Jerusalem Post: The real victims are...

Hat Tip: Israel Matzav

I am not completely sure how to respond to this.

Samuel Friedman's Salon.com April 2002 article "Going Tribal" described to a T what I was feeling at that time. Those feelings have returned to a certain degree.

That's all I'll say for now.

Elizabeth Devorah Goren-Friedman, 54, who was killed in the murderous bulldozer attack in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Photo: Reproduction

The Jerusalem Post Internet Edition

The real victims are...
Aug. 4, 2008
SETH J. FRANTZMAN , THE JERUSALEM POST

A person grows up and believes there are perpetrators and victims. He sees a person assaulted or hears about a rape or someone being abused, and he believes that in each incident there is a person who perpetrates the crime and a person who is the victim. Then one becomes more "enlightened" and learns that the victim is not as interesting as the perpetrator. The perpetrator's life story and mental state are deemed important in order to understand "why" he or she committed the crime.

Then one grows even older and wiser and comes to learn that when there is a crime, the actual victim is the perpetrator's ethnic or religious group, which will be viewed negatively because of what he did. In the end, one learns that the real victim in every crime is the wider society - particularly the group the criminal came from. This is how one grows up in modern Western society. In this world the "victims" of World War I, far from being all the soldiers or civilians killed, were the Germans because, as the aggressors, they were punished by the Versailles Treaty. The victims of the Holocaust were not the Jews who died but the Palestinians who saw the survivors sent to their homeland. The victims of the three recent acts of terrorism by Muslims from east Jerusalem are not the 11 dead and 70 wounded Jews, but the Palestinian Arabs who might lose work because of the actions of their countrymen.

I REMEMBER the first time I learned how this "true victimhood" works. I was a college student in Tucson, Arizona. Along with everyone else, on September 11 I awoke to news of the terrorist attacks. But a day later, when I began to read the local papers, I was astonished to learn that the true victims were not the 3,000 dead Americans but the nation's Muslims, because after 9/11 they would face increased scrutiny and perhaps even hate crimes.

There were soon marches in my city, not to condemn terror or support the families of the victims, but to reassure Muslims. Muslim human rights groups became wealthy off the notion that Muslims were victims.

As if to reinforce this notion, the BBC published a story on July 24 by Heather Sharp entitled "Palestinian workers fear backlash." There was no story about fears by Israelis of more bulldozer attacks; the only people who were truly victimized, it seems, were Palestinians. The story relates how Palestinian face "widespread discrimination" and how they "fear revenge attacks. They say stones were thrown at them as they worked near a right-wing neighborhood." (What exactly constitutes a "right-wing" neighborhood, according to the BBC, is not clear.)

It turns out, according to the BBC, that "in both attacks using construction vehicles, the motives of the attacker remain a mystery - local press reports suggested that the attackers had previous involvement with crime and drugs, and no links to militant groups have emerged."

There is no mention of the fact that both attacks were directed at Jews and Jews only.

ONE IS reminded of the closing scene of the film A Time to Kill (1996), when the white attorney of a black man accused of shooting three white rapists of a black girl in the American South is giving his closing statements. Realizing he cannot convince the white jury to acquit a black man, the lawyer asks them to imagine the raped girl was white.

In the case of these Jerusalem attacks one must do the same. One must ask viewers of the BBC to imagine that the drivers were settlers driving over Arab children. Then one must ask oneself, would the media claim that "settlers fear backlash"? After Timothy McVeigh bombed Oklahoma City, were we told that the real victims were right-wing militias and Christian conservatives who now feared a backlash?

The real victims of terror are the people who die and are injured. There are no other victims. We must therefore steel ourselves against the media's ever-present attempts to turn innocent Afghan children into the "real" victims of 9/11. The real victims of 9/11 were those who died that day.

Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, Jean Relevy, 68, and Batsheva Unterman, 33, were the victims of the bulldozer terror attacks in Jerusalem. They and the 50 wounded. No one else.

The writer is completing his doctorate at Hebrew University.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331190732&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Copyright 1995- 2008 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/

Al-Jazeera: Mark LeVine: Tragedy of Israel and Palestine

Hat Tip: A Friend

Link to article

SUNDAY, MARCH 09, 2008
8:15 MECCA TIME, 5:15 GMT
Tragedy of Israel and Palestine
By Mark Levine


The father of 18 days-old newborn Palestinian baby girl Amira Abu Asr, who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, mourns during her funeral on March 5 [GALLO/GETTY]

Americans have grown so accustomed to the disastrous dynamics operating between Israelis and Palestinians today that the failure to reach a peace deal amid the soaring death tolls assumes an aura of normalcy in their minds.

This reflects a situation we imagine ourselves to be powerless to help change and only adds to the tragedy unfolding in the Occupied Territories and Israel as well.

Today the world's attention has turned to the aftermath of the murder of eight students of an ultra-Zionist Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, established by the founder of religious zionism, Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook in 1924.

Last week the focus was the ongoing war in Gaza, which will likely be the centre of attention next week as well.

The attacks on religious students in the midst of study and prayer - coupled with the ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza on the Israeli towns of Sderot and Ashkelon - are already being offered as the latest examples of continued Palestinian unwillingness to make peace with Israel more than two years after its unprecedented withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.


World's largest prison


Shanbo Heinemann, a pro-Palestinian activist, is injured in a protest against the wall [GETTY]
But there are many problems with this argument; firstly, most of the acts of Palestinian resistance to the occupation have always been non-violent.

Equally important is the fact that while Israeli civilians no longer live in Gaza, Israel's military presence has never ended.

Tel Aviv withdrew civilian settlers and then threw away the key to what has now become the world's largest prison.

Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister and the architect of the settlement movement, was willing to sacrifice Gaza in order to ensure Israel held onto the major settlement blocs of the West Bank, which today house more than 250,000 settlers (almost double that number if one includes the Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem).

The settler population of the West Bank also doubled during the years of the Oslo "peace" process - which began when Abu Dahim was about 12 and ended when he was 19 - without a whimper of complaint from the United States.

By the time Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister, was assassinated in 1995, Palestinian leaders were warning that the continued settlement expansion was "killing" the peace process and would sooner or later lead to a "revolution" from the street.


Matrix of control

The presence of well over 100 settlements has necessitated a matrix of control in which 80 per cent of the West Bank be declared off limits to Palestinians.

It also meant the destruction of thousands of homes and olive and fruit trees (the backbone of an otherwise closed Palestinian economy), the confiscation of 35,000 acres of Palestinian land, and the creation of a network of bypass roads, military bases.

The 400-kilometre, 8-metre-high "separation wall" also pierces deep into Palestinian territory, cutting into at least three isolated cantons.

Together, the settlement system has made the idea of creating a territorially and economically viable Palestinian state impossible to implement.

With the eruption of the al-Aqsa intifada in September 2000 whatever infrastructure of peace had been created during Oslo was quickly dismantled by both sides.

