"One person's hate speech is another person's education."
Just going over the list of speakers coming to befoul our campus at UCI-Irvine in the coming days, here are some thoughts that have popped into my mind. (There will be more.)
This Thursday night, the Students for Justice in Palestine are hosting Edward Peck, a former State Department official, now retired. Peck is involved with an organization called The Council for the National Interest (CNI). Their stated purpose is to promote a just solution in the Middle East that serves America's interest. That interest is promoting the Palestinian narrative. Their president is none other than anti-Israel activist Alison Weir, who is also speaking at UCI next week.
It interesting to note that members of this group have traveled to the Middle East and met with members of Hamas and Hezbollah. It is also interesting to note that the educational arm of CNI (The Council for the National Interest Foundation (CNIF), previously had on its board of directors none other that Abdulrahman Alamoudi, also a publicly proclaimed supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah who is now serving 23 years in prison for illegally transferring funds to Libya.
Also next week, we will see a talk by Michael Prysner, an Iraqi war vet who has not only turned against that war, but just about everything else having to do with the military, capitalism, Israel and who knows what else. This young man will speak days after our military achieved a heroic success and we are all so proud of our troops. But Prysner will come to UCI and bring shame and dishonor to the uniform he used to wear.
That's my take.
Alison Weir's writings have been promoted by david Duke on his website
ReplyDeleteWhen I was small, the college where my father taught hosted George Lincoln Rockwell, who made the observation "You can't fight communism if you don't understand that it is Jewish." The invitation was extended by a student speakers bureau. The faculty published a letter saying they had decided to respect the students' choice to issue the invitation, but they deplored it as a bad choice. Many of them also picketed his appearance, including my father.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the same balance should apply to the events at UCI discussed here.
Thanks for keeping us updated on your local campus agitators. It's hard for people outside the university setting to get information about how truely radical these campus activities can be.
ReplyDeleteAfter CAIR made their video of the splinter group (whose actions I disagree with completely) protest at Yorba Linda, the CAIR director was pretty much forced to condemn Malik Ali or look like a fool.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the MSU felt that inviting a speaker that even CAIR has condemned may not be a good idea.
So maybe the protest at Yorba Linda did some good.
If I recall, any cair criticism of Malik Ali was before Yorba Linda. I could be wrong. Can you send the link?
ReplyDeleteI think the absense of Ali at UCI next week may have more to do with Chancellor Drake's criticism after last year and the fact that MSU is on probation.
Here is the statement from the website of Hussam Aloush, Dir of SoCal CAIR. It appeared in OC Register.
ReplyDeletehttp://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2011/03/muslim-leader-censures-radical-oc.html