The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild have called on UC leaders to establish a more balanced approach concerning student activism around Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a letter published Tuesday.
Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area, and Matthew Ross and Liz Jackson of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, issued a letter to UC President Mark Yudof, Vice President and General Counsel Charles Robinson and the chancellors of the 10 university campuses upon the dismissal of the lawsuit brought against the university by UC Berkeley alumni Jessica Felber and Brian Maissy.
Felber and Maissy recently dismissed this suit against the university, which claimed the UC system failed to calm hostility towards Jewish students shown in demonstrations in March 2010. According to Billoo, many believe that this lawsuit is part of an ongoing effort to marginalize and chill the efforts of Arab and Muslim students who partake in speech related to the Israel-Palestine issue.
“We call for a more balanced approach, fair treatment, and above all respect for the right of university students and faculty to express their political beliefs, including those critical of Israel,” reads the letter.
Billoo and Ross also emphasized that they do not want the university’s actions to stifle student activism. Their letter stresses that comparisons between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel speech is harmful and inaccurate.
“We see it as a threat on our civil liberties, (and) we see it as very dangerous to conflate anti-Semitism and speech that is critical of Israel,” said Mohamed Haimoud, president of the Cal Muslim Student Association.
As part of the agreement to dismiss the lawsuit, the UC system will consider clarifying its policies regarding campus demonstrations.
“We hope that Jewish students will have the same protection as other minority groups on our campus,” said Arielle Gabai, president of the UC Berkeley Jewish Student Union.
Billoo and Ross’ letter focuses on Yudof’s various campus climate initiatives, citing an open letter published by Yudof in September 2011, as evidence of the unfairness of these initiatives. According to Mohamed Haimoud, president of the Muslim Student Association at UC Berkeley, Yudof’s letter and the lawsuit illustrate the UC administration’s pattern of bias against anti-Israel activism.
Yudof stressed the importance for a campus atmosphere conducive to personal and intellectual growth in his letter.
“As I have said on many occasions, I have and will continue to be among the first to speak out against abusive behavior,” said Yudof in his letter.
According to Seth Brysk, Central Pacific regional director of the Anti Defamation League, the organization is pleased to see that the university is recognizing that some UC campuses have become uncomfortable for Jewish students.
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The shame is that Islamophobia and the pro-Zionist viewpoint is generally the one that gets touted on campus!
And here is example number 2 of how the anti-Israel talk is just hiding anti-Jewish feelings.
Sadly, what these extremist groups want is the ability to shout down pro Israel voices, as they attempted at UC Irvine and at UC Davis. And they want to be able to do it with impunity.
This is the “Only time you hear the muslim voice, when one of
their “Own” is injured.
Not when jihahists’ destroy, rape or murder thousands of innocent
people; people who’s only crime was to be in the wrong place or believe a
different theology.
To all
you liberal leftist and muslims out there, where are the muslim voices of
protest over the murder of Eyptian Coptic Christians? How about the kidnapp,
rape and forced conversion of thousands of non-muslim women (per year by the
way)? For the rape of non-muslim women in the free countries? Can you raise no
voice for the Pakistain Christian’s who were burned to death, because of a
false blasphmey lie (over 200 homes and buisness were burnt and as many as 27
people either burnt to death or injured; their only crime was a belief in a
different faith). Or how about the injustice of justice towards Asia Bibi, a
Christian woman in Pakistan, who was accused of blasphmey and sentenced to
death in 2009? And just what was this injustice I am speaking of, lets see,
Asia Bibi was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to death “ALL”
without legal representation, “a lawyer,”; and one was requested, but
never given. Because of the injustice the Pakistani court has determined that
she deserves a new trial, the court date is 2015. Thats an eight year sentence
for a suspected crime. Also, where are the muslim voices of protest over the
rapes and murder of non-muslim children and infants by muslim men? Where are
the muslim voices of outrage and protest over the continued acts and plots of
terrorism by jihadists’?
