Muhammad Cartoons Riles Calif. College

Wednesday March 1, 2006 12:01 PM


AP Photo CASP108

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

Associated Press Writer

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) - A student panel discussion that included a display of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons descended into chaos, with one speaker calling Islam an ``evil religion'' and audience members nearly coming to blows.

Organizers of Tuesday night's forum at the University of California, Irvine said they showed the cartoons as part of a larger debate on Islamic extremism.

But several hundred protesters, including members of the Muslim Student Union, argued the event was the equivalent of hate speech disguised as freedom of expression.

Although there were numerous heated exchanges, no violence was reported.

The panel, which included one Muslim speaker, was sponsored by the College Republicans and the United American Committee, a group that says it promotes awareness of internal threats facing America.

During the discussion in a nearly packed 424-seat campus auditorium, six cartoons were displayed: three depicting Muhammad and three anti-Semitic cartoons.

The discussion got off to a contentious start with the Council on American-Islamic Relations - an invited guest - boycotting the event and calling the United American Committee a ``fringe group.''

Tensions quickly escalated when the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of the conservative Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, said that Islam was an ``evil religion'' and that all Muslims hate America.

People repeatedly interrupted the talk and, at one point, campus police removed two men, one of them a Muslim, after they nearly came to blows.

Later, panelists were cheered when they referred to Muslims as fascists and accused mainstream Muslim-American civil rights groups of being ``cheerleaders for terror.''

``I put out a call to Muslims in America: Put out a fatwa on (Osama) bin Laden, put out a fatwa on (Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi,'' said panelist Lee Kaplan, a UAC spokesman. ``Support America in the war on terror.''

Thousands of Muslims worldwide have protested, sometimes violently, after the cartoons were published in a Danish newspaper and in other European newspapers. Islam widely holds that representations of Muhammad are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Osman Umarji, former president of the Muslim Student Union, equated the decision by the student panel to display the prophet drawings to the debasement of Jews in Germany before the Holocaust.

``The agenda is to spread Islamophobia and create hysteria against Muslims similar to what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany,'' said Umarji, an electrical engineer who graduated from Irvine last spring. ``Freedom of speech has its limits.''

Brock Hill, vice president of the College Republicans, said his group had a First Amendment right to display the cartoons.

``We're not going against Islam whatsoever,'' he said. ``This is about free speech and the free marketplace of ideas.''

Mohamed Eldessouky, 20, a criminology student who attended the discussion, said he was disappointed because he felt the panel and the audience were biased against Islam.

``I entered it with an open mind, but I thought it was totally biased. I thought the panelists would be more balanced. I think it did more harm than good,'' he said.

Lauren Chramosta, 18, a freshman, said she didn't know much about Islam and attended hoping to learn more.

``It was helpful to listen to different views,'' she said. ``But I think (the Muslim panelist) was shut down so many times that he didn't get a fair shake.''

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On the Net:

United American Committee: http://www.unitedamericancommittee.org

Muslim Student Union: http://msu-uci.com

Council on American-Islamic Relations: http://www.cair-net.org

University of California, Irvine: http://www.uci.edu

I support UCI's Muslim Student Union.

don't post things that chinese peple are lack of interest。。

lol, college republicans? Of course they're going to talk $hit about Islam.

the Muslim club held a protest last week.

These are the same people who a hundred years ago decried other peoples' of soverign countries as savage and uncivilized. They need to get off their high horses.

Yeah this doesn't actually have anything to do with Chinese chat. Moving.

Hilarious how so many people take the concept of freedom of speech and completely butcher it (I'm talking about the Republicans)

Well the only free speech worth protecting is offensive speech. Inoffensive speech isn't in need of protection. So yes they're right, it's free speech.

Now here is the part that pisses me off. I find it funny that republicans are so shocked their minority support base is so small especially the black vote. This is what I absolutely abhor about SOME people I've met and talked to who have identified themselves as republican which is their current trend of demonization of groups and individuals. Currently this demonization is cloaked in the robe of being "Anti-terrorist" which is really specifically anti-muslim and within that just plain being anti-arab. This "anti-terrorism" stance is just an excuse for a lot of individuals to spread what is simply borderline and even sometimes obvious racial hatred. This dehumanizing form of demonization of certain groups and individuals have been used over and over again through history and the end result of such thinking is actions that oppress and causes harm to individuals.


