Seeks to "develop activism of Muslims on campus and in the community"
Maintains close ties to professors Hamid Algar and Hatem Bazian
Claims that jihad "really does not mean killing innocent people, it does not mean killing people in any way"
Has a history of hostility toward campus speakers who attempt to expose the historically violent manifestations of jihad or the dangers of radical Islam
The Muslim Students Association of UC Berkeley (MSA UCB) is one of the more than 150 affiliated campus chapters of the national Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada. MSA UCB states that it was established "primarily to bring together Muslims of diverse backgrounds and cultures under one unified, organized, proactive community." The organization's current mission is to "remain inclusive of those who wish to understand, appreciate, and practice their Islam without compromising their morals and beliefs"; to educate non-Muslims "about the misconceptions regarding Islam and the Islamic way of life"; to "foste[r] a social community for Muslims"; and to "encourage both Muslims and non-Muslims to evolve intellectually, physically, and spiritually during their tenure at UC Berkeley …"
But MSA UCB's interests extend well beyond issues related to education and personal growth. The organization strongly encourages its members to become activists for various social and political causes important to the Muslim community. Its constitution explicitly states that one of its chief objectives is to "develop activism of Muslims on campus and in the community."
MSA UCB holds two of Berkeley's Muslim faculty members -- Hamid Algar and Hatem Bazian -- in the highest esteem, and its website makes special mention of both. Algar in particular works closely with the organization. In his 2000 publication, Wahhabism: A Critical Essay, he acknowledges MSA's ties to radical Islam:
"Some Muslim student organizations have… functioned at times as Saudi-supported channels for the propagation of Wahhabism abroad, especially in the United States. The Muslim Student Association of the U.S. and Canada was established in 1963, one year after the Muslim World League [MWL] with which it had close links. Particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, no criticism of Saudi Arabia would be tolerated at the annual conventions of the MSA … Its numerous local chapters would make available at every Friday prayer large stacks of the [MWL]'s publications, in both English and Arabic … Although the MSA progressively diversified its connections with Arab states, official approval of Wahhabism remained strong."
Algar further notes that in 1980, MSA UCB published a translation of writings by Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the 18th century founder of Wahhabism, which went on to become the dominant state sect in Saudi Arabia.
Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz writes: "… Algar points out 'it might appear at first sight puzzling that students pursuing a higher education should be attracted to a Wahhabi reading of Islam… they found in Wahhabism a 'rationalized' Islam, stripped of the niceties and ambiguities of juristic reasoning, the complexities of theology, and the subtleties of Sufism' [Islamic spirituality]. He [Algar] calls attention to MSA's role in the creation of the Islamic Society of North America, which is best described as a branch of the Saudi religious militia operating to impose Wahhabi conformity on all of American Islam."
On October 23, 2001 (some six weeks after 9/11), MSA UCB held a workshop (run by Hatem Bazian) to explain the meaning of the term "jihad." The organization's Vice President, Mohammad Naaman, lamented that the media were, for the most part, defining the term inaccurately. "It really does not mean killing innocent people, it does not mean killing people in any way," he said.
MSA UCB has a history of hostility toward campus speakers who attempt to expose the historically violent manifestations of jihad or the dangers of radical Islam. For example, the Israel Action Committee and Berkeley Hillel jointly invited renowned Islam scholar (and critic of radical Islam) Daniel Pipes to address the Berkeley student body on February 10, 2004. Prior to Dr. Pipes' appearance, MSA UCB posted an announcement on the leftist website SFIndyMedia.org, stating that a "Zionist" was coming to Berkeley, and exhorting MSA members to join forces and disrupt Pipes' lecture.
On the day of Pipes' speech to an audience of approximately 700 Berkeley students, some 50 to 70 members of MSA UCB teamed up with the Berkeley chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine in an effort to silence Pipes. In direct violation of signs posted outside the lecture hall stating that no banners, shouting, or other forms of disruption would be permitted during the speech, these students sat in a block and booed loudly, shouted derogatory slogans at Pipes, and repeatedly called him a "racist" and a "Zionist."