By mid-2002 Israel began deploying a strategy of managed chaos, in which a near total closure of the Territories, coupled with a destruction of much of their economic and political infrastructure, turned the intifada into what Palestinians term an "intifawda," a neologism that brings the violence of the intifada together with the chaos, or "fawda" of a society living in a barely functioning state and economy.


Dividing Palestine


Israel's separation wall cuts a broad path through Palestinian olive groves [GALLO/GETTY]
Israeli planners gambled that by splitting the West Bank from Gaza, deepening the occupation of the former while freeing itself of the settlements in the latter, and routinely deploying disproportionate violence (including tanks, helicopter gunships, F-16s, and heavily armed troops) against all signs of resistance, Palestinian society would begin turning on itself.


Indeed, Israel hoped for this when it clandestinely supported the emergence of Hamas two decades ago, with the goal of building up a rival to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) that would have them fighting each other rather than figuring out more successful strategies of fighting the occupation.

But, even as Palestinians fight each other, resistance to the occupation has continued. Most of it is comprised of various forms of non-violence (marches, sit-ins, and attempts to stop home demolitions or replant uprooted fields or groves).

These are rarely covered by the international media, and are usually met with violence by the Israeli military or settlers.

Fairly or not, however, it has been Palestinian violence, and especially suicide bombings and now rocket attacks on civilians, that have defined their resistance to the ongoing occupation.


Suicidal suicide attacks

In depth

And in this regard the actions have been nothing short of suicidal - Palestinian "resistance" to the occupation seems to have been scripted by Israel as it has suited the interests of the Israeli governments in power since 2000. As Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston recently put it:

"The Palestinians have kept their ultimate doomsday weapon under tight wraps for 40 years ... Israeli senior commanders could only pray that the Palestinians would never take it out and put it to actual use ... non-violence. This is one reason why, for decades, Israel did its best to head off, harass, and crack down on expressions of Palestinian non-violence."

If Palestinians ever decided to just "get up and walk" en masse to the Erez Crossing separating Gaza from Israel and the major West Bank check points like Qalandiya and used hammers and picks to tear them down, there would be almost nothing Israel could do, short of a massacre in full view of the world's cameras.

But Palestinians have become so stuck in the ideology of summud, (which naturally become a national imperative after a million Palestinians were uprooted in the 1948 and 1967 wars), or defiantly staying put, that they have rarely taken the strategic or moral offensive.

When they applied the moral approach during the first intifada, Israel's harsh crackdown coupled with PLO dominance of Palestianian politics, ensured the de-politicisation and disempowerment of the first "intifada generation".

Two weeks ago, when a few brave Palestinians tried to organise a peaceful march to the Erez border crossing to build on the momentum gained by breaching the border fence between Gaza and Egypt, they were stopped far from the border by a line of heavily armed Hamas policemen.

Soon after, the day's ration of rockets was fired into the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, wounding two Israeli children.

Israel responded with a new rounds of attacks by Israel, killing and wounding more Palestinians.


How to stop?

A few years ago, in a particularly violent moment of the intifada, I interviewed a senior Hamas leader at his office in Gaza. After the usual boiler plate questions and answers, I finally grew exasperated and said to him, "Look, let's put aside the question of whether you have the right to use violence, particularly against civilians, to pursue your ends. The simple fact is that the strategy has not worked."

His response stunned me with its honesty: "We know the violence doesn't work, but we don't know how to stop."

In a mirror image of Israeli strategic thinking, Hamas has remained unable to break free of the dangerously outdated paradigm that says violence, particularly against civilians, can only be met by even more violence until the other side yields.

Aside from the moral turpitude of such thinking by both sides - not to mention blatant illegality according to international law - the reality, at least in the near term, is that the human and political cost of such a policy for Israel is far lower than for Palestinians, who have very little time left before their dreams of independence are crushed for good.

Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, has himself admitted, the day Palestinians give up on the dream of an independent state will be the day Israel will "face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, and as soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."


Dysfunctional dynamics

Israeli settlements

In 1987, Meron Benvenisti, the former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, concluded his well-known "West Bank Data Base Project" report by arguing that the West Bank settlements were too integrated into Israel to separate them as part of any future peace deal
But so dysfunctional are the current dynamics that neither side seems willing to take the first step away from the abyss.

In such a situation, only a strong outside party can force the warring sides to make the hard compromises necessary to achieve a just and lasting peace.

This was the job the US signed up for in 1993, when Bill Clinton, then president, witnessed the signing of the first Oslo agreement on the White House lawn. But we have failed miserably in our self-appointed role as "honest broker."

It's not just that US has unapologetically taken Israel's side on almost every major issue since then.

During the Oslo years the US worked hand in glove with the Israeli and Palestinian security services to stifle dissent within Palestinian civil society, or the Legislative Council, to a process that was moving away from rather than towards a just and lasting peace.

And with the militarisation of US foreign policy after September 11 and the sullied occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel has had even greater carte blanche to inflict precisely the kind of damage upon Palestinian society we are witnessing now in Gaza.


Blood of children

By refusing to press Israel - as many Israeli commentators, and an increasing number of US policy-makers as well, urge - to negotiate with Hamas we have not just enabled the current violence, but are directly responsible for it.

Hamas has declared its willingness to negotiate a two-state solution, albeit under conditions to which Israel has little incentive to accept.

The blood of Israeli and Palestinian children that appears on TV is on our hands too.

It would be nice if we could imagine that the next US president will have the courage to "change" this dynamic. But there is little chance of that.

The only hope is that Israeli and Palestinian societies come together to stop the violence their leaders keep inflicting on them before the delusions of victory on both sides cross the line into psychosis.

Mark LeVine is professor of history at UCI Irvine and author or editor of half a dozen books dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and globalisation in the Middle East, including Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine, Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel and Palestine, Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil, and the forthcoming An Impossible Peace: Oslo and the Burdens of History.

Source: Al Jazeera

US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issues report on UCI's response to anti-Semitism

I will comment later once I have time to read through everything.

The 11-page report, as published by the OC Register

Full article: (Link)

Civil rights investigation clears UCI
Agency says lack of evidence in allegations by Jewish students.
by MARLA FISHER
The Orange County Register

IRVINE – A federal civil rights investigation into allegations of anti-Semitism at UC Irvine found “insufficient evidence” that the university failed to respond appropriately to complaints by Jewish students, according to a reportreleased this afternoon.

Investigators with the department’s Office for Civil Rights visited the campus 11 times since 2006 to monitor demonstrations and interview students and staff. They failed to substantiate complaints that campus officials had ignored or downplayed anti-Semitic behavior, according to the Nov. 30 report released today.

UCI has earned a national reputation, spread largely by bloggers and pro-Zionist organizations, of being, in one organization’s words, “the most notoriously anti-Semitic campus” in America.

That appellation has been vehemently denied by campus officials, who say tensions between Jewish and Muslim students on their campus are about the same as at similar schools.

Earlier this year, the University of California released a report showing that 85 percent of UCI students said they believed there was respect for all students regardless of race or religion on campus. That is about the same percentage as other UC campuses around the state.

