Report on Campus Anti-Semitism

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) and JJ (T.E.A.M. San Diego)

Jerry Sobol, writing in Arutz Sheva, describes the problem of campus anti-Semitism in the US. Not surprisingly, most of it is focused on the University of California campuses and describes specific  incidents, many of which I am familiar with.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/SendFriend.ashx?print=1&type=1&item=13468

Comment:

In the interest of full disclosure, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith are friends and colleagues, with whom I have worked on this issue. I have also had the pleasure of meeting and corresponding with Jessica Felber. They are all mentioned in the above report.

I should also mention that for the past few years, the Muslim Student Union, when they hold their anti-Israel week every May at UC Irvine, always open with a preamble, if you will, that they are not anti-Semitic just anti-Zionist. They also make it a point to bring in speakers who are anti-Israel Jews. The problem is that some of the speakers they bring in often make anti-Jewish remarks or have a previous history of anti-Semitic rhetoric.  I refer specifically to Amir Abdel Malik Ali, Abdul Alim Musa, and Mohammed al Asi, all of whom have spoken  at UCI on behalf of the MSU over the years-and in my presence.

Is there a problem of anti-Semitism on US college campuses? You bet there is. Is it being ignored or swept under the rug by university administrators and the media? You bet it is.

Russia Is Pulling Out Of Syria

By Findalis
Monkey in the Middle

And they are doing it fast.  Very fast.

You know that things are heating up in Syria when longtime ally of Bashar al-Assad's Syria is pulling their troops out of Syria.  Add to that Israel going on high alert, President Obama and his Security Council is not concerned, and one can expect the area to blow up soon.

Shortly after the DEBKA aired a special video on the Syrian war’s widening circle, Moscow announced Wednesday June 26, that the evacuation which had begun Friday of all military and diplomatic personnel from Syria was now complete, including the Russian naval base at Tartus.

“Russia decided to withdraw its personnel because of the risks from the conflict in Syria, as well as the fear of an incident involving the Russian military that could have larger consequences,” said a defense ministry official in Moscow. He stressed that a 16-ship naval task force in the eastern Mediterranean remains on post and arms shipments, including anti-air weapons, would continue to the Syrian government in keeping with former contracts.

In another sign of an impending escalation in Syria, the Israeli Golan brigade staged Wednesday an unannounced war maneuver on the Golan, attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs. In London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the government’s National Security Council into session in Downing Street on Syria. Opposition leader Ed Milliband was invited to attend the meeting, a custom observed only when issues of the highest security importance are discussed.

Earlier Wednesday, debkafile carried the following report in its special video presentation under the heading: Putin and Obama cross swords on Syrian. What Next?

The sullen confrontation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland last week condemned Syria to five months of escalating, unresolved vicious warfare – that is until the two leaders meet again in September.

For now, tempers are heating up between Washington and Moscow on Syria and other things too, notably the elusive American fugitive Edward Snowden.



Click here if the video doesn't load.

US and Israeli intelligence watchers see the Syrian crisis entering seven ominous phases:

1. The Syrian army plus allies and the fully-mobilized opposition will hurl all their manpower and weapons into winning the city.

Military experts don’t expect the rebels to hold out against Assad’s forces beyond late August.

2. Neither side has enough manpower or game-changing weaponry for winning the war outright.

That is, unless Presidents Obama or Putin steps in to retilt the balance.

3. The US and Russia are poised for more military intervention in the conflict up until a point just short of a military clash on Syrian soil – or elsewhere in the Middle East. US intelligence analysts have judged Putin ready to go all the way on Syria against the US - no holds barred.

The Russian president is meanwhile deliberately goading Washington and raising temperatures by playing hide-and-seek over the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, charged with espionage for stealing and leaking classified intelligence. At home, he is considered variously as a traitor and a brave whistleblower.

For several hours Snowden vanished between Hong Kong and Moscow – until the Russian president admitted he was holed up in the transit area of Moscow airport and would not be extradited by Russia to the United States.

