Zahra Billoo Speaks at UC Irvine

Zahra Billoo


Today, CAIR's Northern California director, Zahra Billoo, spoke before the Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine as part of the MSU's week of anti-Israel events. This week's theme was "Oppression", so much of what Billoo had to say centered around that theme. There were about 25 or people in the room, about 20 of whom were Muslim students and the rest local community members who held a quiet protest outside the room prior to the event holding posters about anti-Semitism and passing out pamphlets about CAIR.  I was present at Billoo's event and videotaped almost all of it until my battery ran out. (See below.)

This is the second time I have heard Billoo speak at UCI. She is a good public speaker and uses a low key conversational style. She spoke without notes, and her talk didn't really have any organization to it; she basically spoke about oppression going from one aspect of that to another. The constant theme was Muslims and people of color as victims of oppression. Billoo is not a fan of law enforcement as her words and actions have proved over the years. She opened up by referring to the "guests" in the room with their video cameras (like me).

Billoo made references to the recent events in Sri Lanka, San Diego and New Zealand expressing solidarity with all the victims. She spoke of the oppression of the Palestinians in what she always referred to as Palestine. That led a couple of women in the audience to vocally object. Sporadically, one or both of the ladies would say that she was speaking lies. That drew a warning from the dean of students, who was present. At one point, Billoo told the ladies that they would have the opportunity to participate in the q and a. (More on that later.)

Billoo acknowledged that there was oppression in Muslim-majority countries, but only mentioned "minorities" or political opponents. She did not go into the oppression of religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries. She also added a lot of talk about how Muslims only commit violence in self defense, no compulsion in religion, and all those goodies.

Basically, the theme was victimization. One notable statement that she made was that in the past five years, police have killed nearly 1,000 unnamed black people in California!!! (You can find that remark in the last video below at the 6:43 mark.) At one point, she informed the audience that just today, the FBI in Los Angeles had announced a terror arrest. She said something to the effect that they were still trying to find out what happened-and what the FBI's role in all this was. (Billoo does not like the FBI. In fact, she was the one who put out that poster several years ago which advised Muslims not to talk to the FBI if they came knocking on the door.)



After speaking for about an hour, there was a short break, after which the time was reserved for q and a. This time, the little rascals had a new trick up their sleeve. Obviously knowing that there were some knowledgeable adults in the room who didn't share Billoo's point of view and had signs indicating their concerns about anti-Semitism. (I was wearing a yellow Jewish star reading "Jude".) a  new rule was set that only students could ask questions. So she fielded five or six friendly questions from students seeking advice on how to engage in activism, and that was it. No hostile questions allowed. Remember that Billoo had told the aforementioned two ladies that they would be able to participate in the q and a.

Previously, I have attended college events in which students were given first preference to ask questions then other audience members. That is appropriate, but to say that only students could ask questions.....well, it was obvious the game they were playing. It appeared that all the students in the audience were Muslims. I also noted that females sat on one side and males on the other.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the videotape of the speech. It appears that one 20-minute segment near the end did not upload (after the third video). Thus, the first minutes of the q and a are not recorded. Also near the end, I changed memory cards, so there is a short gap of a minute or two, and eventually it all ran out. No, there has been no selctive editing. Apologies to Ms Billoo for any missing parts, which were unintentional, but then again, she ducked our questions. But that is what CAIR does. I suppose it will be the same Wednesday night with CAIR's Los Angeles director, Hussam Ayloush.