UC Irvine or UC Intifada?
Bruce Blumberg, who is the chair of the Academic Senate Council on Student Experience at the University of California-Irvine, wasn’t happy about a recent PJM article I co-wrote with Jonathan Movroydis. In the piece, we make the claim that UCI administrators have capitulated to the university’s radical Muslim Student Union (MSU), whose members regularly voice support for terrorist groups and denounce America and Israel.
In an email posted by Jerry Pournelle, Blumberg writes that “no one” in the “media or on campus” is aware of the inaction on the part of the administration and the UCI Police Department that is alleged in the article. It appears that Blumberg, like most of the UCI faculty and administration, will never come the defense of students who can think for themselves, will stand up for their civil liberties, and won’t flock with the rest of the sheep.
During the academic year at UCI, the MSU holds several hateful events, including an annual anti-Israel week. Although MSU events certainly fall within the bounds of “free speech,” freedom of speech and expression does not include the right of MSU members to engage in blatant harassment. Nor should it enable UCI administrators to restrict the freedoms of other individuals at the university campus.
For example, student journalist Jonathan Movroydis and his brother were harassed out of an auditorium for simply recording a lecture by the radical imam Amir Abdel Malik-Ali in 2007. University officials allowed for members of the MSU to police their own event and allowed the group to prohibit filming at a public university event. Fortunately, California Assemblyman Chuck Devore was able to convince UCI Chancellor Michael Drake to reverse the campus taping policy. The administration, however, has been unwilling to fully enforce this new rule.
Moreover, UC Irvine police officers will stand idly while intimidation occurs, and administrators continue efforts to censor certain groups and people on the campus. I learned this firsthand last year, when I had a camera shoved in my face by a member of the MSU. At the scene a police officer refused to take a statement from me. Because I was appalled and could not believe that shoving a camera in someone’s face would be considered lawful behavior, I could not let such a matter fall. After several phone calls and e-mails, I was finally able to schedule a meeting with Dean of Judicial Affairs Edgar Dormitorio, and given the opportunity to file a complaint with the police department on campus. I had the perpetrator’s face on camera and witnesses. However, no action has yet been taken against the student.
While I studied at UCI, I witnessed an affirmative action bake sale being shut down by administrators. Because a group of students wanted to sell cupcakes at different suggested prices for various racial groups in order to demonstrate what they felt were the injustices of affirmative action, the administration decided to completely shut down the event for what appeared to be “sensitivity” issues. Regardless of one’s position on affirmative action, it is outrageous that one’s view on a college campus, which so often promotes itself as the marketplace of different ideas, would be restricted by the administration.
Interestingly enough, when the Muslim Student Union brings speakers who have called for genocidal actions against Jews and Israelis, the administration refuses to speak out against this blatant hate speech. MSU’s right to free speech does not require the administration to be silent when the group’s members call for the destruction of Israel and threaten students who are Israel supporters . At the very least, administrators should uphold the rights of all students and make certain that individuals have the right to film and protest. The university should refrain from selective enforcement of its rules and regulations.
Thus far the administration at UCI has been extremely negligent. An independent task force investigation recently issued findings that clearly suggest anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, and pro-terror speech is well documented at UC Irvine. The full report can be read here.
According to this independent investigation, harassment and intimidation has occurred on campus and the administration has not worked to alleviate the problems that plague the campus. Instead, the administration’s lack of response and selective enforcement of policy has aided groups like the MSU in vilifying other students and groups.
For instance, when an anti-hate rally took place after a cardboard “apartheid wall” put up on campus by the MSU was vandalized in 2004, Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez refused to invite Jewish organizations. In a more recent incident, a non-Jewish student described the atmosphere at UCI as dominated by a philosophy that looks at the United States and Israel as enemies, while supporting terror organizations. The same student had a professor who had a picture of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on her computer. She also recounts an argument with an Iranian student who said “f- Israel” and pulled down his trousers to show his swastika tattoo.
In his email, Blumberg implies that the situation at UCI is a “pro-Israel” and “pro-Palestine” issue with mistreatment on both sides. With all due respect to Dr. Blumberg, he has got to venture outside his office a bit more. If the Academic Senate Council really supports the freedoms of all students and believes that UCI is truly a beacon of “free speech,” they are doing a poor job of showing it. They could learn a thing or two from Democratic Representative Brad Sherman, who recently urged Chancellor Drake to “publicly denounce” the MSU’s hate speech.
As a recent alumnus of the university, I will continue to advise my friends and family members not to attend UC Irvine unless changes are made.
Editor’s Note: Mr. Blumberg declined a Pajamas Media invitation to respond to Ms. Cohen’s previous piece.
