Conservative Students Union at UC Irvine Hold Event About Radical Islam

Last night, I attended an event at UC Irvine. It was held by the Conservative Students Union at UCI, and they sent me an invitation to attend, which I gladly accepted.The event featured a conversation via Skype with Josh Yasmeh, who is a young Jewish Iranian-American writer for The Daily Wire. He spoke for about a half hour about the experiences of his family before they left Iran. His parents are Jews from the city of Shiraz. His father studied in the US and went back. After the revolution of 1979, he finally decided that it was time to get out when he saw gays being hanged from construction cranes during rush hour.

I will not attempt to repeat everything that was said, and I did not take notes or videotape. Yasmeh spoke at length not only about Iran, but other countries in the region like Egypt and Turkey. He also gave his opinions on the problem of Islamic radicalism and jihad, as well as Muslim persecution of religious minorities. The question of the possibility of reform in Islam was posed and whether it was possible. Yasmeh stated that it would be very difficult and very bloody, but that it would have to be done by Muslims themselves. He was quite impressive and the hour and a half was quite informative.

The UCI Muslim Student Union had been invited to attend and join in the discussion, but they declined. In the two weeks running up to the event (It was originally scheduled for May 24 but postponed for a week), the CSU's posters and flyers were torn down on campus as fast as they could put them up. The CSU complained to the administration, but were told there was nothing they could do and that there could be several reasons for doing that (like pasting over your own posters, etc. Not likely as some of the CSU posters were sprayed with water making them illegible.) At any rate, there was no protest nor disruption. There were about 20 people present including the dean of students-just to make sure there were no problems I suppose.

On a  side note, I noticed both on the 24th and last night that the courtyard area adjacent to the Cross Cultural Center and another building, which the MSU uses for prayers had prayer mats out though nobody was present. I guess they just leave them there even through there is a sign posted that the area is to be kept clear.

The sign reads, "This area is to be kept clear of storage at all times by order of the campus fire marshal".



This is hardly a new thing. Complaints about the MSU use of this area has been going on for years.
(No, I was not the UCI informant referred to by Jihad Watch.)