Bull$hit. This is what makes me angry which is the deception in their intentions. If you want to state an opinion, state how you really feel and not fu-king pussyfoot around. How are you going to say you're not against islam but then applaude and clap for individuals calling people who practice islam evil indirectly by calling the religion evil in itself?


It's the EXACT same thing. The mentality behind it is exactly the same. In america it has been used against blacks, asians(specifically the chinese and filipinos), the irish, people who might of been or might of not been communist(which communism in itself isn't bad and simply an ideology), and now it's against "terrorists". The terrorists to the EXTREMIST republicans are people who are "unpatriotic", arab, muslim, and to a lot of idiots "liberal".

Going back to my original point of republicans being so shocked about having such low minority support, this is the reason or should be one of the reasons why some people should be cautious of not really the republican party itself but the current LOUDEST people who claim to be republican/conservative. The vast majority of these loud individuals suscribe to the extreme side of the conservative spectrum which includes this fascination with demonization. As a minority, you should be cautious of throwing your hat in with these people who are so bent on dehumanizing and demonizing because of the history of this country and the way that sort of thinking has been used by such people to oppress and harm individuals who don't suscribe to their beliefs. God forbid a group of people who might share the same ideas or may look like you or might share the same skin color as you do something that affects this country. You won't be just an american anymore, you'll be an "other". If you're a minority and suscribe to this dehumanizing of arabs, you should be ashamed of yourself because these people will quickly turn their anger onto you if your ethnic, political, or religious group does something they don't like. People like michelle malkin make me sick. She says she wouldn't have a problem if filipinos were locked up if there were filipino terrorists that attacked the country. She says that because the likilihood of that coming to pass is slim at least within her lifetime thus it's easier for her to claim that but I bet if they suddenly started locking up filipinos she would fight tooth and nail to be considered an exception and if she doesn't she's mentally ill.

It's fine and dandy that these people feel that way and that's fine. The problem I have is this type of thinking is becoming way to common among a noticeble amount of people that it makes me uncomfortable. Currently, politics and debate in this country has degraded to the point of whoever screams the loudest holds the most validity in the eyes of the majority of the people. Just say something with enough conviction and force behidn your words and there will be an ignorant group of people who will gladly buy into your rhetoric. This is probably due to the popularity of radio show hosts like rush limbaugh and sean hannity, television talking heads like bill maher, bill o'reilly, sean hannity, and political entertainer(they're not real anaylst) like ann coulter and michelle malkin. The fear I have is that this dehumanization will manifest into much more harmful forms and as a minority it is ten times as scary. I don't like it and as a minority I would never ever buy into it because I'm well aware of what type of consequences it will bring and being a minority I would much more likely be a victim of it. Any person who is a minority in this country and buys into this bull$hit is self-destructive and buying into their own possible future oppression.

p.s. I know I wrote a lot sorry. I had a whole lot more to say but I didn't want to take up a whole page

^ You wrote a lot, but it was worth it. Cheers, I couldn't agree more.

Frankly, I seriously doubt the Voltaire or any of the founding fathers decided on the Freedom of Speech to protect offensive comments. There is nothing practical about it. Freedom of Speech is designed to protect ideas and to insure that there is a safety net to protect people when they criticize a government.

The people who talk crap and offend others and hide behind the banner of "freedom of speech" make me sick, and I'm sure the founding fathers are foaming in their mouths. If they had known it would have been used as a cover for hate-speech, they probably would have worded freedom of speech as "The Freedom to Freely discuss matters of political important without persecution, not to be confused with $hit talking".

Nice post Ico. I should have been clearer with what I meant. Suijen basically summed up what I was trying to say. I do believe that you can abuse freedom of speech and that's exactly what alot of people have been doing. They've taken the spirit of the concept and turned it into something trashy by promoting hate and anti-Muslim sentiment. I really don't think that's what freedom of speech was intended for. People seem to take it as some sort of "free for all" permission to say whatever you like, damn the consequences or the people who are affected by it.

That's going a bit too far.

Australians recently held a Muslim bashing party here in Adelaide...a stupid e-mail prank....no one got hurt but many neo-Nazis ascended to Glenelg beach anticipating something carrying things for flogging..........i pretended to be Maori this back then....had to practice doing the hakka dance......

Things are going bad for Muslims around the world....huh...the commies and chinese had their bad time and now its ours.......