"Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil"
It has been announced today that the Civil Rights Office under the Department of Education failed to find evidence that the University of California at Irvine failed to respond to complaints by Jewish students of anti-Semitism on campus. The investigators reportedly visited the campus on 11 occasions since last year, monitoring demonstrations and interviewing students and staff members. The complaints of anti-Semitism are a result of friction between Jewish and Muslim students that dates back severaL years, in large part over the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The investigation concluded that actions by Muslim students were based not on feelings against Jews per se, rather than opposition to the practices and policies of the state of Israel.
I disagree.
As a part-time instructor at UC-Irvine since 1998, I have seen who the Muslim Student Union brings to UCI to speak virtually on a quarterly basis. These are vitriolic speakers like Oakland-based Imam Amir Abdel Malik Ali, who, in his speeches, calls suicide bombers in Israel "heroes", constantly refers to "Zionist Jews" (both in the US,Israel-and on the UCI campus), and advocates the destruction of Israel. Another is Washington DC-based Imam, Abdul Alim Musa, a convert to Islam while in prison, who mirrors the comments of Malik Ali, talks about Islam taking over the US, and condemns America in general. Their speeches are routinely expressions of resentment and hatred. In my view, they have no place on a university campus.
I want to add here that among the overwhelming majority of students, there really is no anti-Semitism. As I have repeatedly stated, most of our students are great kids who concentrate on their studies and are enjoying their college experience.
In my opinion, the report of the DOE is a whitewash and an exercise in political correctness. University leadership has refused to deal with the issue of hate-mongering speakers coming to UCI, even when confronted with complaints by Jewish students who feel intimidated on campus. To the Administration, free speech is paramount and sacred. I say let hate-mongers, such as Malik Ali and Musa exercise their free speech on a soapbox on a city street. If UCI wants to be known as a serious university, then it needs to create an atmosphere of peace and tranquility on campus.
I, for one, am disappointed in the findings of this so-called "civil rights office".
3 comments:
Great post.
Concerned UCI Student commented on your post under the Red County article. You may want to take a look at it. He said:
"Just to correct something that Gary Fouse wrote:
The opinion that was just issued was written by the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, aka "OCR". OCR is strictly a function of the Federal Executive. OCR has the ability to withhold Federal funding from educational institutions such as UCI should they find gross civil rights violations; however, OCR does not have subpoena power. I can't comment on the OCR opinion because I haven't had a moment to read and digest them yet.
Gary referred to a "civil rights commission". The US Commission on Civil Rights ("USCCR") held hearings in November 2005 and issued findings and recommendations in April 2006 which I found to be very well written. USCCR then launched a print and Internet campaign to educate college students of Jewish descent about their rights (viewable at http://www.eusccr.com).
Unfortunately, while the USCCR has subpoena power for people near Washington, DC, it does not have any enforcement powers.
Hope this clears things up a bit."
Thank you for the clarification.
I have revised and edited the original post to more exactly identify the DOE Office for Civil Rights as the group conducting the investigation.
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