The Department of Education investigation was launched in 2004, after complaints filed on behalf of students by the Zionist Organization of America, a pro-Israeli organization with chapters in a dozen cities, including Los Angeles.

Some Jewish students complained about harassment, including reports of swastikas on campus and destruction of a Holocaust memorial display.

Muslim students have similarly complained about problems, including a fire that destroyed a mock depiction of the Palestine wall.

Jeffrey Rips, executive director of the Hillel Foundation of Orange County, which operates a Jewish student union at UCI, said he had not had a chance to review the report yet today, which is the last day of Hanukkah.

“I’m glad they finally came out with a report,” Rips said. “One way or another, it can give direction to the campus.”

The Los Angeles office of the Zionist Organization of America referred callers this afternoon to the East Coast office, which had closed for the day.

In its report, the civil rights office said that none of the 13 allegations could be substantiated. Some could not be acted upon because they were too old. The agency requires that complaints be filed within 180 days unless they show a pattern of discrimination.

According to the report, the agency found that several years-old complaints, including one of a rock thrown at a Jewish student and destruction of a Holocaust memorial in 2003, did not contribute to a hostile environment on campus because they “constitute isolated acts that were unrelated to the timely alleged acts.”

In other cases, investigators found that university officials acted appropriately, or that the complaint could not be conclusively identified as anti-Semitic.

For example, a swastika found in a bathroom in the Social Ecology building could not be considered anti-Semitic because it was accompanied by a vulgar phrase toward Asians.

In another reported incident, where a Jewish student’s flag of Israel displayed on the door of her dorm room was defaced with a swastika, the agency found that the university “responded promptly and effectively.”

“When OCR (Office of Civil Rights) investigated the timely allegations that suggested a possible hostile environment based on national origin, OCR found, in all instances, that the University took prompt and effective action to address the incidents,” according to the report.

While acknowledging that speeches, articles, marches, symbols and other events sponsored by the Muslim Student Union were “offensive to Jewish students,” they determined that they were not based on their national origin, but “rather based on opposition to the policies of Israel.”

In the case of inflammatory campus speakers, investigators found that most speakers “distinguished opposition to Zionism from opposition to Jews.”

The report also states there is “no evidence that the University implemented a systematic discriminatory policy.”

UCI Chancellor Michael Drake issued a statement saying that campus officials are “very gratified with the outcome and closure of this matter.”

“We are firmly committed to freedom of speech and open discourse, which are central to our missions of teaching, research and public service, and equally committed to maintaining a safe, non-threatening environment for all members of our campus community,” Drake said in his statement.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who has been critical of UCI in the past, said he wasn’t surprised that many of the older complaints were not substantiated.

“This is a classic case of distant bureaucracy in action,” DeVore said.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7994 or mfisher@ocregister.com

OC Register: UCI deals with claims of anti-Semitism

Posted March 10, 2008

Here's an interesting quote from Mark LeVine, UCI tenured History Department Professor of the Modern Middle East, from the article below:

UCI Professor Mark LeVine...said he tried to mediate between the two student groups, but gave the task up as hopeless.

"The only thing that would satisfy the critics now would be if they expelled every Muslim student and painted stars of David on all the buildings,"

More interesting quotes from this article to come.

Link to Article

June 10, 2007
UCI deals with claims of anti-Semitism

Officials say blogs and outside groups make divide between Jewish and Muslim students seem wider than it is.
By MARLA JO FISHER
The Orange County Register

IRVINE – A young man in a turban, his face covered, marches around UC Irvine with signs saying "Death to Infidels. Death to Israel" during a week of campus demonstrations by Muslim students.

Here's the catch: He's not Muslim. In fact, he's not even a student at UCI.

Instead, he's one of many outsiders who have become embroiled in a campus war of words between a small number of Jewish and Muslim students.

Was he aware that passers-by might actually think he was a terrorist?

"Of course," said Max Gibson, 27, a self-proclaimed Zionist who lives in San Diego and is affiliated with a college Republican group. "It was to make people think."

Gibson's masquerade, authentic enough to spur campus police to disarm him of fake bombs strapped to his body, is an example of how real events at UC Irvine have spun off into their own sometimes fictional existence, spawning street theater and reverberating worldwide on dozens of blogs.

Events at UC Irvine are no different than at many other schools. A recent University of California study found 85 percent of UCI students agreed there was respect for all students, regardless of race or religion – roughly the same percentage as at other UC campuses.

Yet UCI has achieved a blog-inspired reputation for anti-Semitism – a notoriety that many campus observers say is unfair and unwarranted.

"A lot of the blogs distort facts and take things out of context," said Alex Chazen, president of Hillel: The Jewish Student Union at UC Irvine. "Many of the bloggers aren't on our campus and don't even know what's going on."

One of the most ardent bloggers and complainants about campus anti-Semitism, according to Dean of Students Sally Peterson, has not only already graduated from UCI but applied to and attended graduate school here.

UCI officials say they spend hundreds of hours each month trying to answer allegations that the they ignore anti-Semitic activities on campus.

Chancellor Michael Drake has met with religious leaders and spoken at synagogues and mosques trying to convince attendees that that the university should maintain a policy of free speech toward all campus groups.

Student discord over Israeli policies

The main source of discord among students is over the state of Israel's policies toward Palestinians in contested territories.

Like other campus groups around the country, the Muslim Student Union regularly invites inflammatory speakers who decry Israeli policies and go so far as to say that the state of Israel should not exist. The speakers use words deliberately designed to provoke strong reactions, like calling Israelis "the new Nazis."

Jewish students have also invited controversial speakers, one of whom said that "Palestinians must have their will crushed."

While these controversial speakers make the national circuits of college campuses – one recently spoke at Long Beach State with little fanfare – at UCI they seem to attract particular attention, particularly during the annual week when the Muslim students have a demonstration that includes construction of a mock "Palestine wall."

Jewish students also hold their own pro-Israel week on campus each year, as well as passing out flyers from their own booth during the Muslim events.

During Muslim student demonstrations, Chazen said the campus is an uncomfortable place for Jewish students. "The events put on by the MSU are definitely anti-Semitic," Chazen said.

The rest of the year, he said, "It's just like anywhere else."

Drake, who is scheduled to give the keynote speech June 28 at the American Jewish Committee's National Human Relations Award Dinner, has been criticized for resisting calls from Jewish leaders to repudiate specific speeches or speakers.

Drake said that, while he personally abhors "hate speech," he believes in the principles of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas. He also pointed out that the most controversial speakers are invited by student clubs, not the university, and officials are prevented by law from banning such events.

Faculty members involved in the issue say students should be able to hear all sides of an issue, even if its one they find disturbing.

"We prepare students here to be adults," said Professor Scott Bollens, who is involved in the university's "Difficult Dialogues" project to promote harmony. "If we shut off debate, we treat them like little kids who can't be trusted with disagreements. That would just make them passive and mute pawns."

Chazen said the blogs have stirred up support for Jewish students on campus, but also annoy him when he goes home to visit his family.