4. Iran, Hizballah and Iraq will likewise ratchet up their battlefield presence.

5. A violent encounter is building up between Middle East Shiites flocking to Syria to save the Assad regime alongside Russia, and the US-backed Sunni-dominated rebel forces.

It could scuttle the secret US-Iranian negotiating track on its nuclear program, which was buoyed up by the election of the pragmatic Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran.

6. The Geneva-2 Conference for a political solution for the Syrian crisis is dead in the water. Moscow and the US are divided by unbridgeable issues of principle, such whether Bashar Assad should stay or go and Iranian representation.

7. So long as the diplomatic remains stuck in the mud, the prospects of a regional war spreading out of the Syrian conflict are rising. Iran, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon may be dragged in at any moment – if they have not already, like Lebanon.

A small mistake by one of the Syrian warring parties in Syria could, for example, touch off Israeli retaliation and a wholesale spillover of violence.

Source

What we are seeing is the product of President Barack Hussein Obama's foreign policy of leading from behind.  Behind truly is.  As we are getting the shaft right up our Ass.

More Beheadings in Syria-Why We Should Stay Out

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Atlas Shrugs and Live Leak

Viewer warning

Another day in Syria; another day of beheadings. The al Qaeda-connected group carrying out this gruesome act is reportedly one of those groups we will be providing arms to -or at least knives.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d38_1372192265

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/

According to Atlas Shrugs, there are Russian voices in that tape, apparently with accents indicating they come from Chechnia or Daghestan. Remember the Brothers Tsarnaev? They got into our country and are not only now known as the Boston bombers, but are suspects in an earlier murder of three Jews in Boston, whose throats were slashed.

And note the presence in the video of so many children. They are the next generation. Are we going to bring them to the US as "refugees" also? How many Americans will die in that cause?

Once again, I ask the question: What if these three men seen in the video were American troops-your son. your husband, your father, your brother? Would you still want us to send troops into that region? Granted, Bashar Assad is a horrible dictator and his troops have killed tens of thousands of innocents in Syria. So how many American soldiers are you willing to lose in this fashion to get rid of Assad?

"Oh", but you say, "those fighters wouldn't do that to us. They are on our side."

So were the killers in Benghazi, we thought.

A Million Muslim March on 9-11-13?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


The American Muslim Political Action Committee is planning a Million Muslim March on Washington DC on September 11 to demand an end to discrimination against Muslims in America.

Or something like that. here is their announcement:

http://ampacus.webs.com/

"It is time for us as Muslims in America to stop being defensive and start being proactive by using our right to vote and our freedom of assemble and let our voices be heard by our country and the world. Stand with us help us fight the injustices being committed against us." 

How dare they?

How dare they use this day in American history to rub our noses in what 19 Muslims did in the name of Islam? Where is any sense of humility? Where is any sense of solidarity with America and the victims of 9-11? Instead they demand the government release the 9-11 Commission Report to the American people??!!

"We are demanding that laws be enacted protecting our 1st amendment . We are asking President Obama to fulfill his promise from his first campaign for Presidency of a transparent government. Lastly we are asking for the release of the 9/11 commission report to the American people." 

You mean the one I have sitting on my bookshelf? I guess AMPAC can borrow mine.

And what about their First Amendment rights? Seems to me they have exercised it plenty including mosques preaching hatred toward the West and non-Muslims. People like Abdul Alim Musa, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, Siraj Wahhaj, and Mohammed al Asi have had no problem whatsoever spewing their hatred publicly.

Moreover I seriously doubt there will be anything close to one million Muslims taking part in this outrage. Oh, to be sure, CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MPAC and MAS types will the there as will the radical imams. Louis Farrakhan will be there, as will probably the new Black Panther Party, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, the ACLU and all the other radical, America-hating left-wing types that march in sympathy with extremist Islamists.

But they will not get one million ordinary American Muslims to Washington to take part in this travesty. If they do, we have a bigger problem than I ever imagined.

