Day 4 at the MSU Hate Fest at UC-Irvine

Cross-posted by Gary Fouse
fousesquawk

"I went down to the demonstration
to get my fair share of abuse"


Amir Abdel Malik Ali at UCI on a previous appearance


Today, the Muslim Student Union at UCI brought in their old stand-by, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, to light the fire at the flagpoles again. Ali makes 2-3 appearances at UCI every year, and pretty much sings the same song every time. Today's theme was no exception; Zionist Jews, Israeli oppression, George Bush is an idiot, etc. At least this time, he didn't refer to any black military officers as "poop-butt Uncle Toms".

Ali led off by issuing a disclaimer that he has nothing against Jews or the Jewish religion; it's just those damn Zionists that get under his skin-you know, any Jew living in Israel or who thinks Israel has a right to exist. Of course, he slipped up later on when he mentioned that President Obama had signalled his intentions in the Middle East when he appointed the Zionist Jew "Rahim" Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff. (At least he didn't call him Rahm Israel Emanuel this time, after I called him on it.)

Again, Ali called on the students to engage in civil disobedience and went into a confusing diatribe about how, under Bush, the Zionist lobby had pushed for legislation that would outlaw any criticism of Israel as being anti-Semitic and thus, illegal. He mentioned the fact that in many European nations, it is illegal to question or deny the Holocaust (true in Europe but not in the US). Perhaps, he was thinking of on-going efforts by Middle East interests to have the UN and the International Tribunal outlaw criticism of Islam- or the fact that some have pointed out that Jews were left out of Title VI of the US Civil Rights Act as a group to be protected from hate crimes, I don't know.) According to Ali, such legislation is still in the mill and must be resisted.

Here was my question to Ali during the Q&A:

"Do you condemn or support the attack in Mumbai several months back-especially the attack on the Chabat House?"

and...

"Will you join me in saluting the US Navy and our sailors for rescuing the American ship captain off the coast of Somalia and killing the three pirates?"

First answer: "I don't know much about the Mumbai incident, so I can't comment." (paraphrased)

As for the Somalia incident, Ali made reference to the presence of the Navy in the region, and added that he couldn't be impressed by Navy Seals killing three 15-year-old Somalis. He then launched into a long discourse about why the pirates were engaged in their activities. He talked about the incursion into their fishing waters. Then he brought up the idea that they were rebelling against toxic nuclear waste dumping off the Somali coast!!!!

(You see, these aren't really pirates, according to Ali; they are environmentalists!! Of course, he made no mention of the millions of dollars in ransom money they have collected by protecting their pristine fishing waters from big corporate polluters.)

Ali was also challenged on points by a Jewish professor from UC Riverside and a young student from Anteaters for Israel. As the professor was asking his question, one of the young MSU hotheads prodded him in a discourteous manner to hurry up. Upon the conclusion, the MSU joined hands with some radical student organization and UCI service workers as they marched to the administration building to protest some perceived injustice and chanted, "We want Drake!" (the UCI chancellor, who reportedly was out of town.)

I hope to obtain a video of my exchange with Ali, at which time, I will post it.