We have just been informed that President Amadinejad, who himself enjoyed no disruption when he spoke at Columbia University has said he “supports” the disruption, by American students and faculty, of the handful of panels and lectures at Columbia University and at the more than one hundred other universities where Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week will take place from October 22nd to October 26th, 2007.
By the way, the term “Islamo-fascism” was coined by Algerian Muslims and ex-Muslims to characterize the Islamic fanatics who slaughtered 150,000 of their Algerian Muslim brethren in the 1990s–and all in the name of Allah.
I am speaking at Columbia on a panel with my esteemed colleagues Ibn Warraq and Christina Hoff-Sommers on the evening of October 24th. David Horowitz, whose Freedom Center has organized the week-long Teach-In, is speaking there at noon on October 26th.
There will be security, cameras, and perhaps even media. These add-ons have become increasingly necessary in order that those who hold minority anti-fascist viewpoints may nevertheless engage in the joys of academic freedom.
We have also just been informed that Saudi money, (what an everlasting surprise), has apparently funded the various pro-Palestinian, anti-American, and anti-Israeli campus groups to launch a defamation and disruption campaign against us. And, the religious Jewish left has also weighed in with an emailed campaign that opposes our telling the truth about how Muslims are blowing other Muslims up, and persecuting women, intellectuals, and homosexuals.
Apparently, if you don’t blame America first, and Israel soon thereafter; and if you don’t continually apologize for the Christian Crusades and for the West’s past colonialism and imperialism–you do not deserve to speak or, perhaps, to live. This way of thinking represents an utter failure to understand that jihad against infidels and other barbarisms are intrinsic to the Arab Muslim Middle East and were not necessarily caused by Western actions.
As to Columbia: In 2004, my answer to a single question sparked a near-riot and I had to be hustled out for my safety. In 2005, the graduate students at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA–the group that invited Amadinejad), boycotted a student-organized and rather illustrious panel about Israel of which I was a member. Also in 2005, at an all-day conference with enormous security, my words still “provoked” a planned pro-Palestinian “acting up” (or is it “acting out” or “shaking off?”). There is more. You get the picture.
Today, speaking the truth about fascism means that you have to do so under hostile and perhaps even dangerous working conditions. The truth-tellers are defamed as “fascists” and “racists.” Those who silence all free speech other than their own view only themselves as anti-racist liberators.
I will have more to say about this. Stay tuned.
Christians did not start the Crusades…Muslims did. Really.
Like to know what that question was, and what the answer was — the words that “sparked a near-riot.” Heh!
The presence of veiled (and at times blatant) anti-Semitism on campi is stunning. We expect openess and tolerance at universities, but they now seem to be one of the shelters of jihadis. And it is the right that is assumed to be the intolerant ones — witness the fake anti-Muslim flyer at George Washington University (a supposed satire by Muslim students against consevative students, where GWU administrators initially castigated the innocent conservative students). Keep up the good work for all, Phyliss. Thanks.
First a small request, your use of all caps in your headline titles is hard to read. Can I suggest you change to normal sentence case?
We have just been informed that President Amadinejad, …, has called upon American students and faculty to disrupt the handful of panels and lectures …
I don’t know whether Amadinejad has done this or not, but it sounds like the sort of similar claim one hears before any protest. “The FBI has infiltrated us!”, “Management has strike breakers coming!”, “Last night three guys from their team egged Johnny’s house!”
Regarding the origins of the term “Islamo-facism”, that’s an interesting take, and I have no way of knowing what the actual origin is another. I will point out that best as I understand that, the Wikipedia doesn’t mention that as a source at all. If you feel there is a strong reason to regard that as the origin, you may wish to either add that to the Wikipedia or at least add it to the discusssion page there and let others fill in the details.
The Algerian sociologist Marieme Helie Lucas explains that the controversial term “Islamo-Fascism” was “initially coined by Algerian people struggling for democracy, against armed fundamentalist forces who slaughtered 150,000 – 200,000 Mulsims in Algeria in the 1990′s.
http://www.gilasvirsky.com/marieme.html
“minority anti-fascist viewpoints”
I’d like to see this byoot of a phrase get some traction.
It seems as though the best way to keep these people happy is to practice bona-fide fascism.
The security staff at Columbia will likely perceive you to be scum of the Earth. They will provide only half-hearted protection. The anger of the radical students will be deemed understandable. When the crap hits the fan—you will be asked to leave to avoid further violence. They will virtually ignore the misbehaving Leftists.
Heckling and disruption are the bane of any speaker not willing to toe the line of the Leftists. On the other hand, such poor behavior might not be entirely a bad thing…let me explain.
In 1989 I was a student at Cornell, and I had a work-study job as an AV technician at the student union. I was running the sound system at a talk starring a representative of the Nicaraguan contras. A number of students in the audience heckled him mercilessly. While I was far from agreeable with the speaker’s views, I was utterly disgusted by my fellow students’ behavior; it was my first look at moonbats in action. I found the experience to be quite educational. It was the first step on a long road that transformed this son of stereotypical Massachusetts liberals into a hawkish Republican.
So, Ms. Chesler and others, speak out the truth. Keep your cool in the face of heckling and disruption, as that Nicaraguan gentleman did in 1989. Give the moonbats as much rope as you can stand, and let them hang themselves with it. Hopefully other young minds who prefer reason to emotion will learn the lesson, just like I did.
It is curious that Amadinejad was hardly heckled and the audience was rather polite. While if anyone points out the obvious facts about the IsFac. They get threatened or booed off the stage. What is wrong witht this picture. Is the student body at Columbia so cowardly that they shrivel at the sight of a totalitarian dictator but then bully the truth?? DO these professors teach the students to think? DO they think at all? What happened to ” critical thinking Skills,that educators are always pushing?” DOes it only consist of one point of veiw?
I am SO glad you mentioned that muslims came up with the term ‘islamofacism.’ So many seriously Dense people on the Left (and not a few in the middle-ground, even on the Right) refuse to understand that this is NOT a ‘neo-con (just say JOOOOOZ!)’ concoction.
And a question back to you, if I may: Does the name Khalid Duran ring a bell? I originally discovered it was him who is supposed to have coined this phrase… but I just found that both wikipedia and Answers.com, along with several other sites, have been badly co-opted by the liars of the Left.