The Words of an Irvine Islamic Scholar-and UC Irvine Adjunct Professor

 Osman Umarji is an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Center of Irvine (California) and an adjunct professor of education at the University of California at Irvine. MEMRI TV has posted clips of a sermon streamed live on YouTube on Friday, November 10 by the Islamic Center of Irvine, in which Umarji talks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this sermon, he attacks the Zionists as "animals" who, he assures, will burn in Hell. He also attacks Western values in favor of Islamic values. And those who are fighting Israel today in Gaza? (You know, the ones who carried out the atrocities against 1,200+ men, women, and children on October 7, and the ones who are holding over 200 hostages in Gaza): They are all going to Paradise.

According to Umarji.

Here is Umarji's faculty bio at UC Irvine.

Here is the website of Umarji's Yaqeen Institute of Islamic Research.

Normally, I would pass this bit of info on to the local fishwrap, the Orange County Register, but based on past experience, why bother?

Ditto for UC Irvine.

Pro-Hamas Supporters Rush, Occupy Building at UMich

On Friday, pro-Hamas students and other terrorist supporters warmed up for the approaching big game against Ohio State by storming a campus building and occupying it for several hours on Friday. The last update from the campus newspaper, the Michigan Daily, says there were two injuries and that 40 people were arrested. It appears, however, that the "arrestees" were merely given giving citations and released.

I note with considerable displeasure (but not surprise) that the Michigan Daily, true to the tradition of campus fishwraps, takes a very positive tone toward the Hamas supporters. They apparently are not interested in interviewing anyone who was injured, inconvenienced or who held an opposing viewpoint.

"200 community members'?

"About 300 University of Michigan students gathered on the Diag Friday afternoon to protest the administration’s lack of a response to previous calls for the University to divest from Israel. The protest was organized by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, with about 200 community members moving into the Alexander G. Ruthven Building for a sit-in that lasted over three hours."

(They didn't move in. They stormed in.)

 "The protest was peaceful and there were no reports of violence from protestors.  Police attempted to push protestors away from the building before they rushed inside and prevented anyone else from entering after the initial group of protestors was inside. "

How come two people were injured?

And check out this op-ed appearing in the Michigan Daily.

Had enough, America?

 

Indiana Imam Calls for Annihilation of "Crusaders" and "Zionists"

Mongy El-Quesny

Memri TV has posted clips of a video posted November 10, 2023 on the Youtube channel of the NW Indiana Islamic Center in Crown Point, which shows Imam Shahkh Mongy El Quesny calling for the annihilation of Zionists (Jews), Crusaders (Christians), and others in speaking about the war in Gaza. The video clips, which show the imam speaking in English and Arabic, are subtitled in English. They are disturbing and disgusting. 

By the way, what is this???

In Googling El-Quesny, I came across an ACLU document they have posted. The document, dated June 24, 2011, is apparently an FBI report they obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and which is heavily redacted. On the eighth page down (the first page is the cover page), there is an Imam Mongy El Quesny mentioned. Is this the same guy?

"Imam Mongy El-Quesny's jihad options

 — Fight in combat (overseas) 

— Monitor police frequencies 

— Monitor sessions of Congress 

— Donate money" 

(Just asking.) 

Paul Kessler Death (Cont)

As we reported earlier, a 50-year-old professor from Ventura County Community College has been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Paul Kessler, a Jewish man who was protesting in support of Israel in Thousand Oaks on November 5. There was a pro-Palestinian gathering across the street, and Kessler was knocked to the ground, allegedly by the suspect, Loay Alnaji.

Loay Alnaji

Red State has obtained photos and video showing parts of the events surrounding the incident. They show Alnaji and another man crossing the street from the Palestinian side to the corner where the pro-Israel protesters were standing.

The images do not show the actual moment when Kessler suffered his fatal injuries, but they do show the actions of two other men who also crossed the street to confront the pro-Israel side. According to Red State, the men are identified as Imam Shaykh Omar Jubran of the Islamic Society of Simi Valley, and Mamdouh Elalami, a businessman in Simi Valley. In the clips, Elalami is shown shouting "Allahu Akhbar" into a megaphone in the faces of pro-Israeli protesters while Jubran is standing next to him and apparently videotaping the pro-Israel protesters. There are other chants shouted by Elalami to the pro-Israeli protesters that are clearly offensive, threatening death and destruction to Israel. Someone is also recorded chanting, "Hitler didn't want you," in which a cop and police tape are visible, showing that it was after the alleged attack.

In the 7:57 video, you can see Elalami, Jubran, and others face-to-face with pro-Israeli demonstrations. It is clearly after the alleged attack because the police are there in numbers and the corner is marked off with police tape. Elalami is shouting insults to the pro-Israel demonstrators with a bullhorn. I ask why the police did not usher them back across the street, especially given the fact that Kessler had already been injured!

In either case, while the words and actions by Elalami, Jubran, or anyone else may not be criminal in nature, they are despicable. They were provocative and could only have contributed to the tension and volatility of the event. Keep in mind, these were not college-age kids. They were grown, middle-aged adults who should have known better. They and Alnaji should not have crossed the street in the first place. In addition, had there been actual police present at the time of the incident, they could have prevented such encounters from taking place. 

