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Muslim students, get ready. Next week you’ll find yourself in a position to defend your faith, publicly declare your opposition to terror, and denounce radicalism and the taking of innocent lives when Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week reaches college campuses beginning October 22.
And since the oppression of women is slated as a major theme of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, you’ll also have ample opportunity to convince students and faculty that you are just as horrified as them by honor killings, public stonings, genital mutilation, and whatever other atrocities are promoted as standard Islamic fare.
And if the underlying message of the week’s activities doesn’t strike you as particularly inciting or offensive, be aware that the program’s sponsors have also accused your Muslim Student Association of being a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Whew. I’m sure glad my campus days are way behind me. Then again, I wasn’t Muslim at the time and the political scene was made exciting by Geraldine Ferraro, not Al Qaeda. But I have to stop and wonder…is it possible that I might have been swayed by far-right propaganda if something like Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week had come to my campus? It’s hard to say, but it 's reasonable to expect that some young minds are globally inexperienced and somewhat pliable. It’s not that students can’t think for themselves; it’s just in the absence of counter-debate, seeds of doubt and bigotry might easily be planted.
And that seems to be the precise agenda of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week – to delude American youth that a sinister Muslim presence is amongst them. Get them caught up in the passion of the moment, and help them to forget about seeking full perspective.
Of course, no one would come right out and say such a thing. Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is the brainchild of extreme right wing activist David Horowitz and his
Yada yada.
With a roster of speakers like Ann Coulter, Daniel Pipes, David Horowitz, Dennis Prager, Sean Hannity, Robert Spencer, Rick Santorium and Wafa Sultan, I’m not convinced that a bigoted portrayal of Muslims isn’t about to take place.
An impressive list of participating schools – Ivy League among them – is posted on the Terrorism Awareness’ website. Perhaps its somewhat reassuring that, according to the MPAC, a handful of universities have already pulled out of the lineup due to the controversial and racist nature of the week’s events.
Too bad all schools don’t follow suit.
