In November 2001, MSA UP sponsored a talk -- titled "Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad: Prophets with a Common Message" -- delivered by Shaikh Ibrahim Memon, a Buffalo, New York-based imam affiliated with a secretive Islamic training facility (in Buffalo) that is believed to be owned by the Islamic Society of North America. According to a Buffalo Common Council Member who is suspicious about the agendas and activities of Memon's group: "I have sources -- inside sources. These people at best are armed and dangerous. They are doing paramilitary training there…. I've been warned by my sources, one of whom was actually a member of the group and he said they were holding paramilitary exercises there and that he fears he is in danger of his very life."
In early October 2003, MSA UP's annual "Islam Awareness Week" was keynoted by William W. Baker, founder/director of Christians and Muslims for Peace and a former chairman of the Populist Party. The Populist Party was an initiative of Willis Carto, a neo-Nazi figure who founded the Institute for Historical Review (a group devoted to Holocaust denial) and published America's foremost anti-Semitic newspaper, The SPOTLIGHT (now reorganized as the American Free Press).
Baker had made headlines in 2002 when he was fired by the Reverend Robert Schuller of Crystal Cathedral Ministries, following an Orange County Weekly exposé of Baker's ties to neo-Nazism and his anti-Semitic writings. For example, his self-published 1982 book, Theft of a Nation, called for the dismantling of the "Zionist State." In a 1983 speech to the Christian Patriot Defense League in Missouri, Baker referred to the Reverend Jerry Falwell as "Jerry Jewry" (for his friendliness to Jews), and expressed his contempt for the "pushy, belligerent American Jews" of New York City. Baker's 1998 book, More in Common Than You Think, claims to map "the common ground between Islam and Christianity" and was promoted by the Islamic Society of North America. Islam expert Stephen Schwartz described the book as being "intended to bring together fringe Christians and extremist Muslims."
In his October 2003 address to MSA UP, Baker said, "Terror, murder -- that's not what Islam teaches.… It wasn't Muslims crashing into the World Trade Center; it was haters and extremists." In an obvious reference to Jews, he said: "Non-Christians and non-Muslims are fomenting hatred for political purposes." He condemned pro-Israel Christian preachers Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham for having criticized Muslims and the prophet Muhammad. And he referred to the Temple Mount as "the third holiest site in Islam" -- entirely omitting any mention of its Jewish importance.
When Daily Pennsylvanian reporter Margherita Ghiselli asked MSA UP President Muhammad Mekki about Baker's neo-Nazi connections, Mekki replied that "the speaker's alleged anti-Semitic position" was "irrelevant to the discussion." "There can be misunderstandings," he added, "but criticism must be raised in a civilized manner."
In September 2005, MSA UP provided a forum for the British journalist and Muslim convert Yvonne Ridley, who supports the elimination of Israel and has expressed her admiration for some notable Muslim terrorists, to address U Penn students on the topic of Islam.
MSA UP has participated several times in MSA National's "Ramadan Fast-a-Thon" along with as many as 280 fellow chapters of MSA. The purpose of this event is to raise, through temporary fasting, public awareness of hunger and homelessness in Muslim communities. Recent endorsers of the Fast-a-Thon include:
Imam Zaid Shakir, Yale University's former Muslim chaplain who has expressed his desire to see the United States eventually become "a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law"
In 2007, MSA UP held its yearly "Islam Awareness Week" from October 21-27, to coincide directly with the Terrorism Awareness Project's Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW) activities. MSA UP falsely depicted IFAW, whose purpose was to educate American college students about the nature of the fanatical religious movement aiming to create a global Muslim empire, as an exercise in anti-Muslim bigotry.
MSA UP's Islam Awareness Week events included such presentations as:
Islamic Comedy Night -- "Allah Made Me Funny": According to MSA UP's promotional literature, comedian Azhar Usman sought "to engage the audience and address issues and stereotypes pertaining to Islam through a stand-up comedy skit."
Jihad, Terrorism and Reconciling Muslim Identity in the West: MSA UP explained that this forum would "discuss the issue of a collective Islamic identity, and the need for adaptation to the misconceptions about Jihad and Terrorism in Islam, with contrast to Western Society." The objective was to characterize jihad as chiefly an internal, spiritual battle that Muslims wage against their own unholy inclinations. (But Islam experts such as Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Bat Ye'or have explained that in fact the form of jihad most central to Muslim life manifests itself as a boldly offensive, permanent war of conquest whose ultimate aim is to achieve Islam's dominion over the entire world.)
Don't Believe the Hype: How the Media and Hollywood Portray Muslims and their Faith: Characterizing America as a nation rife with anti-Muslim bigotry and prejudice, this event was designed to "address the way Western media has created an unwarranted sense of fear towards Muslims"; "address the heavy-hitting issue of Islamophobia as a form of racism towards Muslims"; "reflect upon the many negative images painted about Islam in today's media"; "reach a stronger understanding of Islamophobia and how Americans can respond to counteract this negative force"; and "uncover the truth behind the misconceptions people have about the religion itself."
MSA UP strongly opposes the Patriot Act anti-terrorism legislation. At one MSA rally on the University of Pennsylvania campus, the co-chair of Muslims for Justice declared, "the Patriot Act is sending us in a backwards spiral, where the destination is chaos."
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