Red State also points out that Elalami was previously chosen as "Man of the Year" by the Islamic Society of Simi Valley. How ironic. I wonder if he will win it again this year.

*Update: Ventura County authorities have stated that possible hate crime charges against Alnaji are still under investigation, but would hinge on whether there were any anti-Jewish statements that accompanied the alleged assault. Police are still attempting to obtain video evidence of the incident.

Arrest in Death of Pro-Israel Demonstrator in California

 Local news in Los Angeles has just reported an arrest in the death of Paul Kessler, who was killed on November 5 while demonstrating for Israel in Thousand Oaks. Police have charged  Loay Alnaji with involuntary manslaughter. His bail is set at one million dollars. That's about all we know at the moment.

Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington DC

-Pro-Palestinians at White House gate, November 4 

March against anti-Semitism, November 14

                                                   

Pro-Palestinian assault at DNC Hqs, November 15

Any questions?

                                                

What a contrast between how pro-Israel demonstrators behave and how pro-Palestinian and Hamas supporters behave. On Tuesday, November 14th, an estimated 290,000 people peacefully marched in Washington DC to protest anti-Semitism, call for the release of Hamas-held hostages, and support Israel. There was no riot. Everything was peaceful, no arrests. Unlike the November 4th pro-Palestinian march, which featured vandalism of buildings and statutes, people pushing against the White House gate, and spraying red paint on the gate, Tuesday's march was orderly and civilized. 

The next night, Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters descended on the Capitol and tried to storm DNC Hqs. Police were injured. Breitbart has the report with videos.

Do you still wonder which side is the right side?

Sweden Ponders What to do About it's Citizens in Gaza

Sweden, like most other Western nations, is facing a dilemma about what to do about those in Gaza who hold Swedish citizenship. For the most part, they are Palestinians who were granted citizenship and then chose to return to Gaza for various reasons.

The Swedish foreign minister, Tobias Billström, is saying that there is not much Sweden can do in Gaza, and that those people who chose to return to Gaza-against the advice of Swedish authorities- must accept responsibility for their own predicament.

Of course, speaking officially and diplomatically, once someone is granted citizenship, we must consider them as our own in these tricky and dangerous international situations. At the same time, I find it hard to disagree with the foreign minister's statement.

The below article from the conservative Swedish news outlet, Nya Dagbladet, is translated by Fousesquawk.

 https://nyadagbladet.se/utrikes/billstrom-svenska-medborgare-i-gaza-maste-ta-eget-ansvar/

Foreign     

Billström: Swedish citizens in Gaza "must take responsibility"

Situation in Gaza Strip

Posted 14 November 2023

by Jan Sundstedt

Foreign Minister Tobias Billström points out that the Foreign Affairs Department has been advising against travel to Gaza for a decade, and that the hundreds of Swedish citizens who are still there in Gaza now must learn to take responsibility for their situations.

The Swedish government has received some criticism from the opposition and other actors and is accused of having "too little" to help Swedish citizens who are stuck in the Gaza war, criticism that Billström dismisses. 

"I want to underline that the Foreign Affairs Department has been advising against travel to Gaza for ten years. All who are there have defied this advice and gone there at their own risk, and we must remember that this advice was issued for a reason, which is not something that happens lightly," he says to the tax-financed SVT (Swedish State Television).

He points out that Swedish authorities have a very small possibility to act in the region and that those who go against the authorities' advice themselves bear a responsibility to remedy the situation.

80 can leave

"Again, I want to underline the personal responsibility that all those who are in Gaza today themselves bear."

The Foreign Affairs Department is in contact with its ambassadors in Tel Aviv and Cairo to be able to assist the Swedish citizens who ask for help. About 80 Swedish citizens have also obtained permission to leave Gaza and go to Egypt-but it is unclear how many have actually made it there.

There are currently about 500 Swedish citizens in the area- most all being Palestinians who were granted Swedish citizenship and then, for reasons that are unclear, returned to Gaza.

Arizona State BDS Ruckus

"From the river to the sea......"

On Tuesday night, there was a disturbance at Arizona State University during debates over the BDS movement against Israel (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions). Jewish students who were meeting had to be escorted from the scene by campus police due to pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly shouting and throwing rocks at the building where they were meeting. The senate government meeting had to be adjourned.

Naturally, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were there. And it is also reported that nobody knows who was throwing the rocks and no arrests have been made. That is likely because, the campus police are usually instructed by these wimpy university administrators to stand down, and keep a low profile. In other words, it appears the cops were not on hand to observe and make arrests.

The College Fix has a report.

Here is how The State Press, the campus newspaper, reported the incident.

George Washington University Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine

Hat tip Just the News

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/george-washington-university-suspends-pro-palestine-group-after-demonstration#:~:text=George%20Washington%20University%20on%20Tuesday%20announced%20it%20had,liberate%20Palestine%20%22from%20the%20river%20to%20the%20Sea.%22

George Washington University in Washington DC has suspended the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine after that group projected anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian phrases onto the library last month subsequent to the October 7 invasion of Israel by Hamas.