"I get asked, 'Is UCI really a terrorist training ground?'" Chazen said, groaning. "That kind of thing doesn't do much good for us. I wish it was interesting to read about all the good Jewish students are doing, unfortunately it's more interesting to read about poor little Jewish students getting beat up by Muslim kids."

Media consultant Rod Mitchell, who lives in Houston, Texas, sent out a press release recently with the headline, "Why is there so much anti-Semitism on the UC Irvine campus?"

Mitchell's press release, promoting a pro-Israel event, claimed that UCI's Muslim Student Union "spews terror and hatred, preaching a Jihad against all Jews."

When contacted, Mitchell said he had no firsthand knowledge about "terror and hatred" at the Irvine campus.

"I'm just reading the information on the student blogs they're sending us," Mitchell said.

To keep tabs on the issue, UCI's Free Speech and Advocacy Team sends between five and 10 administrators to monitor every potentially controversial event. While the university doesn't legally have the right to control speakers, the team can and does intervene to keep the peace or halt disruptions by other groups.

Team members escorted a rabbi from Long Beach away from a Muslim speaking event last month.

When Muslim students disrupted a speech by an inflammatory anti-Muslim speaker earlier this year, shouting "Anti-Israel, anti-Hate," they quickly moved outside to avoid being forced to leave by campus officials.

Pro-Israeli blogs later described the peaceful incident, which lasted about 90 seconds, as being staged by "Islamist thugs" and "budding terrorists."

Members of the Muslim Student Union say they don't preach hatred against Jews, but they do criticize Israeli policies toward Palestine.

Club spokeswoman Marya Bangee acknowledged that her group has invited provocative speakers but that members are not personally anti-Semitic.

"People see Israel as part of their religious identity and say, 'They are attacking our religion instead of having a political debate,' " Bangee said. "But the way the Zionists on campus treat people speaking out against Israel is way worse. A woman once shouted out that Islam is an evil religion. Without a doubt we never said anything like that."

'American Idol: Jihad Edition'

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, a Long Beach resident who's affiliated with the Hillel at California State University Long Beach, recently reported on his blog that "the frenzy of hate and pro-Jihad sentiment runs so high, it overflows into full-scale intimidation, harassment and even assault" at UCI.

Bookstein didn't appear frightened when he cheerfully invited a reporter to "watch our street theater" a few minutes before he staged the "American Idol: Jihad Edition," a counter-demonstration that disrupted a Muslim speaking event last month. The event later appeared on YouTube.com.

On another day, Bookstein came to a Muslim speaking event and passed out fliers dressed as a clown.

In an interview, Rabbi Yonah, as he's known, said Jewish students on campus "are in great need of help and support."

"I've gotten supportive mails from around the world," Bookstein said. "I am a constant voice to point out injustice and hatemongering."

The issue has become heated enough for the campus New University newspaper to publish an editorial in March entitled "UCI Anti-Semitism Distorted" and for the faculty senate to hold a rally to demonstrate campus tolerance.

"It also becomes apparent from the average age of attendees that the target audience of such speeches is not the average UCI student … but a strange smattering of Orange County residents that have nothing better to do than to see their conflicts played out through students," the editorial in New University read.

'At our paper, we've been called both anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim'

UCI student Ben Ritter, the paper's editor, said he didn't think UCI was any more anti-Semitic than anywhere else.

"People who are very devout Muslim or Jewish both tend to perceive they are being persecuted by the other side, but most people just ignore it," Ritter said. "I just got a letter to the editor that seemed to be saying more needs to be done about the prevalent anti-Muslim feelings on campus. At our paper, we've been called both anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim."

Even legislators have been drawn into the debate.

Assemblyman Chuck Devore, R-Irvine, said in May he was approached by "a few students at UCI who feel the environment of fear and hatred is growing out of control on that campus."

Devore said that leaders with the Jewish Anti-Defamation League told him "UCI has the dubious distinction of being in the top handful of campuses in America for anti-Semitism."

The assemblyman said students asked him to look into "two former students at UCI who are Jewish who claim they left UCI because of the atmosphere that fosters hate."

UCI officials say that no students have left the campus due to anti-Semitism.

"I think I would know about that," said Peterson, whose office reviews and investigates every harassment complaint.

Peterson said the controversy has been kept alive by a handful of students on either side of the issue – and that she gets complaints about unfair treatment from both sides.

"In my opinion, there are maybe five people trying to control and orchestrate this whole thing," Peterson said.

UCI Professor Mark LeVine, a Middle East scholar who once wanted to become a rabbi, said he tried to mediate between the two student groups, but gave the task up as hopeless.

"The only thing that would satisfy the critics now would be if they expelled every Muslim student and painted stars of David on all the buildings," said LeVine, whose criticism of Israeli policies has caused some critics to dub him as a "self-hating Jew."

Outside groups get involved

Jewish students are also supported and encouraged by outside advocacy groups such as the Zionist Organization of America and Stand With Us, "an international education organization that ensures that Israel's side of the story is told," according to its Web site.

On a typical day during the Muslim students' protest week, paid staff members from several advocacy organizations visit the campus to observe the events.

"It's not just student groups initiating things, but students responding to outside groups," Bollens said. "That's why there's energy on this conflict. I think, left to their own accord, left to be students in a university interacting in their own classes or public forums without outside groups, they would over time agree to disagree, or be more moderate and civil about things."

Bollens, whose academic expertise is studying polarized religious groups around the world, said "UCI is not an anti-Semitic place" and added that he thinks community groups should be welcome on campus, along with everyone else.

Sometimes, officials said, the stories of anti-Semitism are simply fiction.

A young man reported to his father in 2004 that he was being harassed and assaulted for being a Jewish UCI student, leading the infuriated dad to e-mail campus authorities and castigate them for doing nothing.

"My son has been assaulted both physically and verbally on campus," the father wrote in an e-mail, adding that "it appears campus security takes no action."

On further investigation, concerned UCI officials had to report to the boy's father that he wasn't a harassed student, in fact, he wasn't a UCI student at all. He was not then, nor had he ever been, enrolled at UCI. Campus officials were surprised, however, to learn that the young man has now applied to enroll at the campus for fall 2007.

Max Gibson, the San Diego resident who marched in a turban around UCI, e-mailed a campus administrator on May 22 that he was "at UC Irvine campus, and as a young Jewish Republican, I am so, so, so enraged."

Gibson went on to say that he had "been spit on, received death threats and been insulted heavily this last week."

In an interview with the Register, Gibson, who is not a UCI student, repeated his allegations that he was spit on and threatened.

Campus police have a different version of the tale, saying that Gibson recanted when asked to discuss the threats.

According to a memo in which Assistant Police Chief Jeff Hutchison recalled the conversation, Gibson said, "I'm really sorry, but I embellished a bit"

"He said that no one had actually threatened his life, but four MSU students told him they would have their friends take care of me," Hutchinson reported that Gibson told him. "I said, "So you do not believe your life is in danger or that anyone is planning to kill you?" Mr. Gibson replied, "No, no. Not at all." I asked Mr. Gibson about the spitting incident and he said that the spit from the MSU student's mouths, who he argued with, would land on him as they argued. I asked him if he wished to file a formal crime report on any of these incidents. He declined to do so."

