Posted on 04/16/2008 5:26:09 AM PDT by SJackson
When George Washington University senior Sergio Gor tried to get campus student groups to sign a Declaration Against Genocide last week, he thought it would be a no-brainer. Who, after all, wouldn't support a statement endorsing such uncontroversial tenets as the "right of all people to live in freedom and dignity," the equal dignity of men and women, and the freedom of conscience?
All too many, as it turned out. Having approached all the largest student groups at the school to support the declaration, Gor, the president of the George Washington chapter of the Young America's Foundation, was refused time and again. For most students, the message of the declaration, which is a central component of the Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, was simply too "controversial to support."
It is instructive to reflect on just what is now deemed excessively "controversial" on American campuses. For instance, he Declaration Against Genocide condemns an Islamic hadith (a narration about the life of the prophet Mohammed) that calls on Muslims to kill Jews. It also condemns terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has declared that "the accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible" – an unmistakable expression of genocidal intent toward the countries that Islamic radicals consider to be the "little Satan" and the "great Satan" respectively. There is nothing, in short, that can be considered even remotely objectionable.
Yet, at George Washington and countless other schools across the country, groups ranging from the Muslim Students Association to the College Democrats – to even the College Republicans – have been unwilling to condemn these and other affirmations of hatred when they concern Islamic militants. George Washington's Gor found that out the hard way: In a week of trying to promote the Declaration Against Genocide, what Gor heard most often was not outrage at the atrocities of Islamic terrorist groups or revulsion at their murderous anti-Semitism. What he heard most often were excuses.
Thus, the Black Student Union refused to sign the declaration because it didn't specifically mention the slave trade. Meanwhile, the College Democrats refused to sign the declaration because it singled out the following hadith from the prophet Muhammad: "The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time [of judgment] will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" The College Democrats insisted that the quote was taken "out of context." They, too, would not sign.
Perhaps the most surprising rebuff came from the school's College Republicans chapter. Although some individual members expressed support for the declaration, the club as a whole would not support it. "It was a shock when the College Republicans said that [the declaration] was too 'controversial,'" Gor recalls. "They said they didn't want to offend anyone. But I thought, 'Who is going to be offended if you oppose genocide?'"
Less shocking, perhaps, is Gor failed to garner the support of the Muslim Students Association. Founded by members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian forerunner of al-Qaeda, the group today has over 200 chapters on American college campuses and retains much of the political extremism of its parent organization. Some MSA chapters, for instance, have held an annual "Anti-Zionist Week" to denounce the state of Israel. When in 2005 a group called the Free Muslim Coalition Against terror held a rally in the nation's capital condemning terrorism and expressing support for Muslim democrats in the Middle East, the MSA conspicuously refused to take part. Considered against this background, it is not surprising that the group has refused to condemn Islamic terrorists and their ongoing war to destroy the Jewish state. On more than one occasion, it has been on their side.
Just as troubling as the MSA's silence is that no other student groups were willing to support the declaration at George Washington. Nor is this the first time that the school has shown itself to be intolerant of any and all debate about Islamic extremism. When the inaugural Islamo-Fascism Week was held last fall, radical students at the school plastered the campus with bigoted flyers – "Hate Muslims? So Do We!!!" the flyers proclaimed – to condemn the alleged bigotry of the campaign. The students later claimed that they put up the flyers in protest over "Islamophobic racism." Although it was never explained why it was "Islamophobic" to point out the demonstrable fact that Islamic terrorists justified their atrocities using the Muslim religion, let alone why doing so was "racist," the flyer incident acutely demonstrated the abject failure of many American universities to engage in a serious discussion about the threat of radical Islam. Terrorism fueled by religious extremism is a brutal reality in many parts of the world, but within the groves of American academia, a complicity of silence obtains.
Students like Sergio Gor despair at that reality. "On our campus the political correctness is at a new level," Gor observes. "Students are afraid to stand up for anything, and to offend anyone. We're just a few blocks from the White House, and these are groups that will protest the war [in Iraq] in a heartbeat. But when it comes to genocide, they won't take a stand."
How does your mindless bad-mouthing of anything positive help anyone? Maybe you should put you brain in gear before shooting off your mouth about things you obviously know little or nothing about.
Give me an “f-n” break. We're talking about genocide here. And you think it's somehow hard to condemn it unless we make it a “rainbow push” item?
How about female circumcision? If a million cases happen in the Middle East and one case happens in Africa do we have to condemn it as a global problem so people like you will have your “inclusive button” pushed?
Geesh...
It’s not the globalization that is the problem, it is the specialization.
If someone walks up to you and says “Murder is bad, because O.J. murdered his wife!”, it is a hell of a lot weaker sales pitch than if they say to you, “Murder is bad, because people all over the US are being murdered!”
Nobody is going around asking for petitions to be signed because the Vietnamese are killing the Hmong. Because most Americans have no idea who the Hmong are, and don’t care.
But this doesn’t make that genocide less offensive than the Muslim desire to wipe out the Jews, or the mutual hatred of the Hutus and the Tutsis.
Yes, I understand why Horowitz emphasizes the attacks on Jews by Muslims. But why be outraged when the campus Republicans don’t particularly want to join sides. Would it have been acceptable for them to just “deplore genocide”?
Again, just because they don’t have an “iron in that fire” doesn’t mean they either approve of genocide in general, or efforts by Muslims against Jews in particular. But the purpose of their club is to be a Republican club, not an anti-genocide club or an anti-Muslim against Jews club.
“If someone walks up to you and says “Murder is bad, because O.J. murdered his wife!”, it is a hell of a lot weaker sales pitch than if they say to you, “Murder is bad, because people all over the US are being murdered!””
Murder is no less bad when it happens 1 times than 1,000 times. It’s not a different degree of wrong. Simply a wrong committed more times.
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