What I propose on September 11 is a million man Coptic Christian march to protest and ask our government to speak out about the plight of their brethren in the Middle East. How about a million-Jew march to protest the anti-Semitism playing out every day in the Middle East and Europe? How about a million Baha'i march to protest the inhuman treatment of Baha'i in Iran? How about a million gay march to speak out about the inhuman treatment of gays in Muslim countries?

Instead this.

Were I an American Muslim, I would think this is a bad idea which can only heighten the feelings of suspicion and distrust toward Muslims.

Italy's "Martyr" in Syria

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Vlad Tepes



An Italian convert to Islam, 20-year-old Giuliano Ibrahim Delnevo of Genoa, has died in Syria fighting on the side of the rebels. The Italian media is treating him with great sympathy.





This foolish young man tells his government to get out of Afghanistan. Fair enough, but what was he doing in Syria? Euronews reports he was under investigation in Italy for terrorist recruiting at the time of his death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2vyIrJNt6I

Open Letter to UC Regents Re: Sadia Saifuddin Nomination

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Recently, I posted news about the nomination of Sadia Saifuddin of UC Berkeley to serve as student regent on the University of California Regents-a questionable choice given her campus activism with the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine. Today, David Horowitz and Jeff Wiener of the David Horowitz Freedom Center are posting an open letter to the Regents to reconsider this nomination. You can add your name to the letter below. I have and I hope you will as well.


http://frontpagemag.com/2013/david-horowitz-and-jeffrey-wienir/open-letter-to-the-uc-regents/

Sexual Grooming in Scotland

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Vlad Tepes and The Express



If you are not familiar with the term, "sexual grooming", ask anyone from the UK. It involves adult men befriending young British girls, often runaways, getting them hooked on drugs, and using them for sex within their own circle of friends and prostitution. It is an epidemic in the UK as previously reported here.


Now we have a report from Scotland on this problem. Two new cases have been broken.


http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/407931/Scots-police-smash-two-large-paedophile-rings


"There are groups of foreign nationals involved in this and maybe respect for women isn’t seen as being a high priority in their country of origin."

-A police source

No sh**, Sherlock.

"Mr Graham said: “In two large scale CSE investigations in Scotland a significant proportion of the identified perpetrators were from ethnic minority communities. It is not possible to draw conclusions from this relatively small dataset and more accurate data and wider research is required."

Wow. Maybe they should combine the Scottish data with that of England and the rest of the UK. Maybe then, they can put two andf two together and come up with four.

Not mentioned, for obvious reasons, is the national origin of the perps. That would leave the uninformed reader to wonder if they are Canadians, Americans, Danes, Aussies, Bolivians, Koreans or who knows who.

To be sure, there is more than one national origin involved. How about Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Arab, or African? Naturally, there are plenty of civilized people from those countries and regions who don't engage in child sexual exploitation. That includes Muslims.

But let me state what Mr Graham would not or could not state because I am here in America and don't have to worry about being prosecuted for "inciting hate" against some particular group (at least not yet). The epidemic in Great Britain involves Muslim men who are so radical and hateful in their beliefs, that they think it is their right to use non-Muslim girls as they please. After all, non-Muslim women are nothing but whores to begin with in their way of thinking.

I am not suggesting that all Muslims in the UK are involved and hasten to add that this problem does not exist here in the US. But why is it hateful to speak out against a group-or sub group- if you will, that is engaged in such awful practice-due to their own hate toward the country, the culture, and the people where they have chosen to settle?

If the situation were reversed and native white British men were doing this to young Muslim girls, there would be an outcry across the world and names would be named. I would be right out front with it as well. Why is it that Europeans and politically-correct North Americans as well cannot name the names and specify the problem that our own citizens are facing?

Well, we all know the answer to that, don't we? More riots and acts of terror directed at us, right? But, if a threat exists, our leaders have a duty to inform the public. In that, they are failing.

