Another Example of Anti-Semitism From the Muslim Student Union at UC-Irvine

Above: Der Stuermer, 1944 issue
Below: MSU portrayal of Ariel Sharon at UCI, May, 2008
(courtesy of Red County blog)



The week before last, UC-Irvine's Muslim Student Union (MSU) hosted one of their quarterly anti-Israel weeks featuring a parade of speakers, some of whom are not only anti-Israel, but anti-America and anti-Jew as well. Of course, the MSU fervently denies they are anti-Jewish-only anti-Zionist. In fact, during their "festivities" at UCI, on at least one occasion, they marched around chanting, "Judaism yes! Zionism no!".

As part of their visual display, the MSU erected a mock wall representing the wall Israel has erected to keep out suicide bombers. The wall contained various photographs, drawings, quotations etc. The one that caught my attention was a caricature of Ariel Sharon drawn in the old style of Julius Streicher's Der Stuermer, an infamous newspaper of the Nazi era that was devoted to propagating hatred of Jews among the German people.

Julius Streicher was the Gauleiter (district leader) of Nuremberg during the Nazi era, as well as the editor of Der Stuermer. Streicher was such a repulsive character that even his fellow Nazis viewed him with disgust (Hitler excluded). To Streicher, the Jews were sexual predators, sacrificing Aryan children for their blood rituals and lusting after and defiling Aryan women.

For illustrations, Der Stuermer's artist was a fellow named Philip Ruprecht, who used the moniker "Fips" in his drawings. Ruprecht's semi-pornographic drawings portrayed Jewish men as fat, bald, and ugly with large hooked noses and thick lips.

After the war, Streicher was put on trial as one of the main Nazi war criminals for his incitement of hatred of Jews that contributed to the eventual Final Solution. Already in forced retirement by the time the war started, Crimes Against Humanity was the only charge he could be convicted of. For this, he was hanged.

Unfortunately, Der Stuermer's style of portraying Jews has survived, mostly in the Middle East, where such caricatures persist. It seems they have also survived among some segments of the American Muslim population-specifically, the Muslim Student organizations in various colleges around the country-at least the one at UCI.

Of course, Ariel Sharon is a hated figure among Muslims and Palestinians as a warrior on behalf of his country. That hardly justifies portraying him in a way that dredges up negative stereotypes of Jews in general, which is exactly what the MSU at UCI did.

Yet, there has been not a word of protest among the professors and leaders of UCI for this type of display (except for me-I included it in a letter to the campus newspaper, New University). To the university, however, this is apparently just another example of their sacred cow-Free Speech. Not only did they allow it to stand for a week, but to my knowledge, no one else who draws a paycheck from the university has said a word about it publicly.

I also called attention to this display in my letter to the director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, a certain empty suit by the name of Rusty Kennedy. In his nasty reply to me, he attacked me for criticizing UCI's leaders for their negligence, but never said a word about the display.

So the hypocrisy and hatred of the MSU stands naked for all to see. I would invite the reader to compare the above pictures and draw his or her own conclusions. Also be aware that since the MSU receives funding from the university taken from student tuition fees, your tax dollars are being used to pay for this kind of display.