Muzammil Siddiqi's Secret Exposed at UC Irvine Forum on Hate

Imam Muzammil Siddiqi, Islamic Center of Orange County


Muzammil Siddiqi is the head imam at the Islamic Center of Orange County in Garden Grove, California. Many in Orange County consider him a moderate Muslim, a bridge builder.  Yet, this is the same man who in 1992 hosted the Blind Sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman, at his mosque and translated his sermon into English. That was of course before the Blind Sheikh went to prison on terrorism charges.

Last night, Siddiqi was part of one of those kumbaya forums where he appears often with leaders
of other faiths and talks about peace and love telling his audiences that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. Last night's event at UC Irvine was a followup to an event I attended recently at  Bat Yahm synagogue in Newport Beach, in which Siddiqi also participated. But as Siddiqi sat at a table with other dignitaries that included two local rabbis, he was holding a secret-a secret that was exposed. You see in recent years when the UCI Muslim Student Union and Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Irvine would hold their annual May week of events dedicated to deligitimizing the state of Israel, their mock "apartheid wall"-a takeoff on the Israel wall constructed to keep out Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers- was being assembled at Siddiqi's mosque. That was the secret that was exposed last night.

Last night's audience consisted of approximately 100 people. I am guessing they were mostly students and older members of the Jewish community. There did not appear to be many if any Muslims in attendance.The forum was entitled; "Confronting  Anger and Hate-From the Local to the Global". The panelists were:

Moderator:Thomas Parham, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, UCI

Siddiqi
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis, University Synagogue
Rabbi Peter Levi, Anti Defamation League
Anila Ali, American Muslim Women's Empowerment Council
Jorge Cisneros, Chief of Police, UCIPD
Horace E Frank, LAPD Deputy Chief, Counter Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau

After introductory remarks by Dr Parham, Douglas Haynes, head of the UCI Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion, read a written statement by Jack Miles, Professor Emeritus, Director  of religious studies at UCI. Dr Miles was too ill to attend, so his 8-page statement was read. There was an oblique reference to lack of charity by certain Christian leaders (see first video clip below). Then Benjamin Hubbard, Professor Emeritus of religious studies at UCI spoke. It was all about peace and love.

I videotaped most of the event. In order to save the power on my video camera, I turned it off occasionally when I felt there was little of interest being said by a particular speaker. I also had a brief malfunction with my video camera at one point.

If could summarize, most all of the comments were standard, run of the mill talk about understanding the person you hated or feared, loving instead of hating, and listening to the other side, etc., good advice to be sure for the younger members of the audience but lacking in any real substance. Ali read a nasty email she had received from some anonymous person attacking the Muslim community. She encouraged Muslims to get to know their neighbors and convince them that they (Muslims) were good people. Siddiqi gave his standard talk on loving and respecting everybody like the Koran instructs. Chief Cisneros and Deputy Chief Frank were really able to offer very little, and Frank appeared totally unprepared to say anything. He did at one point refer to an anonymous person who had been writing hateful letters to local mosques in California, and though no crime had been committed, his officers paid the man a visit. Frank said he would leave it at that. There were occasionally positive references to former President Obama, and Ali took a sideways shot at President Trump (though not by name) for his tweets etc.

Rabbi Rachlis at one point referred to the tensions between Jewish and Muslim students on campus arising out of the annual MSU-SJP events in May attacking Israel. That opened the door for my question

When the q and a began, I stepped to the mic and asked the first question. I introduced myself and told the audience that I had been a teacher at UCI from 1998-2016 and had seen first-hand the problems on campus that Rabbi Rachlis had alluded to. I then directed my question to Siddiqi. I stated that in recent years, the mock apartheid wall, used as a prop during the week of events, and which contained many inflammatory writings and images, had been assembled at the Islamic Center of Orange County. I asked Siddiqi if he thought this was beneficial for Muslim-Jewish relations and if he would allow his mosque to be used for the same purpose again this year.

As the flowers in the room all wilted and died, Siddiqi asked for the question to be repeated, which Dr Parham did. Siddiqi was totally unable to address the question. He stumbled around about coming here with his Jewish friends and that Palestinians had their own point of view, but that dialogue was important. At one point, a man in the back of the room said, "Answer the question!". Siddiqi continued to dance around but never came close to addressing my questions. It was painful to watch. That exchange can be viewed at the 4th clip down beginning at the 50 second mark. (At the start I am holding my camera downward because I am standing at the mic.)

The subsequent questions are only good for entertainment value. There were some doozies.

After the event concluded, several Jewish people came up to me and thanked me for asking the question including the man I just referenced.

Below is the video which I took last night.