So our media, police and political leaders keep us in the dark, whether it be child sexual grooming in the UK, riots in other European streets by "young people", attacks against European Jews, or murderous attacks in Southern California by men with Middle Eastern names, where no motive can be given (just this year in Orange County, Santa Monica, and Los Angeles). And you wonder why the blogosphere is supplanting our media?

That's my two cents worth. Of course, I fully expect this posting to wind up in the files of Professor Hatem Bazian's Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project up there at UC Berkeley.

Make sure you spell my name right, Hatem.

Another Embarrassmenr for University of California

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com




"One person's hate speech is another person's education"


The University of California took another step in the wrong direction when they nominated the below-linked individual to serve as student regent. Robert Spencer has the below op-ed in Frontpage Magazine.


http://frontpagemag.com/2013/robert-spencer/islamic-supremacist-nominated-as-uc-student-regent/


As a part-time teacher at UC Irvine for the past 15 years, my take is that Muslim students are not the targets of anything on campus. The MSU at UCI as well as the various MSAs and their allies, Students for Justice in Palestine, have created all the tension that exists at various times on UC campuses with their anti-Israel weeks of events that feature radical speakers and attempts to prevent videotaping by others, as well as documented acts of physical and verbal intimidation of Jewish students. For years, the UC system has shoved this under the rug and refused to deal with it. The biggest problem of hate on our campuses is anti-Semitism pure and simple. The attack on Tammi Rossman- Benjamin at UC Santa Cruz (America's Wackiest Universoity) is just the latest symptom.

One of the reasons that so many UC campuses are passing Boycott, Divest and Sanction resolutions against companies that do business with Israel and resolutions condemning Rossman-Benjamin is that MSA/SJP members are becoming prevalent in the various student governments; thus, the student governments' time and energy is consumed with these anti-Israel issues. Don't they have better issues to worry about?

Now comes this nomination. What kind of message does that send to the Jewish students in the University of California? It is not that the young lady is a Muslim. It is because she is such an activist in the above issues and her involvement in these controversies that is cause for concern.

Arm Syrian Rebels? Bring Syrians to US?

Hat tip Atlas Shrugs

Warning: Graphic images


The next time one of your friends advocates sending arms to those Syrian rebels, you might want to show them this article from Atlas Shrugs. You might be contributing to scenes like this, in which a 15-year-old boy was publicly executed by rebels  in front of a large crowd that included his parents:

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/06/obama-backed-syrian-jihadists-publicly-execute-15-year-old-boy-for-blasphemy.html

In the below article from Israel National News, you can see how the rebels treat their prisoners of war.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/rebels-post-grisly-execution-video/

Or here (Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/11/30/video-said-to-show-syrian-rebel-executing-unarmed-prisoners/

Here's one from Al Jazeera, which "shows the need for a unified central command".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6Gcf0cnBds

EUTimes has this contribution to our awareness:

http://www.eutimes.net/2012/08/syrian-rebels-execute-prisoners-of-war/

There are so many more-not to mention the atrocities carried out by Assad's government troops.

This is Syria. You want to send ammo and arms to these guys so they can carry out more of these acts? Or perhaps send in the Marines to "stabilize" the region? The prisoners you see above could be our sons and daughters in uniform.

And Obama also wants to bring these people to the US-should they fail to overthrow Assad. Do you really want to see these guys running around the US-many of whom are al Qaeda types?

No thanks. We learned our lesson in Libya.

Didn't we?

The Resurgence of National Pride and the Future of Europe

Stolen From Gates of Vienna

Below is the text of the speech given by Geert Wilders in Los Angeles today.

Speech by Geert Wilders
Los Angeles, June 9, 2013

Dear friends, thank you for inviting me to Los Angeles. I always like coming to the United States. There are many things that I admire Americans for. One of them is that they are unashamedly patriotic.

The American Freedom Association has asked me to speak to you about the future of Europe.

