Fadel Alkilani, a student at Washington University in St. Louis, is an enterprising young man who clearly has a bright future ahead. On Saturday, as people all over the world mourned the deaths of 2,977 people in jihad attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., Alkilani busied himself with pulling up 2,977 flags that had been placed on campus in honor of the victims and throwing them away. Among Leftists today, that’s the kind of behavior that leads to rapid career advancement– clearly, Fadel Alkilani is an up-and-coming young man.
The flags were part of the Young America’s Foundation’s “9/11: Never Forget Project”: “YAF activists at high schools and colleges across the country are keeping alive the memory of those lost to radical Islamist terrorists in the world-changing events of September 11, 2001. The iconic displays made up of 2,977 American flags—one for each innocent life taken—bring schools, communities, and individuals together to pay tribute and continue our promise to ‘never forget.’”
YAF members at Washington University duly placed the 2,977 flags, only to have Alkilani, wearing a mask and his hair in a bun, come pluck the flags up and fill trash bags with them. In a video YAF posted on Twitter, Nathaniel Hope of Washington University’s hearty band of College Republicans confronts Alikani, who justified his action by claiming (falsely) that the flag display was a “violation of school rules.” He maintained that he, on the other hand, had not violated any university rules, telling Hope: “I did not violate any university or legal policy. Now go away.”
WOW: A student senator at @WUSTL was caught on video throwing away 2,977 American flags from conservative students' 9/11: Never Forget Project memorial.
Despicable. pic.twitter.com/j6Wf1mdyLl
— YAF (@yaf) September 11, 2021
Later, Alkilani posted online a “Formal Statement on the Flag Relocation Incident,” in which he sanctimoniously employed that tried-and-true strategy of Leftists everywhere: He claimed victimhood. Instead of apologizing for his callous, thuggish, and fascist act, Alkilani wrote: “Currently, there is a massive harassment campaign propagated primarily by Washington University College Republicans, as well as the national Young American’s Foundation [YAF] regarding an incident that occurred at approximately 6 am on Saturday, September 11, 2021. There is a large amount of misinformation circulating, and I seek to explain both what occurred and why it happened.”
The “misinformation” that he proceeds to clear up is the claim that he was “‘stealing’ the flags. This is due to a WashU College Republicans member, taking a video of me collecting flags in plastic bags. However, I had no intention of removing the flags from the Mudd Field area, and my full protest did not have the chance to be actualized. My planned protest was to place the bags of flags on Mudd field, along with various statistics [including those below] explaining the human cost of 9/11 in the past 20 years. On the sides of the bags, some writing may be visible, but the full statement was not outlined at the time of the video. I did not deface, destroy, damage, nor steal any flags, nor did I interfere with any registered event time. I assert that I did not violate any University Code of Conduct policy, though the conduct process is undergoing. Additionally, I was verbally and physically harassed by numerous WashU students and WUPD officers, whom I plan to report through official channels.”
Actually, the video quite clearly shows him pulling up the flags, which did indeed deface and destroy YAF’s memorial and constitutes stealing the flags in itself. But Alkilani considers his actions justified, you see, because Muslims are victims: “Since 9/11, Islamophobic hate crimes have been higher than they ever were before.” Alkilani goes on to accuse the United States of various atrocities in response to 9/11 and then claims: “Any memorial of 9/11 that does not contend with these facts is not only incomplete, but it also amplifies pro-imperialist sentiment and actively disrespects those who have died because of American Invasion. A memorial which uses US flags is especially insidious, as it does not recognize those who have fallen, but uses a symbol that was on the shoulders of those who are responsible for the deaths of 900,000 people, and uses the innocent lives lost during 9/11 as a political prop upholding American hegemony.”
Related: Wisconsin College Bans Memorial to Victims of 9/11 Attack
You can see from this why Fadel Alkilani is a rising star, and why we will almost certainly be hearing from him again. This is just the sort of half-truth and misinformation that his Washington University professors likely taught him and that Leftists marinate in these days. To further cement his future as Congressman Alkilani, Senator Alkilani, Commissar Alkilani, he piled on more victimhood propaganda: “Muslims such as I have faced fear, harassment, and Islamophobia from those who unjustly use the victims of 9/11 as a political cudgel.”
In reality, anti-Jewish hate crimes are far more common in the U.S. than anti-Muslim hate crimes. No hate crime is justified, but Alkilani’s contention that Muslims in the United States have been unique victims of discrimination and harassment since 9/11 is simply not borne out by the facts.
Alkilani lives in the Left’s fantasy world, where MAGA-hat-wearing yahoos roam the streets unchallenged, threatening and brutalizing “brown people” at will. But don’t worry! Alkilani is okay: “For those of you who have been reaching out in concern of my safety, I would like to assure you that I am working with the university to ensure that I am safe during this time.”
That’s great. Now: Are displays placed by patriotic students at Washington University safe from him?
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