It has seemed to me that the Muslim Students Assn. has been allowed to hold sway at UCI for a very long time.
Another plank in the platform of jihad, along with the public (and publicly financed) school in Minnesota where breaks are taken for Muslim “prayers” and “the press” is barred from looking too closely.
Or the agenda of the would be Khalil Gibran school in New York.
Jihad by increments, with overly accommodating, politically correct and weak kneed academic administrators going along for the ride.
Bravo Reut Cohen. The double standard is appalling. Nay, more than appalling, it is atrocious!
Reut knows what is the truth, as I have witnessed her witnessing the events at UCI. It is one of the most appalling universities, which allow the MSU to run amuck, and they know it well. The use of the campus for DAWA and Taqiyya, and to incite hatred is tremendous. The MSU intimidates Sally Peterson, and the ADL in OC. The endless funds they receive from the Wahabbi funds from petro dollars allows them to parade the speakers and uselful idiots like Norman Finkelstein, et al to speak as if they owned the campus. Brava again Reut.
How much money is UCI Getting from muslim donors?
You are very brave, Reut! I think the way you protest the MSU events and the way you stand up for your rights is admirable. It is a shame more students aren’t like you.
“Mr. Blumberg declined a Pajamas Media invitation to respond to Ms. Cohen’s previous piece.”
Of course he did not; he’s an academic leftist coward and a hypocrite.
Good piece.
UCI is dangerous. Too bad no one in LA, especially so-called “liberal Jews” I know, actually cares.
Reut, folks you like, me and many others, do the lord’s true work, while others sit back, criticise and enjoy the benefits.
Same with our soldiers in the middle east, fighting a war to save liberalism, while the American left does NOTHING to help the cause.
I have to say the best way to probably get the administration of UCI to pay actual attention is to hit the wallet and the PR Front. While the Saudi money will help offset some problems, having a very public, very negative campaign with former alumni worked hard to talk people OUT of attending their own school is going to be a much bigger problem for them to overcome. Less students, less money. More bad press, less students, less money. More Saudi money, you stop looking like a US Public School and more like something from Pakistan.
So pile on the bad press. If the UCI admin types don’t like it, then they are going to have to come out and defend it which plays right into the good guys side.
I will use the term “good guys” because they are the ones standing up for freedom of expression, right to protest, and the rather important idea that colleges should be a place where ALL sides of an argument can be heard without fear. I can’t stand the extremist viewpoints that so many groups put out, but I will (and have) fight for their right to talk about them.
And of course the right of another group to tell them they are full of it.
And somehow a guy with the last name of Blumberg, who is probably Jewish, takes the side of the Muslims.
People like him need to be called what they are, Sonderkommandos for the new generation.
“And somehow a guy with the last name of Blumberg, who is probably Jewish, takes the side of the Muslims.”
As a conservative Jew, I can sadly say that most liberal “Jews” side with Muslims over America, Christians and often Jews. But liberal “Jews” are secular and think of Judaism as an ethnic group more than a religion. Shameful but true.
If local police forces are unwilling or unable to enforce the
law (shoving a camera into someone’s face should be A&B, or at
least disorderly conduct), then it’s time to appeal to the
state or federal government.
This is far from the first such lapse I’ve read about in
California. I’m still outraged that Code Pink protesters were able to chain themselves to a Marine recruiting station door
for 7+ hours (fire code violation, disorderly conduct) while
Berkeley police did nothing.
California residents should ensure that your state and
federal legislators are aware of these incidents, and that
perhaps a review of any state or federal funding for
dysfunctional police forces (and the municipalities or
universities that employ them) is in order.
If your legislators refuse to act, call in the DOJ.
Selective enforcement is a violation of the equal protection
clause of the 14th Amendment. Don’t let it slide.
I’m a UCI Alum and first read about the MSU here at PJM. I immediately contacted the Anti-Defamation League who said that the MSU is also active in several other California campuses as well, most particularly Long Beach State. They are learning quickly how supportive academia is towards their agenda, and are quickly mobilizing throughout the state.
The ADL has written many letters to school Chancellors including UCI with either no response or whitewash.
In the eighties when I attended UCI it was absolutely non-political. Snoresville in fact. It appears that they have discovered the fun they can have supporting our enemies from their ivory tower, as the rest of academia has done.
I am still confused why a publically-funded institution is allowed to host terror conferences. I rememember passing by a Mohammed Cartoons protest there a couple years ago. My wife and I thought it would be a learning experience to mix with the crowd. It was terrifying as hundreds of screaming arab men and mostly women went absolutely berserk. Rubbing shoulders with them, it felt moments aways from somebody or something getting blown up. We left pretty wide-eyed that the normally quiet and reserved Muslims there could exploded into a violent hate-filled mob at a monet’s notice.