Europe is in a terrible state. Bit by bit, European countries are losing their national sovereignty. The economy is in shambles. Islamic immigrants riot and terrorize the many locals. And when people’s throats are slit in the streets, while the murderers shout “Allahu Akbar,” the authorities appease the killers and declare that Islam has nothing to do with it.

Europeans feel that the gap between them en those who rule them is growing. Many no longer feel represented by their politicians. There is a complete disconnect between the people that truly rule Europe and the people that live in it.

The blame lies to a large extent with the European Union and the weak leadership within the European countries which have signed away their national sovereignty. The EU cannot be compared to the United States. Europe is a continent of many different nations with their own identities, traditions and languages. The EU is a supranational organization, but its leaders aim to turn it into a state. To this end they are destroying the wealth, identity and freedoms of the existing nation-states of Europe.

Before I elaborate, let us take a closer look at the terrible mistake that Europe made.

Following the Second World War, Europe’s leaders mistakenly thought that patriotism was the cause of the war.

All over Europe, not just in Germany, but everywhere, they equated the defense of national identity with extremism.

Politicians told the electorate that the nation state was dangerous.

On the rooftops of Europe’s parliaments and official buildings, they flew the EU flag next to the national flag, as if the nation is nothing but a province of a Pan-European empire.

On the number plates of European cars, they put the EU flag instead of the national flag, thereby forcing people to drive around with the symbol of their subjection.

They signed away their national interests for the goal of so-called Europeanization.

Such policies could never have been possible if the ruling elite had not fallen for the ideology of cultural and moral relativism. Patriotism, which is a virtue, came to be seen as a vice.

Today, the citizens of Europe are reaping the bitter harvest of this arrogance, this refusal to stand by the ancient nations of Europe, the mothers of modern democracy, the guardians of our liberty.

• The EU stands for everything that is wrong in Europe.
• It is a gigantic undemocratic transnational monster.
• It issues legislation permeated with cultural relativism.
• It meddles in the everyday lives of millions of people.
• It has opened Europe’s borders to uncontrolled mass immigration, mostly from Islamic countries.
• And it has deprived Europe’s parliaments of a huge amount of their legislative powers.

The Santa Monica Shootings: The Public Should Know the Motive

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com




John Zawahri

At this point, we know that the Santa Monica shooter was 24-year-old John Zawahri. We know that he killed his father and his brother before setting their house on fire. He then went on a rampage and killed three other innocent people before he was shot dead at Santa Monica College. It has been revealed that he came from a broken family and  had anger issues. It has also been disclosed that he was armed with a combat uniform and some 1300 rounds of ammunition. His acts were clearly pre-mediated.

Here is what has not yet been revealed.

The family was clearly of Arabic origin though it is believed that John was American-born. That raises the obvious question: Was John a Muslim, and was this an act of violent jihad?  The authorities and the media have not commented, which in itself, raises eyebrows.

According to a comment on The Spirit of Truth, it was said by one who claimed to know the family that they were Orthodox Christian. If true, that would remove the idea of Islamic jihad. Yet, that has not been confirmed by the media to this point, which you would think they would be quick to do. The names themselves only create more confusion. The family names are Muslim, but John (and his brother, Chris-also a victim)-are Christian names.

So why the attention to the religion of the shooter? It comes down to this: If, in fact, Zawahri was a Muslim, then we must identify the motive beyond his alleged anger issues and family strife. If jihad had any role in this, then the public has a right to know the risks they face as they are driving down Pico Blvd in Santa Monica or walking to class at Santa Monica College.

In February of this year, Orange County was subjected to a shooting and killing spree by a young man named Syed Ali, who wound up killing himself when confronted by police. To this day, the last thing we have learned is that he had left a suicide note on his computer that revealed that his acts were pre-meditated. To my knowledge, the authorities have not revealed to us what exactly Ali's motivation was.

I realize that for decent and peaceful Muslims in the US, this is yet another painful episode that may lead to further negative feelings about Muslims in general, which is unfortunate. However, the public has every right to know what the true motivation behind both of these horrific acts was. We cannot access the risk if the authorities and the media will not report the facts out of political correctness.

