Posted on 03/01/2006 6:07:38 AM PST by NewLand
Muhammad Cartoons Rile Calif. College
Wednesday, March 1, 2006 7:54 AM EST
The Associated Press
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
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."
"Juma Salami, Assistant Undersecretary to Foreign Private Education said that the book published by Silver Burdett Ginn has a racist tone and is insulting to the country's religion and culture. "It is not a community school and a good number of Muslim and Arab children are studying there. By incorporating the book in the syllabus, the schools have failed to show respect to the religious sentiments of the host country."
They hate the West. Why are they here ?
Yes, they are testing the waters, but this sounds to me like young Republicans and the UAC pushing the envelope to try to educate Americans about Islam.If so, then kudos to them.
Irvine itself is 'conservative' by CA standards. Not sure about UCI.
To join forces with others who hate the West that are already here.
They are not extremeists and will riot to prove it.
I hear people talking bad about
the way they have to live here in this country,
Harping on the wars we fight, griping 'bout the
way things ought to be.
If you don't love it leave it
let this song that I'm singing be a warning,
When you're running down my country man you're walking on the fighting side of me.
Merle Haggard
Remember "You can't yell FIRE in a crowded theater."? It does have its limits.
"he was disappointed because he felt the panel and the audience were biased against Islam"
The term "biased against islam" needs to be translated from islamish to English:
biased against islam - a phrase used by muslims to describe the truth being told about islam.
That's not what they're talking about in this case.
Ya know Country Music isnt what it used to be. I watched a show last night about the 10 sexiest women in Country Music, and I only recognised two or three of them, One was Dolly Parton. Now Dolly isnt sexy, she is a joke, Even she admits that. Reba McIntire wasnt even to be found nor was Tanya Tucker. Getting too old I guess, but so is Dolly.
What if there is a fire in a crowded theater? Do those limits deny speaking the truth because someone's feelings may get hurt?
I dont know. The thing that gets me is we are all up in arms about the Arabs and the ports and every time I go to see a Doctor its a Paki or an Indian. Why arent we supporting American kids who want to be Doctors?
I think I can tell you what I see; The medical schools want a certain blend of ethnicity in their graduate numbers, so if you (1) don't have a 4.0 accumulative GPA and (2) father or mother did go to school there and (3) your family has not made contributions to the new building fund, you won't get in.
Cause american kids are too busy getting gold teefs and other bling bling and singing on american idol rather than studying biology, organic chemistry, physiology, anatomy and whatever else they need for medschool.
I could care less what Muslims think about Mohammed cartons. I don't live in a nation where there is Sharia law nor where Islam is dominant. These arrogant immigrants forget this. They are the worst possible immigrants and seek to dictate to Danes what free speech is. Danes who have lived there for hundreds of years while the Muslims are fresh off the boat. They also try to tell Americans what free speech is. A harmless Mohammed cartoon falls under American free speech laws. They will try to bully Americans and Danes and try to cut off free wheeling discussion of their evil prophet and their ignoble Koran
Because their desire to destoy us, who they hate, is stronger than their hate.
Tell the them they are free to leave..at this time.
True enough. Dolly has had so much plastic surgery that I fear her face is going to slide right off of her skull. The lyrical content of country music is not what it used to be either. How many writers come close to what people like Haggard wrote back in the day? Not many. The music is pretty good, definitely more influenced by rock today than it used to be, but country music is a story telling genre and many of the stories being told today are fairly weak. In fact Toby Keith is about the only writer with big enough stones to actually tell the world he's pissed off at the state of our nation.
Absolutely not. And that's a major point that people are missing all around the world. They fail to see that if people react violently to speech they don't like, the fault is with them, not the speaker.
The statement "There are limits to free speech" is true. That can't be denied. The next thing they jump to, however - "Those limits should include a ban on insulting religion" - does not logically follow, and is false.
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