While I applaud the suspension, which is for three months, it is not sufficient. This organization should be banned from every campus in America. It is anti-Semitic, uses brown-shirt tactics, and is now openly supporting a terrorist organization (Hamas) after that group carried out the worst anti-Jewish attack since the Holocaust. 

Here is how the GWU campus paper, The Hatchet, reported the suspension. From reading the article, my inference is that it is pro-SJP in nature (hardly a surprise).

It's a small victory, but hopefully, a harbinger of things to come from other universities.

Shame on MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, like so many other American universities, is seeing an ugly wave of anti-Israel protests on campus, protests that are taking the side of the terrorist organization, Hamas, in the latest fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

After the terrorist attacks of October 7, in which unspeakable horrors were committed by Hamas, and the kidnapping of some 240 Israeli hostages (including some with American citizenship) into Gaza, it is shocking that anyone could openly support those monsters on American streets and American campuses. But they are.

On October 9, the 85th anniversary of Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht, pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a building on the MIT campus. The incident was apparently allowed to go on throughout the day. At one point, students were threatened with expulsion if they did not vacate the building. University president Sally Kornbluth has now announced that students who participated in the protests and occupation of the building will not be expelled "due to visa issues".

The conservative blog, Campus Watch, which has been doing stellar work reporting on campus anti-Semitism since October 7, has an article on the protests. It is reported that Jewish students were harassed, prohibited from entering the building by protesters, and insulted. Some Jewish staff members who were in the building were reportedly also insulted for being Jewish.

Here is how the campus newspaper, The Tech, is reporting the incident.

 Much in keeping with the tradition of campus journalism, nothing is mentioned about anti-Jewish insults and blocking of Jewish students from entering the building. They have, however, published an earlier op-ed by a Jewish student as to his experiences at MIT since October 7. It is dated November 1, prior to the incident in question.

If, in fact, some of the students who occupied that building and allegedly used anti-Semitic rhetoric towards Jews were foreign students here on student visas, they should be sent packing. I have often pointed out that in my experience teaching English to foreign students at UC Irvine, most of the students I encountered protesting against Israel spoke English with no accent, suggesting to me that they were either born here or came as children with their parents, and were, thus, American citizens. I would also add that many of my English students were from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. The Saudis were sponsored by their government and thus, were supervised by Saudi consular officials, in this case, in Los Angeles. I know that they had been instructed by the Saudi consulates/embassy not to get involved in campus protests involving Israel and the Palestinians. As best I could tell, they followed those instructions.

It is time for MIT's president to show some backbone. If any students crossed the line of what is acceptable protest, they should be expelled. What happens to any foreign students here on a student visa after that should be of no concern to the university. 

Belgium: Kristallnacht Observance in Ghent Canceled Due to Fears of Incidents

In Ghent, Belgium this past week, the Jewish community decided to cancel their annual commemoration of the 1938 Night of the broken glass in Germany when Nazis attacked thousands of Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues in an orgy of violence. This year, the Ghent Jewish community decided to hold a scaled-down "mini" commemoration due to fears of violent incidents occurring in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It's a sad day, indeed, when Jews in Belgium cannot even commemorate their Holocaust dead without fears of being violently disrupted by today's new Nazis, the people supporting Hamas.

The below article dated November 6 from the Dutch-language, Belgian Jewish news site, Joods Actueel is translated by Fousesquawk.

https://joodsactueel.be/2023/11/06/kristallnacht-herdenking-gent-afgelast-vanwege-vrees-incidenten/

Kristallnacht commemoration in Ghent canceled due to fear of incidents

November 5, 2023

Lieve Schacht

At the last minute, the Jewish community decided to hold a mini-commeoration on Sunday, November 5. Some 30 people came to lay a small stone on the monument after a short speech from the chairman of the Jewish community while El Malei Rachamin, a prayer for the dead, was played. A sober yet dignified ceremony.

The Kristallnacht (Night of the broken glass), which the Nazis organized on the night of November 9-10, 1938 was in fact, a well-prepared large pogrom against Jews all over Germany, but also in the German-annexed Sudentenland and Austria. Not only were thousands of Jewish shops and businesses plundered and destroyed, but also Jewish private residences, synagogues, schools, graves, and hospitals were attacked. Several hundred Jews were murdered on the streets while on November 10 about 30,000 Jewish men were locked up in concentration camps. It was the start of a policy that ended up in the mass murder of European Jews in Auschwitz.

In view of the horrific pogrom on Israeli soil on October 7, a reflection on the first pogrom on German soil on 9-10 November 1938 is certainly appropriate.

Upcoming Radio Interview

On Thursday evening, November 16, from 7-8 pm PST, I will be interviewed live on KABC Los Angeles radio, 790 am. The show is entitled: "Call for Justice", which airs weekly on that station. The hosts are Melissa Lewkowicz and Dorit Reichenthal. The topic will be campus anti-Semitism. Listeners may call in live with questions or the show can be accessed after November 16 on the show's website.