Swastika incident

According to the campus police, a widely reported incident where swastikas were sprayed on campus was actually a protest against university police who broke up a loud party.

The swastikas were sprayed from a paint can found near the party site, and vulgar expressions that accompanied the swastikas made it clear they were directed toward the "fascist" actions of the university, not a racial slur, police chief Paul Henisey said.

While UCI officials and faculty have been trying to combat the growing perception that the campus is anti-Semitic, the attacks are becoming increasingly vitriolic.

UCI's Dean of Students Sally Peterson kept one of many letters she's received on the topic from other people outside the campus.

"Since you promote Jew-hating Islamic garbage, you are clearly a worthless Nazi …," one letter read.

Jewish student population growing

So is UCI "notoriously anti-Semitic," as one blogger claims?

"Depending on who you talk to, you get a different answer," said Hillel president Chazen, who was formerly president of Anteaters for Israel. "There are two or three student groups who put on events that are anti-Semitic, but I really don't think the administration is to blame. They put just as many checks on the MSU (Muslim Student Union) as anybody else. In fact, the MSU just filed a complaint saying they were treated unfairly. In my years I've been here, I've been treated with nothing but respect." Tareef Nashashibi, a Muslim whose son is a UCI student, said "people should stick their noses out of UCI's business."

"If people are going to start dictating what speakers come in and don't come in, we might as well go live in the Soviet Union," Nashashibi said. "Let them hear all sides of the spectrum and make up their own minds."

UCI administrators said that, although anti-Semitism is not a big problem on campus, they're concerned stories on the blogosphere will discourage Jewish students from applying.

According to Hillel President Chazen, it hasn't happened yet.

In fact, Chazen said, UCI has more Jewish students now than ever before, about 800 to 1,000, and a growing membership in its Jewish fraternities and sororities.

"We've had a steady increase in students accepting their admittance to UCI," Chazen said. "If Jewish students are really concerned, then they should come here and increase our numbers."

Contact the writer: 714-796-7994 or mfisher@ocregister.com

YnetNews: Plocker: Because we are Jews

Amazing article.

Because we are Jews
Sever Plocker

Anti-Semitism doesn’t need proof or witnesses on which to base its arguments of hatred

Published: 02.19.07, 10:47 / Israel Opinion

Because we killed Jesus. Because we don't believe in Jesus. Because we gave loans bearing interest. Because we signed a pact with sorcerers and demons. Because we founded the Sanhedrin (supreme judicial body) that is secretly ruling the world. Because we slaughtered animals by kosher slaughter. Because we dreamed of returning to the Holy Land and to Jerusalem. Because we maliciously spread diseases among Christians and Muslims. Because we ate matzoth on Passover. Because we ate matzoth made from the blood of non-Jewish children. Because we brought communism to mankind. Because we brought capitalism. Because we betrayed the countries we lived in, in the Diaspora, such as France, Russia and Iraq. Because we were the fifth column, an isolated and stubborn minority – and also because we tried to become assimilated and to hide our uniqueness. Because we usurped non-Jewish laborers, the non-Jewish industrialists. Because we were dirty and because we were clean. Because we were. Because we are Jews.

Anti-Semitism doesn’t need proof or witnesses on which to base its arguments, and it is not the result of characteristics the Jewish people either have or do not have. As noted by French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre in his renowned essay in 1946 "Reflections on the Jewish Question," anti-Semitism is the mental illness of anti-Semites. It is their escape from the harshness of reality they cannot deal with. The Jews are the scapegoat for the failed and weak, the losers and the cowards. Even if the Jews did not exist, wrote Sartre, anti-Semites would have invented them.

The effort to wipe out anti-Semitism by refuting the arguments of anti-Semites is futile and humiliating. Should we go from the house of one anti-Semite to another to prove that we don't have horns and a tail, and that we don't hold secret rituals by the light of the moon, that the Protocols of Zion are a fabrication, and that we don't slaughter non-Jewish children so that we can use their blood to make Passover matzoth? And that we didn't do so 530 years ago?

HAMAS's Meshaal: We're going to keep up our violent struggle even if you cave

Hat tip: LGF

UCI's MSU has been and continues to be a full and unequivocal supporter of HAMAS. I'm interleaving my comments with the article. These aren't all of the potential comments I could make, but for time reasons, I'm just writing these right now.

Oh and note Meshaal's email address: khmishal@gmail.com

Our unity can now pave the way for peace and justice


The Mecca agreement gives the west the chance to break with its policy of blackmail and recognise Palestinian rights

Khalid Mish'al
Tuesday February 13, 2007
The Guardian

A historic new phase in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence has begun. Last week's Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah will pave the way for the first ever truly Palestinian national unity government. Hamas and Fatah, joined by all the other Palestinian factions, will now seek to rebuild Palestinian society following the destruction brought upon it by Israeli occupation and resume the campaign for our national rights.

We are determined to make sure that the recent internal fighting, which appalled our people and dismayed their supporters around the world, becomes history. We firmly believe that it would never have happened had it not been for foreign intervention and the brutal sanctions imposed on our people by Israel and its allies. The crisis would not have existed had international and regional powers respected the results of last year's democratic elections in Palestine.

The Mecca agreement has laid the foundations for a power-sharing process that will produce a functioning government capable of attending to our people's needs. It will also pave the way for rebuilding the PLO to include all the factions and become the legitimate representative of all Palestinian people. The partnership born out of the Mecca meeting is possible because of the consensus among the Palestinians that their primary objective is to win their freedom, and that their struggle should be solely against occupation. It is now up to the international community to respect this accord and the will of the Palestinian people.

We Palestinians have been the victims of invasion, occupation and oppression for almost a century. Yet we have been constantly blackmailed to make concessions and give up yet more of our legitimate rights. Since the elections of January 2006 our people have been boycotted and punished by the international community for exercising their democratic rights. In the meantime, Israel has continued to kill and detain Palestinians on a daily basis, demolishing hundreds of houses and making thousands homeless.

Today Israel has more than 11,000 of our brothers and sisters in jail and continues to deny millions of refugees the right to return to their homeland. It has defied international law by proceeding with the construction of the apartheid wall and building settlements on land expropriated from Palestinians. Meanwhile, excavation resumed last week in the compound of al-Aqsa mosque, and on Friday the mosque, to which access is denied to Palestinians below the age of 45, was invaded by Israeli troops who wounded scores of worshippers.

[Ed: What Meshaal left out was that the excavation work has been recognized as necessary by everybody - Jew and Muslim. Meshaal and others don't point this out because they just don't want the Jews to do the work. On top of that, the work can in no way threaten the Temple Mount. Read more here and see the diagram below, courtesy of the Israeli Terrorism Info Center.]