If it turns out that Islam had nothing to do with this, I will happily report that immediately. I am confident that the police and the media will figure that out quickly. Like the case in Orange County, however, the longer time passes without any update on that point, the more suspicious I will be.

Has the Corruption in Washington Rached Critical Mass?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


If President Obama has lost the New York Times, it could be that the ship is really sinking. Here is the NYT editorial board in the wake of the NSA phone records news:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?_r=1

"The administration has lost all credibility"

*Update: That sentence has been changed to read, "The administration has lost all credibility on this issue."

Welcome to the world, New York Times. Where the Hell have you been? I mean Operation Fast and Furious escaped your notice as well as Eric Holder's lies under oath about that scandal. Benghazi and all the attendant lies escaped your notice as well.

But I stand corrected; The Times meant only on this issue.

Of course, today, Obama explained it all and assured us there is nothing to worry about. What a contrast from candidate Obama in 2007 when he promised his audience that none of this would happen in his administration. (Hat tip Liberty Blitzkrieg)

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2013/06/07/flashback-to-2007-obamas-speech-on-warrantless-wiretapping/

So now we have the NSA getting the communication records of every single Verizon customer. And it's not just Verizon, Folks. The revelations keep on coming.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/07/intelligence-officials-reportedly-mining-data-from-us-internet-companies/

And poor old James Clapper. He needs Google to get his information.

I understand that many conservatives are defending the NSA actions. Mike Rogers, a Republican who sits on the House intelligence committee is defending it and saying it has already thwarted a terror attack. This morning, radio talk show host Dennis Prager was also defending it as necessary to fight terrorism. These methods are way beyond what I was familiar with as a DEA agent who retired in the 1990s. Telephone toll records on drug traffickers and even wiretaps were part of the effort. Gathering data on every American in order to find some trend or something that leaps out at you as terrorism is way above my expertise. So I have questions: Is it necessary for the government to know all of my communications and what I do on the Internet in order to pick out the bad guys?

Perhaps.

Is this really the goal? If it is and it works, I will go along. Maybe President Obama has learned what candidate Obama did not know; that there are technological resources out there that can prevent a terror act even though they put private information on virtually all Americans in the government's files. Certainly, our government would never use this in the wrong ways. They would never use it to target political opponents.

Would they?

The IRS sure did.

Then there was this comment by none other than Maxine Waters last year during the campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/eIA1lQBqH1s



So is it legitimate to question what the Obama administration is doing here?

Amid all this we have the EPA using drones to fly over farms to enforce the Clean Water Act. This is the department run by Lisa Jackson, aka Richard Windsor, who had his/her separate e-mail account and was awarded three awards for Ethics in Government.

Besides that, we have Holder's Justice Department going after the communications of the AP journalists as well as Fox's James Rosen, whom they identified as a "possible criminal co-conspirator" complete with Eric Holder's signature (but Holder says he had no knowledge of anything like that). We have the IRS targeting conservative groups and spending tons of money on conferences with line dances and artists paid to paint portraits of Bono, a high-ranking official who takes the 5th, and another who was overseeing the targeting of Tea Party groups, who did such a good job, she got hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonus payments and was promoted to oversee IRS's involvement in enforcing ObamaCare. Oh, did you know that the IRS paid out $133,000 to private event planners to arrange those conferences? I have news for you. When I was in DEA, I had the occasion to be assigned to organize a few conferences myself. That happened several times when I was in DEA's International Training Division my last two years before retirement. I arranged similar events in Washington, Kiev, and Guatemala. That meant I secured the hotel where people stayed, conference rooms, interpreters, speakers, meals, and everything else needed. I didn't have the luxury of hiring an event planner. We were expected to do that ourselves. We were expected to get the best rate available from the hotels, whereas the event planners go after the highest rates they can find so they get a bigger commission.

Event planners. Gimme a break!