The website ChronWatch.com reported the following:
When Pipes brought up the need to support moderate Muslims over those who subscribe to militant Islam, they booed.
When he brought up the need to improve the status of women in Islamic countries, they booed.
When he warned that peace in the Middle East would never be achieved as long as the Palestinians continued to subscribe to a 'cult of death,' they booed.
When he mentioned Middle East Studies professors who have been arrested under terrorism charges, they booed.
When he discussed the need to combat Islamic terrorism, they booed.
When he referred to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks as subscribers to militant Islam, they booed and shouted "Zionism" -- no doubt a reference to the myth that Jews were behind the attacks.
When Pipes brought up CampusWatch.org, the website he founded to provide a voice for students feeling oppressed by their leftist professors, they shouted out "McCarthyism" and of course 'racist' yet again.
And when he mentioned Iraqis' "liberation" from Saddam Hussein's tyranny, they booed even louder.
Some of the hecklers were so disruptive, that university police had to eject them from the auditorium. When the question-and-answer period commenced, the remaining MSA UCB students all stood up and walked out of the lecture hall together, again shouting "racist" and "Zionist."
Also in February 2004, MSA UCB hosted the sixth annual MSA West Conference. The featured speaker for this event was the notoriously anti-Semitic Abdel Malik-Ali, who angrily denounced "the Zionist Jews" and asserted that "neo-cons are all Zionist Jews." After reading aloud a newspaper article about Jewish leaders who feared that the Iraq War might lead to an anti-Semitic backlash, he said: "Let the backlash begin."
During the week of October 22-26, 2007, the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW) activities -- whose aim was to educate students about the grave threat that radical Islam posed to the world -- were held at Berkeley and 113 other college campuses across the United States. Derisively characterizing this event as "Islamo-Fascist Week," MSA UCB organized a competing week of events titled "Peace Not Prejudice Week," whose mission was "to foster the ideals of peace, diversity, and unity within the student body of our esteemed educational institution" -- the implication being that IFAW sought to promote conflict, discrimination, and disunity. "Islamo-Fascist Week represents ignorance and indirect oppression of American Muslims," said MSA UCB member Saman Khalid. "It's against Islam ... It's offensive not just to Muslim students but to everybody. They are trying to inform moderate Muslims about radical Muslims. It's ludicrous. I don't think you need to inform Jews about Nazis, or Blacks about Jim Crow."
"Peace Not Prejudice Week" opened with a screening and discussion of the film Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, which depicted American military personnel as barbarians eager to brutalize defenseless Muslims for sport. Film reviewer Sam Graham writes that the film examines: (a) "[w]hat was perhaps the most disgraceful episode in U.S. military history," where "U.S soldiers abused and mistreated -- some would say tortured -- Iraqi detainees"; and (b) "acts [that] were atrocious and unforgivable … violations of the Geneva Conventions, particularly the ones that prohibit torture." Graham adds that "while the military brass and government bureaucrats were content to blame 'a few bad soldiers' … the suggestion [in this film] is that what went on at Abu Ghraib was less an aberration than a manifestation of defined government policy."
By showing this film, MSA UCB conveyed a clear message: The real threat to humanity was not Islamofascism, but America's egregious disregard for human rights.
Meanwhile, IFAW events at Berkeley proceeded as scheduled. The featured speaker was Nonie Darwish, the Palestinian-born author of Now they Call Me Infidel; Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror. Darwish (who was raised in a traditional Muslim home in Gaza, where she was taught that she should hate Jews and Christians) told the audience about the negative elements of Islam -- most notably its degradation of women -- that led her to renounce the faith and become a Christian. MSA USB members repeatedly interrupted her speech. Hecklers called her a "racist" and a "fascist." One shouted: "Osama bin Laden is a CIA agent."At some points, the disruption was so loud that Darwish could not speak. Campus police had to remove a number of the more unruly protesters from the auditorium.
Since Monday, February 14, 2005 --Hits: 135,880,183 --Visitors: 21,271,131