My desire to see an end to all public money for those schools that allow divisive groups to function while “looking the other way”. This has been going on for 35 years at this school. I say, shut ‘em down.
Hats off to you, Ruet Cohen. I trust you’re giving a little extra care to your safety. It only takes one “martyr” to ruin your whole day. The best security is in numbers. I would hope UCI students would join the resistance against these little jihadi punks and a brain dead administration. Be well.
I witnessed a similar outrage at SFSU in 2003 in which Jewish students were not being protected for either speech or safety by the campus police from a pro-Palestinian group. I have never been more afraid and angry. I cried through the campus at how this could happen, especially in San Francisco. Both Volokh and Instapundit covered it. Many people, myself included, wrote letters to SFSU, and nothing was ever done, and no actions were made by the administration to ensure this never happens again. As an alum and daughter of an alum, no money will ever be donated to SFSU until these practices are stopped and students feel safe on their campus.
Does anyone remember that controversy over the UCI chancellor who declined to hire a professor because of his ultra liberal views? It made news at LA Times admist outcries of “Mccarthyism strikes again”
What’s really funny was that other college students ridiculed UCI as that “conservative orange county campus” capable of such grave violation of civil rights. Honestly, it’s all about WHOSE civil rights are violated. If an idiot passerby shouted the N word to a bunch of flag burning black panthers, it’ll make headlines in LA. But if the admin stops student bake sale, who cares.
“Muslims Are Terrorists”
Do you think that would fly if jewish students waved that around? Why do i doubt it. Free speech is free speech. One for one and one for all.
In order to be a Liberal, you much also be politically correct. But ONLY when it’s about the OTHER guy. Basically, liberals are the new racists.
This is the prefect backdrop for UCI to award Barack Obama and honorary degree.
Is this guy (Blumberg) kidding? If he thinks that no one on the UCI campus is aware of inaction by the administration, maybe I should introduce myself. I have been on this campus teaching for 10 years, and I can testify to the inaction by the administration.
This sounds like another apologist for the administration that doesn’t have the cojones to stand up to a bunch of radical, anti-Semitic, terrorist-sympathizing thugs on the uci campus.
This guy must be smoking his socks.
gary fouse
adjunct teacher
uci-ext
fousesquawk
The Teamsters Union was put into judical receivership for crimes against its members. I can see no difference in putting a school in receivership until they can prove that they follow the Constitution and Bill of Rights and all laws pertaining to the safety of their charges. Its long past time to take back the schools from the radical revolutionaries who now run them, taught by the likes of “Bomber Bill” Ayers who posits “take over the educational facilities and you can take over the United States in two decades.”
Does Anybody know if the Moslems are granted access to UCI’s nuclear reactor? Perhaps a few kilos of enriched uranium for Ahmadinajhad?
while some who share bruce blumberg’s apparent jews-hating-jews, beyond inane position might actually see themselves as champions of fairness, or some sort of hogwash like that, most are just sniveling little self-haters, who wet the bed in their youth, and wet their pants now at the thought of standing up to the jihadists.
AJ: thank you for clarifying something I have struggled to understand for some 5 or 6 years now… I failed to understand when Jewish people I knew advocated the liberal democrat ideology… it just boggled my mind that they would side with what was obviously an anti-Israeli agenda… and so, your comment does help me understand something I should have known but didn’t, thanks for sharing that.
One other comment seems apropo here… and we are all “guilty” of this… the colleges and universities are paid for with our tax dollars… and whatever excuses we may offer for who is to blame, the responsibility for allowing it to continue is our own, each one of us individually who pays taxes and does nothing to stop it. The “chief executive” in this case for the State of California is Arnold, and the buck stops there… you can delegate the authority to others, but never the responsibility… and this is happening on his watch (as it is probably in all of our States). We are voters, and whether we choose to hold our politicians accountable or not for outrageous actions like these, is simply a matter of exercising the power and the privilege of living in a free society… which will not stand unless we exercise that responsibility. Folks, it’s time for good people to stand up and be heard… before it’s too late.
Reut Cohen, Have you contacted FIRE about this situation? See the FIRE website. It specializes in First Amendment cases at universities and colleges. Also, have you written for Academic Questions, the journal for the NAS (National Association of Scholars), which also has a website?
I am curious as to what stand that “too Liberal Law School Dean” has taken on this controversy? Is Erwin too Liberal to take on Radical Islamists? If so, he shows he is just another sell-out.