Now that Hamas and Fatah have agreed to form a national unity government, the international community has no excuse to maintain the siege against our people. We know that many governments around the world are unhappy with these sanctions and want to see an end to them. The Palestinian national accord achieved in Mecca envisages the establishment of a truly sovereign and independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967 - with Jerusalem as its capital, the dismantling of the settlements in the West Bank, the release of all Palestinian prisoners and the acknowledgement of the right of the refugees to return to their homes.

Once translated into reality, this vision will pave the way for real peace in the region. There must be no more blackmail of Palestinians, for there is nothing else they can give away. Global powers should have learned by now that neither sanctions nor any other form of pressure or bribery will force the Palestinians to abandon their struggle for freedom and independence.

All previous peace proposals have failed because they were intended to impose an unjust pro-Israel settlement on our people, and were based on the assumption that the Palestinian struggle was a form of terrorism that the Palestinians had to renounce. The attempt to divide Palestinians into moderates and extremists or peacemakers and terrorists has failed. Now we are united in our determination to seek an end to oppression and occupation.

[Ed: Translation: we'll never give up attacking innocent Jews and the Fatah / HAMAS agreement is just an intermediary step before we completely destroy Israel.]

So, will the international community seize this historic opportunity, require Israel to respect our rights and stop hindering this attempt to turn the Palestinian national agreement into a reality? Or will it remain weak and ineffective in the face of Israeli intransigence and risk alienating not only Hamas but also Fatah and all the other Palestinian factions?

If the latter is the choice, the outcome will be dire indeed: the entire Middle East region will be driven towards another cycle of bloody escalation that may last for many years to come - and an entire Palestinian generation, which might not be willing to accept what we accept today, will be left profoundly embittered.

[Ed: Nothing like a victim complex to keep you going, even when the Jews aren't to blame for the situation.]

The west needs to wake up and realise that time is no longer on the side of Israel and its policies of occupation, destruction and expansion. Time no longer favours the continuation of policies biased towards Israel. It will not serve the best interests of the west to support Israel while it continues to terrorise our people, occupy our land, violate our basic human and national rights and encroach on Muslim and Christian holy places. Such blind support has proven to be very costly for the west and will increasingly damage its vital interests.

It must be understood by all that the people of Palestine have the key to both peace and war in the Middle East. There can never be peace and stability in the region without settling the Palestinian question. And that can only be achieved by ending the occupation and recognising our people's rights.

[Ed: Not sure who said it, but if the Palestinians were to lay down their weapons and give up on claiming the land in the entire state of Israel, they'd have their Palestinian state and there would be peace. If, on the other hand, Israel laid down its weapons, the Palestinians and Arabs would push the Jews to the sea in a heartbeat.

Here's one paraphrased quote I do remember from Golda Meir: To get peace, all it would take would Palestinian and Arab mothers loving their children more than they hate the Jews. 'nuff said.]

· Khalid Mish'al is head of the Hamas political bureau

khmishal@gmail.com

MK Benyamin Elon: Time to Fight Back

I never thought I would side with the National Religious Party, but MK Elon seems to have the right idea.

Time to Fight Back
Zionism is not about packing our bags; a response to Yossi Beilin (link to MK Yossi Beilin's article "Time To Pack?")
MK Benyamin Elon
Published: 12.07.06, 13:03

It is no longer controversial to say that there is an axis of evil that threatens the very existence of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, and Hamas have made themselves and their intentions well known.

My colleague, Dr. Beilin, believes that the best way to deal with this menacing threat is to downplay the Iranian nuclear problem and to surrender the Golan Heights as well as Judea and Samaria to those who threaten our very existence. While our enemies threaten to cut our collective throats, Dr. Beilin recommends that we expose our necks.

When leaders see a disaster approaching, they have an obligation to warn of immanent dangers in order to both prepare the public and to gather domestic and international support for countering the threat before it is too late.

Mr. Beilin describes these warnings as a “scare campaign” and a “hysterical reaction”. He states “If Berlin 1938 is here and now, then the conclusion is clear to everyone: The Jews should be packing their bags”. If Dr. Beilin were present during the London Blitz, he would have turned to Wiston Churchil and accused him of causing the disaster by provoking the Nazis with his pre-war hysteria.

No, it is not time to pack our bags; it is time to preempt the threat by fighting back against the axis of evil. Zionism is not about packing our bags and running when the going gets tough, it is about collective self-defense.

Israel is the one place in the world where Jews can defend themselves, where we don’t have to run when we are threatened, where we can face our enemies head on. Yes, we do face threats, but make no mistake about it, the State of Israel can and will overcome.

Dr. Beilin recognizes that there is a threat, but he thinks that we should deal with it by reaching peace agreements with the Syrians and the Palestinians. What he refuses to recognize is that we already attempted to reach peace agreements with both parties. These efforts failed not for lack of effort, they failed because those who have made themselves enemies of Israel do not want peace, they want to destroy us and they say so clearly.

Beilin continues to misguide Israelis

Syria continues to supply Hizbullah with long-range missiles and advanced anti-tank weapons. Hamas, who was elected by a Palestinian majority, is unwilling to even pretend that they can accept a two-state solution. Our military intelligence states that since Israel forced Jews from their homes in Gaza to make peace with the Palestinians, more than 60 long-range rockets have been smuggled from Egypt into Gaza.

These weapons now point towards our population centers, and they rained down on Sderot just a week ago. While Abbas, like Yassir Arafat before him, is at least willing to pretend that he can accept a two-state solution he is obviously unwilling to lift a finger against Hamas. Making peace with any of the above by surrendering strategic territory that is vital to our self-defense is both futile and dangerous.

Of course, we know all of this because we already attempted to make peace with our enemies, and the result was the disaster that we are still attempting to recover from. This is why Dr. Beilin doesn’t have any credibility, which he compensates for by conjuring up the legacy of “Rabin’s Vision”. This “Vision” means that despite all that has happened, we should continue to enact the same policies that Rabin attempted to enact over 10 years ago:

Stop being afraid. There is no danger that these guns will be used against us. The purpose of this ammunition for the Palestinian police is to be used in their vigilant fight against the Hamas.

They won't dream of using it against us, since they know very well that if they use these guns against us once, at that moment the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will return to all the places that have been given to them. The Oslo Accord, despite what the opposition claims, is not irrevocable.

- Yitzchak Rabin.

Politicians like Mr. Beilin don’t have the courage to admit when they are wrong. They continue to misguide the citizens of Israel through policies that inevitably bring about more bloodshed. These politicians should not be giving advice about the threat of radical Islam, especially when they cannot even see the threat themselves.

The writer is a Knesset member and chairman of National Union-NRP

Michael Coren: Hot for Martyrdom

Hat Tip: CAMERA

Here's an interesting take on radical Islam - it's "imperialism":

But [Dr. Tawfik Hamid - the subject of the Michael Coren op-ed below - is] determined to tell a complacent North America what he knows about fundamentalist Muslim imperialism.

"Yes, 'imperialism,' " he tells me. "The deliberate and determined expansion of militant Islam and its attempt to triumph not only in the Islamic world but in Europe and North America. Pure ideology. Muslim terrorists kill and slaughter not because of what they experience but because of what they believe."