It comes down to this: Given all of the scandals going on in this administration, where high-ranking officials are committing perjury or taking the 5th, do you trust this bunch to protect the rights of the rest of us while supposedly trying to find the bad guys who want to do us harm?

I guess they could try profiling.

Scholarship at Work at Berkeley: Hatem Bazian

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com







Hatem Bazian


Hatem Bazian is a professor at UC Berkeley who has sullied the pages of this otherwise noble blog on many occasions. Even at a place like Berkeley, this character stands out. As previously noted, he is a two-trick pony who is involved in bashing the state of Israel and whining about all the Islamophobia he perceives all around him. He is also a co-founder of something called the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project at UCB. He apparently has also coined a phrase called "Sudden Ignorance Syndrome", which should appear prominently on his curricula vitae. As previously reported here, he has spoken often at UC Irvine, where I teach part-time, during the annual anti-Israel events every May sponsored by the Muslim Student Union.

In the wake of the Boston bombing, Bazian is hard at work producing "scholarly" documents like the one below complaining about the "backlash" against Muslims (which basically consists of a couple of Bostonians allegedly shouting curses at some Muslim lady in the days after April 15.)

http://www.hatembazian.com/boston-article.html


As to the rush to blame Muslims for the bombing, I myself held off speculating until the Brothers Tsarnaev were identified as the suspects. In addition, most of the mainstream media were speculating that it might have been the work of right-wing white militia or tax protesters since it occurred on April 15. I am thinking specifically of CNN's Wolf Blitzer and the mad hatters at MSNBC. They were dead wrong. If anyone else speculated it was Muslims, they turned out to be correct.

I also note that Bazian quotes that unimpeachable source, Media Matters for America ("a non-profit research group dedicated to debunking conservative falsehoods in the media" ), which is a notoriously biased source and little more than an arm of the Democratic Party even though they enjoy tax-exempt status. The reference to Media Matters is in connection with a statement made by Frank Gaffney on April 20, by which time, we knew the bombers' identities.

Bazian then goes into a scholarly discussion of "Sudden Ignorance Syndrome", an affliction suffered by racist whites toward Muslims in general. He refers to Daniel Pipes (a Bush appointee" no less), Sudden Jihad Syndrome, and wild connections between Muslims and terrorism as he approaches his dramatic introduction of Sudden Ignorance Syndrome which has something to do with white American racism and connecting Muslims to terrorism though I have never heard any serious person claim that all Muslims are terrorists or even most of them. In fact, with rare exceptions, Americans have acted very fairly and responsibly in not blaming innocent Muslims for 9-11, the Boston bombing, or any other act. To be sure, there is anger and mistrust out there. I see it in print every day, but how many American Muslims have been murdered because of their faith since, say, 9-11? I am aware that a Sikh man was shot and killed in the days after 9-11 and the killer thought he was Muslim. We have the attack on the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, but it has not been established that the killer thought they were Muslims-only speculated. There was also a case a few months ago back East, where a mentally-deranged woman pushed an Indian man in front of a subway train and said she didn't like Sikhs and Muslims. Have there been any other cases of a Muslim being murdered in America by a non-Muslim because of their faith? We thought we had one in El Cajon, California a year or so ago, but that turned out to be charged to her husband. (He is still waiting trial.)

As to insults, assaults or vandalizing mosques, I have spoken out against those when reported and charges filed.

But you know what Dr Bazian doesn't mention in his scholarly work on hate? He says nothing about the on-going persecution of Christians and other religious minorities from one Islamic nation to another from Egypt to Indonesia to Pakistan to Sudan to Iran to Syria to Iraq--shall I continue?

Keep in mind that Bazian himself has been accused of being intolerant towards Jews. He has been accused of telling a university crowd at Berkeley to look around and note how many buildings had Jewish names on them. He has been accused of saying the San Francisco State University campus paper had "Jewish spies" (Bazian was a student there at the time.)  He has been accused of quoting that fuzzy little hadith about the Final Day when the Jews will hide behind the trees and rocks, which in turn will call out to the Muslim, "Oh Muslim. There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him." He has been accused of calling for an intifada in the US.