Remember, if they win, the Holocaust will just seem to be a warm-up act.
tanstaafl sez: “It has seemed to me that the Muslim Students Assn. has been allowed to hold sway at UCI for a very long time.”
—-
And the ZOA holds sway everywhere else? I saw Dr. Norman Finkelstein speak there not too long ago and he was very well received.
He also has a breakdown of a previous complaint of hate crimes here: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/pdf/uci/OCR%20Report%20120507-Z05145157-0001.pdf
Second Holocaust at UC Irvine? Must-Read Report. Too frightening for words
Excerpt:
The complaint alleged that Jewish students at the University [of California, Irvine] were subjected to harassment and a hostile environment based on their national origin…. regarding the following incidents, and that the University failed to respond promptly and effectively to the hostile environment. For reasons described below, OCR determined that the following allegations we investigated were untimely filed…
Another important piece—keep up the great work, Reut. I’m not sure anyone is working as hard as you to shed light onto this important issue which needs to be exposed. I often wonder how many other campuses are experiencing similar things but which don’t have people like you speaking out about them.
Kol Hakovod.
Reut,
Great piece!! The link to the Independent Task Force report and website can be found at
http://octaskforce.wordpress.com/category/press-release/
Best regards,
Ted Bleiweis
Orange County Independent Task Force on anti-Semitism
Well, what do you think about this?
http://collegelife.freedomblogging.com/2008/06/05/this-student-says-he-picked-vassar-over-uci-because-of-the-intense-hatred-of-jews-at-uci/
Don’t count on the ADL to help you. They are as leftist and as Jewicidal as anyone.
Just another example of how the left will not allow speech they do not agree with. The left is unwilling or unable do debate issues, they can only disrupt and shout down, but debate, no way.
Is UCI becoming America’s “Brown University”?
In 2005, I published a book entitled: Erlangen-An American’s History of a German Town. It was a history of the German university town of Erlangen, near Nuremberg. I had spent almost three years in Erlangen as a young US Army MP (1966-1968). Since that time, I have returned several times, most recently this month, due to my love for the city where I spent a formative time of my youth.
During my research, I learned a lot about Erlangen in the years leading up to and during the Third Reich. In the years prior to Hitler taking power, Erlangen University acquired a reputation as a bastion of Nazi support and anti-Semitic feeling. Though there were not that many Jewish students or professors there, those that were found themselves subjected to a lot of abuse from students who were Nazi sympathizers. Indeed, the university was the first in Germany whose student government was dominated by Nazis. Hitler himself paid tribute to the university which gave him the most support in his early years of rising to power in Germany. As a result, Erlangen University boasted the moniker of “The Brown University”.
I offer that as a backdrop because the university where I teach part-time, the University of California at Irvine (with the improbable mascot name “Anteaters”), has acquired a reputation in recent years as a bastion of radical Islamic activity (on the part of the Muslim Student Union), as well as anti-Israel-and anti-Jewish expression. It has reached the point where several Jewish students have opted to go elsewhere to study because of the perception. While not equating UCI with anything that existed in Nazi Germany, it is undeniable that words and deeds are on-going at UCI that can only be troubling to Jewish students and their families.
First of all, I have written extensively about this issue for over a year now, and I won’t try to recount everything I have written in detail. I have also made the point that 99% of our students have nothing to do with anything that could be called anti-America or anti-Jew. Most of our students are Asian-American, and they have nothing whatsoever to do with the problems on our campus.
The problem, as I see it, is two-fold: First, we have an MSU that is virulently anti-Israel. The problem is that this has included much expression of Anti-American sentiment-and anti-Jewish sentiment on the part of MSU’s sponsored speakers who come to UCI every quarter to speak. Many of MSU’s speakers are radical Muslims who advocate the destruction of Israel, glorify suicide bombers, defend Hizbollah and Hamas and damn America in the process for its support of Israel and other offenses, real or imagined. Often, some of these speakers use anti-Semitic statements, usually careful to say, “Zionist Jews” to avoid the charge of anti-Semitism.
For example, Mohammed Al-Asi, an imam from Washington DC, has referred to Jews (on the UCI campus) as “low-life ghetto dwellers.” He has also stated on the UCI campus that, “You can take the Jew out of the ghetto, but you cannot take the ghetto out of the Jew”. He is also a defender of the Government of Iran, as well as Hizbollah and Hamas.
Amir Abdel Malik Ali, (formerly Derek Gilliam) a black convert to Islam, who is an imam in Oakland, comes to UCI every quarter and rails against Israel, America, and Zionist Jews as he defends Hamas and Hizbollah. He has appeared on tape glorifying suicide bombers in Israel.