According to Answers.com, "imperialism" is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as:

n. 1. The policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations. 2. The system, policies, or practices of such a government.

That fits well with what's going on. Line that up alongside the term "fascism", as in Islamic Facism, defined in the same dictionary as:

n. 1. a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government. 2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

So the MSU is not just a bunch of Islamic fascists, but a bunch of Islamic fascist imperialists.

Nice.

Hot for Martyrdom

Michael Coren
National Post

Friday, November 03, 2006

Dr. Tawfik Hamid doesn't tell people where he lives. Not the street, not the city, not even the country. It's safer that way. It's only the letters of testimony from some of the highest intelligence officers in the Western world that enable him to move freely. This medical doctor, author and activist once was a member of Egypt's Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (Arabic for "the Islamic Group"), a banned terrorist organization. He was trained under Ayman al-Zawahiri, the bearded jihadi who appears in Bin Laden's videos, telling the world that Islamic violence will stop only once we all become Muslims.

He's a disarmingly gentle and courteous man. But he's determined to tell a complacent North America what he knows about fundamentalist Muslim imperialism.

"Yes, 'imperialism,' " he tells me. "The deliberate and determined expansion of militant Islam and its attempt to triumph not only in the Islamic world but in Europe and North America. Pure ideology. Muslim terrorists kill and slaughter not because of what they experience but because of what they believe."

Hamid drank in the message of Jihadism while at medical school in Cairo, and devoted himself to the cause. His group began meeting in a small room. Then a larger one. Then a Mosque reserved for followers of al-Zawahiri. By the time Hamid left the movement, its members were intimidating other students who were unsympathetic.

He is now 45 years old, and has had many years to reflect on why he was willing to die and kill for his religion. "The first thing you have to understand is that it has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with poverty or lack of education," he says. "I was from a middle-class family and my parents were not religious. Hardly anyone in the movement at university came from a background that was different from mine.

"I've heard this poverty nonsense time and time again from Western apologists for Islam, most of them not Muslim by the way. There are millions of passive supporters of terror who may be poor and needy but most of those who do the killing are wealthy, privileged, educated and free. If it were about poverty, ask yourself why it is middle-class Muslims -- and never poor Christians -- who become suicide bombers in Palestine."

His analysis is fascinating. Muslim fundamentalists believe, he insists, that Saudi Arabia's petroleum-based wealth is a divine gift, and that Saudi influence is sanctioned by Allah. Thus the extreme brand of Sunni Islam that spread from the Kingdom to the rest of the Islamic world is regarded not merely as one interpretation of the religion but the only genuine interpretation. The expansion of violent and regressive Islam, he continues, began in the late 1970s, and can be traced precisely to the growing financial clout of Saudi Arabia.

"We're not talking about a fringe cult here," he tells me. "Salafist [fundamentalist] Islam is the dominant version of the religion and is taught in almost every Islamic university in the world. It is puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys."

He leans back, takes a deep breath and moves to another area, one that he says is far too seldom discussed: "North Americans are too squeamish about discussing the obvious sexual dynamic behind suicide bombings. If they understood contemporary Islamic society, they would understand the sheer sexual tension of Sunni Muslim men. Look at the figures for suicide bombings and see how few are from the Shiite world. Terrorism and violence yes, but not suicide. The overwhelming majority are from Sunnis. Now within the Shiite world there are what is known as temporary marriages, lasting anywhere from an hour to 95 years. It enables men to release their sexual frustrations.

"Islam condemns extra-marital sex as well as masturbation, which is also taught in the Christian tradition. But Islam also tells of unlimited sexual ecstasy in paradise with beautiful virgins for the martyr who gives his life for the faith. Don't for a moment underestimate this blinding passion or its influence on those who accept fundamentalism."

A pause. "I know. I was one who accepted it."

This partial explanation is shocking more for its banality than its horror. Mass murder provoked partly by simple lust. But it cannot be denied that letters written by suicide bombers frequently dwell on waiting virgins and sexual gratification.

"The sexual aspect is, of course, just one part of this. But I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses. Algerian Muslim fundamentalists murdered 150,000 other Algerian Muslims, sometimes slitting the throats of children in front of their parents. Are you seriously telling me that this was because of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians or American foreign policy?"

He's exasperated now, visibly angry at what he sees as a willful Western foolishness. "Stop asking what you have done wrong. Stop it! They're slaughtering you like sheep and you still look within. You criticize your history, your institutions, your churches. Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want."

Then he leaves -- for where, he cannot say. A voice that is silenced in its homeland and too often ignored by those who prefer convenient revision to disturbing truth. The tragedy is that Tawfik Hamid is almost used to it.

- Michael Coren is an author and broadcaster. www.michaelcoren.com
© National Post 2006

NewU: Ramadan: Truly Grounded in Prayer

Link to article

Ramadan: Truly Grounded in Prayer
By Brian Walker

Muslims believe that the angel Gabriel spoke to the prophet Muhammad, telling him that he was chosen to receive the word of Allah. During the month of Ramadan, Muhammad began speaking the verses which would later be transcribed into the Quran.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. This year, Ramadan began on Sept. 23 in some parts of the world, and Sept. 24 in others.

During the holy month, Muslims pray, fast and give charity. At mosques around the world, Muslims read and recite the Quran daily, often finishing the entire book by Eid al-Fitr, the celebration which marks the end of Ramadan.

Many students of the Muslim faith at UC Irvine devote their lives spiritually, mentally and physically during this month.

Mariam Moustafa, a second-year biological sciences major, began her yearly fasting at the age of five and plans to continue for the rest of her life.

Moustafa admitted that during the first days of the fasting, it can be tough to concentrate in class because of thirst and hunger. However, she believes that the difficulties involved are minuscule compared to the benefits of attaining peace and a closer relationship to Allah.

“Ramadan is not just about fasting,” Moustafa said. “Fasting is only a part of Ramadan, which is truly grounded in prayer.”

Many Muslims gather in the quieter parts of campus during Ramadan and pray with fellow students.

“I often exchange a smile with fellow students who are sharing in the holy month,” Moustafa said. “It brings people closer to Allah, and closer to each other.”

Moustafa believes that this month chastens her, since she often finds herself taking things for granted. During this month, she gains a greater understanding of her blessings.

Muslims also strive to purify their actions during the month of Ramadan. Moustafa explained that the month is very important to her because she feels a heightened sense of self-awareness.

“You often don’t realize your actions,” Moustafa said. “During Ramadan, you pay more attention.”

Muslims refrain from cursing during this holy month, and also from any form of overindulgence.

Muslims donate the money that is saved on food during Ramadan to charity. More importantly, participants devote their time to charity work. In past years, Moustafa has devoted her time to the hungry on the infamous Skid Row in Los Angeles.

With excitement similar to that of Moustafa’s, other Ramadan students’ expressions, when I interviewed them, suggested that they genuinely enjoy devoting themselves during the holy month.

