Letter to UC-Irvine Campus Newspaper

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"


Below is the letter I have sent tonight to the New University (University of California-Irvine campus newspaper) in response to this week's article reporting the findings of the Dept of Education Office of Civil Rights that there is no anti-Semitism at the campus.


UCI, its administrators and CAIR should not be so quick to congratulate themselves on the findings of the DOE Civil Rights Office that no anti-Semitism exists on this campus. As long as the MSU continues to bring in hate mongers like Amir Abdel Malik Ali and Alim Musa as speakers, there is a real problem with anti-Semitism.

Yes, the Israel-Palestinian issue is the basis for the controversy, and reasonable people can disagree on this issue. However, does that justify speakers like the above two in calling suicide bombers "heroes"? Does that justify those speakers advocating hate and violence in driving the Jews from the region?

I have listened to the words of both of these men. When Malik Ali rants about "Zionist Jews", he often literally spits the word "Jews" out in the same manner that German Nazis spat out the word "Jude". Putting the word "Zionist" in front of it doesn't necessarily remove the hateful message. To this day, the German word for Jew (Jude) is an emotionally charged word in that language. If spoken in a certain tone, no racist epithet is necessary. (The Nazis only used the word Jude in their lexicon.) It is also true (to a somewhat lesser extent) in English. I think Malik Ali knows that. Yet, he and his defenders will insist that it is only "Zionist Jews" with whom they have a problem. That is disingenuous.

It seems to me that UCI's concept of hate speech is centered around political correctness. In other words, certain groups can say what they want about certain other groups, and the university will stick its collective head in the sand and ignore it in the name of Free Speech.
But if certain other groups are the targets, that is a different story. Hate speech against any group of people is hate speech-period. There are plenty of soap boxes on the city street corners for the likes of Malik Ali and Musa. There is no constitutional requirement that any university provide them with a forum.

Unfortunately, the university and DOE have chosen to ignore the numerous complaints of its Jewish students about the above hate speech as well as numerous complaints of verbal and physical intimidation. With few exceptions, faculty has chosen to remain silent, either out of fear, apathy or sympathy with the radicals.

Notwithstanding the whitewash and the spin, UCI's nationwide reputation as a hotbed of anti-Semitic activity remains in full view. What is really sad is that a tiny minority of students and their supporters can cast a cloud over the 99.9% of UCI's students who are not involved in this disgrace.

Gary Fouse
Adjunct teacher
UCI Ext