In May of 2010 at UC Irvine, I confronted him with those quotes (minus the one about the campus paper)  and asked if they were accurate. You can read about that exchange here.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2010/05/hatem-bazian-at-uc-irvine.html

Here are some other sources for the reported statements attributed to Bazian.


http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2173

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/9732

http://www.fighthatred.com/profiles-in-hate/academics/916-hatem-bazian-co-founder-of-the-violently-anti-semiticanti-israel-group-called-students-for-justice-in-palestine-sjp-at-the-university-of-california-berkeley-in-2001

But let us return to this scholarly piece by Bazian: I allude to where Dr Bazian attempts to insert some 

scholarly language into this screed:

"The Bad Muslim is anyone that continues to have an expressed attachment to his/her religion and applies it as 

an epistemic basis for their life and engagement in the world. For sure the Sudden Ignorance Syndrome is only 

capable of binary level and dimwitted analysis, which in actuality is a self-constructed binary shaped in a mirrored 

mental vacuum and obfuscated for the quick media cycle to appear as if it is an authentically self-constituted and a 

diversely engaged counterpart."

(Don't ask me. I only have a masters degree.)

From there, Bazian goes on to the usual historical  litany of grievances against anything that is Western or white. He even dredges up the Vietnam war.

At the end, however, is where Bazian suddenly reveals his own ignorance syndrome when it comes to free speech (pun intended).

"The Sudden Ignorance Syndrome is real and one can’t escape it or those affected by it, since they

 pollute the airwaves around the clock and are sitting ready for a phone call to jump into action.

What is needed from civil society is to reclaim the airwaves and to demand that, publicly owned

and governmentally regulated through the FCC as they are, they should not be used to spread racism, 

bigotry and Islamophobia. In reality, we must explore ways to engage in a systematic legal challenge to the 

ability of racists to use public resources in order to spread their brand of  bigotry, since we all collectively 

own the airwaves and rent them to media outlets and companieson the understanding that they are to be 

utilized for the general good. Racism should be defined as the process of disrupting human potential and it 

should have no place on a publicly owned resource."

Translation? Bazian is obviously on board with that Defamation of Religions resolution that the Organization 

of Islamic Cooperation is trying to push through the UN that would call on member nations to criminalize any 

expression critical of Islam.

First of all, our public air waves are not being used to spread hate, bigotry, or Islamophobia, whatever 

Bazian's definition of Islamophobia is. Granted, the blogosphere has the entire range of sites from those 

who hate all Muslims (and others) to sites that support and promote Islamic terrorism itself.

What he is really referring to is certain writers or commentators holding an honest and frank discussion

about terrorism, hate toward other religions, and whether Islam itself is or is not a factor. This is a topic of 

international interest and paramount importance that affects our freedom and our very lives.  Sorry, Professor, 

but given the world situation, such a discussion is legitimate, and we have something in this country 

called a First Amendment. In addition, before you and your allies accuse everyone of holding negative 

opinions about Muslims and hatred, you should pay more attention to cleaning up your own back yard.

You could start by researching into the names of others who have spoken at that same podium 

as you during the Muslim Student Union anti-Israel  extravaganzas every May at UC Irvine through the years.

Amir Abdel Malik Ali

Mohammed al Asi

Abdul Alim Musa

....and so many others.

File that in the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project files.

You Never Know Who's Packing!

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

From Bob (With Thanks)

"Pistol Packing MAMA MIA!"

And if LOOKS could kill, she wouldn't need a gun ... or a knife, or a sword, or a grenade, or a harpoon, or a flame thrower, or some poison, or an atomic bomb, or even Cloverleaf Food, ...

If Eleanor Roosevelt can have a gun, shouldn't we all be able to have a gun?

BTW:  Even then official pictures looked terrible!