Many Muslim students carry their prayer rugs with them throughout the month and enjoy praying in Aldrich Park.

MSU offers a daily meal in the evenings at the Phoenix Grill where students gather, pray and break their daily fast.

During this meal, which is called Iftar, a date is usually the first food consumed in breaking the daily fast.

“Ramadan is not a penitentiary month, but a month to bring yourself closer to Allah,” Moustafa said. “It is not a punishment, but a privilege.”

NewU: MSU Fast-a-thon

The NewU did this puff piece on the annual MSU charity event "Fast-a-thon" and - as can be expected - not a word on their history of anti-Semitism.

Link to article

MSU Fast-a-thon
By Madelyne Oliver

Hungry students drifted into the Bren Events Center. During the ensuing banquet, hijabs were common and casual conversation between Muslim students flowed throughout the room.

These students were breaking fast at sunset for the Ramadan, the holiest and most significant month in the Muslim calendar.

The Fast-a-thon, a month of fasting supported by monetary pledges, began officially on the morning of Sept. 23. The period of fasting will last until sunset on Oct. 25.

It is a time when all Muslims sacrifice food as a reminder to observe their faith in God and to think of those who are starving daily.

Muslims believe that for every day they fast, food is being given to another person to eat. The notion is that homeless and needy people live without food, and those who have the luxury of food take it for granted.

Rhonda Ragab, a second-year psychology and social behavior major, explained that the Fast-a-thon is also intended to promote tolerance and understanding among those who are not aware of Muslim beliefs and customs.

For Muslims, this is a time to better their relationship with God. They display their faith by giving back to the community and different charities, thus avoiding self-indulgence.

This successful event erupted as a national campaign 60 years ago, reaching universities and eventually UC Irvine, which has held the event for the last five years.

Marya Bangee, a third-year sociology and English double major and Active External Publication Relations board member of MSU, reported that an estimated 200 Muslims and 100 non-Muslims attended and participated in the Fast-a-thon banquet last year.

The Fast-a-thon will give to charity by donating the proceeds collected from pledges and donations at the banquet.

Last year, MSU made $1,500 and donated it to relief organizations aiding the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Pakistan. This year the proceeds will go to Dignity Coalition for the Homeless, which provides medical aid for homeless people in Los Angeles.

As dark purples and bright pinks sauntered across the sky at sunset, members of MSU ate a date to end the fast and then washed their hands and face, showing their thanks for food and God.

After prayer, the feast delicious foods began. Eating is permitted until the shreds of daylight return.

Sunrise breaks with the first prayer (Fajr). The next prayers are at mid-afternoon (Dhuhr), afternoon (Asr), sunset (Maghrib) and night (Isha). Prayer plays an important role in the Muslim religion.

Some who are unaware of the traditions of Ramadan might think that sunset is a time to “pig out.” This, however, is not the idea.

While most of us enjoy three meals a day, there are people in the world who starve. Muslims believe that it is the command of God to fast, and they observe this by eating only when their religion allows them to.

“Being Muslim intermixed with others—lots of stereotypes are working against you, and here at UCI we stick together,” Bangee said. “I see it as an opportunity to reach out, because we are all human.”

Even though colorful hijabs are commonplace and prayer is expected, non-Muslims need not be intimidated when participating in this tradition with MSU.

A friendly greeting of “As-Salamu Alaykum” (peace of God be upon you) may softly sound in your ear as you pop a date in your mouth. Join the conversation and remember that we are all humans who are eating for those who can’t.

For more information about the Ramadan, Fast-a-thon and the Muslim Student Union, please visit http;//msu-uci.com.

NewU: History Lesson on Churchill

Link to Article

History Lesson on Churchill
By Emilie Doolittle
Staff Writer

Historian and biographer Sir Martin Gilbert defines Churchill's role in history during his speech last week.

If the leaders of the United States could have heard Sir Martin Gilbert’s talk about Britain’s lessons regarding Winston Churchill’s forewarnings of danger, perhaps they would have been more inclined to take all threats to U.S. safety seriously.

Hypotheticals aside, what were Britain’s mistakes before World War II and how has the United States made similar mistakes in recent years?

On Sept. 28, historian and biographer Gilbert, who has written 75 books, including 12 biographies on Churchill, spoke on the years of Churchill’s life when he was unable to convince the leaders of Britain about the dangers of the Nazi regime.

Including firsthand accounts of Churchill’s life, Gilbert gave a much more detailed narrative than most historical text books. However, his speech did not stretch to connect the historical events to patterns of current affairs. His talk was simply a history lecture.

Nevertheless Gilbert mentioned difficult questions that Britain had to face during the late 1930s which are pertinent to many governments today. “How does one identify evil intentions in a government?” said Gilbert. “Does one seek an accommodation with an evil regime?”

Overall, Gilbert said that Churchill was a political outsider when Britain was in denial though they needed him as an insider. Despite Churchill’s informative speeches about the dangers lurking ahead, many political leaders at the time did not want to listen.

Would some leaders rather live in denial than have to protect themselves from every forewarned threat?

During the mid-1930s many leaders in Britain were slow to realize the threat of Hitler’s regime to their nation.

While Hitler’s power increased, so did Churchill’s disagreement with the British parliament. After the appeasement of Germany with Czechoslovakia, Churchill became upset and derided parliament leaders when he said, “Apparently you always have a disaster before anything sensible can be done to prevent it.”

British Parliament was on holiday when Hitler’s regime was growing in power.

Only 10 members of parliament supported Churchill in his view that Britain should not go on vacation and instead prepare for war with Germany.

Gilbert said that at this period Churchill turned to the front bench of Parliament and mocked them, saying, “Can I really believe that these honorable gentlemen, so full of experience, so wise and knowledgeable are saying, ‘Be gone. Run off and play. Take your gas masks with you. Don’t worry about public affairs. Leave them to us. We are gifted and experienced ministers and ... after all, we are the ones who landed us where we were left last September and at this point in time had not created any alliances against aggression’?”

According to Gilbert, “Churchill was preparing all his life for every eventuality.”

Gilbert said little about current events in his speech. However, during the question-and-answer session, he mentioned how the British Parliament debate over whether Britain should join the United States in Iraq had “a very Churchillean atmosphere.” The House of Commons was overflowing and tensions were high. Just like Churchill, many of the speakers at the debate had to speak about the hard truths they were facing.

Gilbert was introduced to the audience by history professor Douglas Haynes. Commenting on Gilbert’s speech Haynes said, “He provided a lucid chronology and provided insight into some of the political costs of a specific leader who’s out of power and yet recognizes the dangers looming.”

Humanities alumni Barry and Janet Shreiar sponsored the lecture. Referring to Gilbert’s speech, Barry said, “It makes one realize that leadership makes the hard decisions.”

Gilbert reminded the audience about what to expect from a national leader. He said that during World War II, Churchill was belittled for not knowing what he was talking about in regard to being an expert on the army. In response to his critics, Churchill said, “Of course I don’t pose as an expert on these matters, but one that judges the opinions of experts.”