Then there is Abdul Alim Musa (formerly Clarence Reams), from Washington DC, who echoes all of Ali’s above sentiments, calls for Islam to take over the world and maintains that 9-11 was an inside job. This former drug dealer turned imam has also appeared at UCI spouting his nonsense.
This past quarter, the MSU week of “Holocaust in Palestine” featured a mock wall depicting the wall Israel has established to keep out suicide bombers. On the wall were various photos, drawings and slogans. I personally observed (and have posted) a caricature of Ariel Sharon drawn in the classic style of Julius Streicher’s Der Stuermer, a vicious anti-Semitic weekly newspaper of the Third Reich. (Streicher was hanged after the war as one of the major war criminals.) Sharon was depicted with an over sized nose, thick lips and leering gaze.
In addition, there have been occasional incidents where Jewish students who monitor and film these events have been harassed, threatened and shoved by MSU members. During last quarter’s events, one Jewish female student who was filming Ali’s evening speech, was reportedly followed back to her car by about 6 MSU males, who surrounded her car. This incident was reportedly witnessed by a South African woman who had come to hear the speech. According to her account, when the police arrived, they treated the incident with complete indifference. (This alleged incident was reported in the Red County blog.)
This leads me to the second problem. The response of the university administration over the past several years has been negligible. Their position is that this is all a matter of free speech and free expression. Jewish students who have complained about the MSU have met with similar indifference. Certain university officials have been quoted as having called complaining Jewish students “hysterical Jews”, “troublemakers” or “outside groups”. Another faculty member just this week stated in an email (which I have read)that complaining Jewish students were misrepresenting the facts. He also took a shot at certain blogs like Pajamas Media and Little Green Footballs for reporting on the issue. The professor opined that whatever was being said by the MSU, no matter how offensive, was protected speech.
UCI Chancellor Michael Drake recently met in Washington DC with representatives of Hillel (a national Jewish student organization). He assured them that there was no room for hate speech at UCI. No room for hate speech at UCI? No room for imams calling Jews “low-life ghetto dwellers”? No room for Nazi-like caricatures of Ariel Sharon? No room for glorifying those who blow up innocent men, women and children on buses and in pizza parlors?
This past quarter, David Horowitz appeared at UCI and characterized it as the “worst in the country” when it came to this problem. There were at least two deans in the audience who listened to Horowitz’s remarks. In the question and answer session that followed, none of these individuals took the opportunity to speak up and defend the university.
It appears that the Jewish students at UCI are on their own as far as the school is concerned. Yes, there are a few professors who are alarmed at the MSU. Yet, few if any have spoken out publicly to criticize the MSU and the administration. Some choose to lend their influence quietly in working with the administration to make changes.
I have chosen to hold the university’s feet to the fire in a public manner. I have written to the campus newspaper, the UCI EEO Office and the Orange County Human Relations Commission outlining my concerns. This last endeavor was a waste of time. All I got was a nasty email from the OCHRC director, a certain empty suit hack named “Rusty” Kennedy, who called my letter a “diatribe” against the university (which was doing a great job along with his office to combat racism, blah, blah, blah.) He then had the cojones to sign his nasty-gram, “Rusty”.
“Rusty”.
Fortunately, the US Department of Education (Office of Civil Rights) has agreed to re-open an investigation into anti-Semitic allegations from 2007, which they had previously determined to be “unfounded”. Where this will go is anybody’s guess.
What is needed here is public exposure of the activities of the MSU that have brought so much discredit to what should be otherwise a fine university. As I stated above, I am not suggesting that anyone at UCI harbors pro-Nazi sympathies, but I personally believe from my own observations that anti-Jewish feeling exists among at least some of the MSU members and especially many of their sponsored speakers. If the university administration cannot or will not meet its responsibility to provide a safe and hate-free environment for its Jewish students, then they should be held up to public exposure as well. While they fiddle and preach about “free speech”, UCI is gradually becoming a version of America’s own “Brown University”. (And that has nothing to do with the one in Rhode Island.)
gary fouse
adjunct teacher
uci-ext
fousesquawk
This is the result when the old media take seriously an ancient cult formed by and for the advancement of a child molesting mass murderer. Islam of course is the death cult in question here. You see, the perverted quran teaches lying and murder are wrong, but only if commited against other fellow cultists. Everyone else in the world is fair game. But the old media and old establishment in place since 1968 tell us to enable the very people that wish to behead our children. Liberalism is truely a mental disorder.
As usual, third world behavior in a first world country. I think democracy and free speech are wasted on most Americans. If you can’t behave like a responsible adult, you are better off living in a totalitarian state that dictates your every word and action.