateful organization abuses university resources and even solicits student government funding — paid for in part by tuition dollars — to engage in their vile behavior.
Related organizations include the Islamic Medical Association, the Muslim Arab Youth Association, the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, the Islamic Circle of North America, and the Islamic Society of North America. MSA also has strong ties to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth.
The problem is that Islam is inherently political. So what may be seen from the outside as a religious organisation is actually a political one – and with dangerous politics at that.
We have the same problem with Muslim student societies here in the UK, probably more so.
The “Clash of civilizations” is not about religion, but about banking. How Hitler rebuilt Germany’s economy was simple. He abandoned the fractional reserve banking system that was crippling post-WW1 Germany and instituted a currency with a fixed unit of value. Oddly enough, it was a financial system not very different from that of the United States prior to 1913. This allowed Germany to rebuild quickly, but was of course a direct threat to the bankers who had grown rich and powerful with legalized counterfeiting. This is the reason that “war” (actually a boycott; see attached) was “declared” against Germany. The bankers feared that people everywhere would see the immediate advantages of a non- reserve monetary system and force a change in their own countries. Germany, specifically the German economy, had to be wrecked in order to preserve the fractional reserve banking system everywhere else.
Oddly enough, when Putin came to power in Russia, he did pretty much the same thing; kicking out the oligarchs and restructuring Russia’s economic system, and the end result is that Russia has paid off all her debts early (while the USA, still enslaved to the Federal Reserve, sinks deep into debt every single day), and not surprisingly, enmity against Russia by nations under the control of reserve banking systems and bankers is on the increase.
The same “war of money” underlies the push for Islamophobia. It’s not really about religion but about the conflict between compounded interest versus loan-plus-fixed-fee financing.
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs…
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
Thomas Jefferson
…help teach Muslims “that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ’sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands … so that … God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.”
Ah, soft jihad. So much fun.
While “politically correct” university administrators bend over and spread ‘em to accommodate.
For the MSM, CAIR and other groups dedicated to the hatred of (any coloUred) kafir, it can be like taking candy from a baby.
It’s too bad when the peaceful Muslims on college campuses get intimated by the radical groups into either joining them or shutting up.
the MSM
MSA
Let’s buy more gas so Saudi Wahabbists(and others) can continue to fund madrassa like ideas on North American soil !
This demonstrates the short sighted thinking that plagues most collegians. He urges his fellow followers of Allah to not vote, however, one of the two candidates is still going to win. A few muslims refusing to rock the vote isn’t going to change anything. Something else I love about these college kids is that they bash the U.S. but they can’t seem to remove their mouths from the gubmint teet. Their loans are subsidized by the government, their grants are provided by the government, their student groups and facilities a paid for with tax dollars, they can freely protest everything from tampons to scented soaps, and they can safely and securely make their bi-weekly trip to the mall. This is why many of them were so willing to vote for a socialist because their lives for the most part consist of living off of the government, it is a cool thing.
You know, piston, more than a few of those radical Islamic imams in Great Britain, preaching hatred for Great Britain and advocating the dismantling of all “western” forms, also live off of the British dole/welfare.
Support their entire extended families that way, so they have lots of time to devote to screeching and hatred.
The problem is not stupid college kids as much as some portions of the common people who thinks the biggest threat to humanity is evangelicals wanting to pray in the morning and the moral equivalence of islam and any other legitimate cult on earth.
I usually end all discussion when the opponent starts lecturing about crusades and inquisition. They will never get it.
susan,
Islamofascist == Christofascist
No significant distinstion. I concur: conversations with soothsayers about invisible, omnipotent superbeings in the sky precludes any reasonable discourse.
That letter that the stupid wrote, saying that voting for these two men would be wrong because they would kill their brothers and sisters, is no more “radical” than saying that voting for Obama was wrong because he kills babies outside the womb.
I meant “student”, not “stupid”. It is beyond belief that a website such as this, with this many people, cannot have an incredibly simplistic edit function for comments.
kocevnik
go back and read my reply to your other post of sex on the beach.
Christofascist are not around threatening our way of life.
kochevnik,
You believe that a pencil eraser is a product of intelligent design, yet you believe the humans who created that simple device are just a product of chance. It is very ignorant of you to suggest that theists are somewhat of lower intelligence. Most of the early scientists were theists. They were theists before anyone ever heard of the irreducible complexity of the first cell. How the first cell formed for atheists is very problematic, some are even suggesting that aliens deposited here. That is one way to get around it, I guess.
A just-published study found scars of Christofascist mind-control in victims, susan:
On a computer screen, Hommel’s team showed participants a large triangle or square made of either smaller triangles or squares. The volunteers had to focus on either the big object or its component shapes, and indicate whether they were square or triangular.
Both groups recognised the large shapes more quickly than small, embedded ones, but the Calvinists picked out the smaller shapes 30 milliseconds faster than atheists, on average – a small, but significant, difference.
This could reflect a greater focus on self than external distractions for Calvinists, says Hommel.
He suggests it may even be a cognitive consequence of their religion and speculates that Calvinists might be more inward looking than atheists…
piston honda,
People also create other people, but that doesn’t require the outside intervention of a omnipotent superbeing in the sky or an imaginary friend.
Doubtless there are unknown forces in nature and those who study them are repressed. Tesla being a marvelous example. But the theists you mention were often given an offer they couldn’t refuse by the Catholic Church, or they openly worked with aristocracy to suppress knowledge with archaic formulas, as in the case of Euler and Newton.
Religion consistently works to destroy human knowledge, like a virus.
kochevnik
You say that people create other people. Not really, we just use the reproductive resources that we already mysteriously have. It is in a way involuntary. We choose to have sex but our reproduction capibilities had to be the product of someone else. It is not like we had any role in deciding that we would have a reproductive system. If there were another system like it on earth, you would automatically say that there had to be intelligent input into it. How can chance explain information. You say that Religion destroys human knowledge. In some cases that has been true. Consistently, the word you chose, is a matter of opinion. Keep in mind that Atheistic political elements have also been known to supress knowledge. Also, there are some raging lunatics in Texas who want to keep some of the problems with the evolutionary theory out of class rooms. I have studied the theory rigoursly. It is a theory that makes good observations but terrible conclusions. Religion has done terrible things in the name of God. I am a Christian and have seen God work miracles hundreds of times. I would never harm anyone for not believing like me. I appreciate the honest debate, and I will pray for you whether you like it or not.
Tovarish kochevnik in your convoluted Marxist-Leninist mind cardinal Mahoney secretly beheading his worshipers like the Islamist?…
Are you also hunting down the kulaks, and other class enemies of the proletariat?
Are you already the New Man – the Socialist New Man?
Comrade Kochevnik is correct. The Islamist and Christianist, (as well as the Zionist) are both equally the enemies to the power of the state, which is why our comrades Lenin, Stalin and Hitler saw to it rightfully that millions were butchered mercilessly in order to preserve the peace and integrity of the state, although personally, and I am sure comrade Kochevenik would agree, the Islamist has more respect for the state than the Christianist, who claims frightening, seditious, subversive things like, “No King but Jesus” and “.. endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
This is why it is more convenient to put up with the Islamists for now – they can help us eliminate the other two.
with respects to the late george carlin, it would be nice to think there is a man in the sky. especially one who checks our email to Him, and deletes the others spam.
i do believe in something outside of ourselves. we’re easy to make, but i have to say, only an inexplicable force could come up with tropical fish.
despite what i believe, or do not believe in, keeping religion separate from the state was one of the great enlightened ideas of modern civilization. far less annoying and stupid than the medieval bullsh*t that suddenly finds it necessary to expose itself in our public square.
the very next thing, we’ll have a candidate for something who flagellates themselves on youtube and facebook, causing islamists to jump up from prayers, in yet a new rage, wrenching the backs of the multitudes in the process of shaking their fists at the sky. which, hopefully will disable them from causing any more trouble.
2. kochevnik: You had a good comment here and it made me think…but then I read your other comments and you digressed. I have studied history and religion, there is no need to convict another person of their beliefs. I have often wondered what athiests believe happens to their soul (or energy source) when they die. Have you ever felt a child grow inside of you? Have you ever given birth? If you do, you will see God.
I admit that there have been some atrocities done in the name of Christ but you must also realize that there are extremists in all religions. Just like I know that all Islamist are not out to kill everyone I know that not all Christians will burn you at the stake. That’s why we have freedom of religion. At the same time our nation was attacked by extreme Islamist and seeing what they have done to their own people in their own countries has given us the reason to be a little weary.
It always amazes me that athiests have such fear and hatred of religion. They claim that it is an empty idea and there is no God to back it up. Why are they so afraid of something that according to them is empty? They react as if it is a living breathing dragon.
Here is what they should be afraid of. People. Just that simple. People in the agragat twist anything they come in contact with, government, religion, schools, clubs. Just look at the what will kill the US, tribalism. If tribalism was a good thing then Africa wouldn’t need outside help and the Tutsies and Hootoes wouldn’t be killing each other. People find divisions and exploit them. History of civilization is a story of a small proportion of humanity trying to control our tendency to tribalism and our ability for self destruction.
As for Islam, read above.
Socialists hate Christianity because it sets peoples accomplishments squarly on their own shoulders by the personal choices each one of us makes. Individualy. Personal responsibility.
As someone who has taught part-time at Univ of Calif at Irvine, I know that what Reut says is true. At UCI, we have one of the most radical Muslim Student Unions in the country. Most of their speakers regularly engage in anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and anti-US demogogery. To make things even worse, the cowardly administrators at UCI don’t dare say a word about it. They won’t even condemn the hate speech that is spoken on their campus -even as they say they don’t tolerate “hate speech”.
Meanwhile, the UC president whines about Free Speech and won’t take his chancellors to task. He defends them-saying they have spoken out against the hate speech. The problem is that no one will speak out specifically against the MSU and their speakers.
The whole bunch of them are a disgrace.
gary fouse
adjunct teacher
uci-ext
fousesquawk
The left is a suicide cult. In memory of San Francisco’s Jim Jones cult: Koolaid drinkers for Utopia!
There is ONE organization that has the best potential to keep the U.S. radical Islamists in check, including the VERY dangerous MSA, please consider joining our local chapter: http://www.actforamerica92691.org/1.html
This is the largest and rapidly growing grass roots organization of its kind. Our so called representatives in government cannot do anything about this issue without an enormous amount of grass roots support behind them. Join now!
Here is then link to the parent org:
http://www.actforamerica.com/