I’m down under in Australia at the moment and I will tell you a little story about how the minds of lefties work. There was a little demonstration in Sydney near the Central Station being led by your typical homely militant lesbian feminist screaming about how the “American war machine” leads to oppression of women worldwide. Meanwhile, some towel-wearing immigrant walks by with some woman (presumably his wife) wearing a black burka following right behind him. Not a single one of these “pro-womyn” demonstrators says a WORD to this man (I did, I told him the 14th century ended a long time ago). They just move over and let him pass. Lefties love to piss and moan about Christians and Americans because they know they can get away with it. They are complete freaking cowards when faced with real repression.
Wow Stan — on vacation and still have time to troll a student newspaper comments section. What a life!
One reason the paper is losing money is that while the Daily Cal wants to call itself Berkeley’s Newspaper, people keep trying to say it is just a student newspaper. If you don’t respect the paper as being a source of news for the city and anyone interested, then it will continue to wither.
Don’t ever get down wind of a Burka bag on a hot day.
In every generation there have been those who have been provided
with the gifts of intellect, a thirst for knowledge, an appreciation for the
aesthetic in life, an internal sense of morality, love and generosity, an
ability to be self-critical, an ability to ask the difficult questions and the
wisdom to know that life has very few absolutes.
These are the very attributes that give us our humanity, our
nobility, perhaps even our soul and have allowed us to escape the dark caves
and ignorance of our ancestors.
However, there have always been those who seek anarchy, who must
impose their twisted perception of reality on everyone else. These groups
demand undeserved allegiance or subservience and view any form of
non-compliance or progress as an insult to their very existence. These groups
seek allegiance at the point of a sword and respond to any criticism in the
most violent and hateful of ways while avoiding truth as if it were a disease.
These groups preach intolerance and enslavement and idolize
ignorance, death and destruction above all else. These groups look for simple
answers to complex questions without the mental ability to deal with either.
Millions upon millions of souls have been lost over the
generations to satisfy the needs of these fools. These are the groups who are
the first to claim victimhood, who demand retribution, who seek power yet who
would enslave all others to their will. These are the groups that have
contributed nothing to mankind except death and destruction, terror,
intolerance and hatred.
Nazism, Fascism, Communism are all reflections of the very essence
of this condition but they are all mere amateurs compared to the greatest
perpetrator of all, the ideology of islam.
Over its 1400 year history islam has incorporated this intolerance
and hatred into the very essence of its existence and has made ignorance and
killing an art form.
islam glorifies the writings of a 7th century illiterate who by
any standard of today would be locked away as a degenerate, incorrigible
murdering pedophile. islam binds its followers to blind unquestioning and
illogical thought control and raises its children in the hatred, lies and
deceptions of its twisted morality.
This ideology eliminates self determination and the nobility of
mankind and treats the female portion of its population as nothing more than
subservient vaginas. It preaches hatred of other religions and beliefs and
considers it is superior to all others, a so called master “race”.
islam gave us 911, the bombings in Moscow, Bali, Paris, London,
Madrid, Nigeria and Kenya, the Cole, the Belsan School massacre, the underwear
bomber, the insult of the proposed 911 mosque, the recent genocide of
Christians and Jews not to mention more than 18,000 other identifiable
terrorist attacks since 911. It gave us airport strip searches and rape gangs,
subversive mosque operations, the death of film maker Theo van Gogh and
reporters such as Daniel Pearl. It glorified decapitation as negotiation tool
and it honoured child rape in order to emulate the teachings of its fearless
leader mighty muhammad.
No muslim country on this planet provides anything of value to the
remainder of the world other than the oil which lies beneath its feet and which
required the west’s expertise to extract. This oil has generated trillions of
dollars (every dime unearned) which has been used for the most shameful of purposes
to promote this mad and ignorant agenda or for the most extravagant of
lifestyles while others of its people are mired in poverty.
To claim that the “culture” of the islamic middle east has
anything, ANYTHING to offer us in the west is to drink the cool aid of
Taqquiya.
islam is not the moral equivalent of our western secular democracy
and islam is not prepared to co-exist with Western culture. islam will never be
anything more than the ramblings of ignorance and unbridled stupidity – wrapped
in testosterone induced creed of hatred, envy, violence and death.
The West must not let the lunatics run the asylum – the left’s
suicidal allegiance to this ideology defies logic or common sense..
Do not even try to argue the position that acceptance of the massive
and global islamic intolerance including the incredible and ongoing atrocities
by muslims against Christians and Jews, is some form of liberal “enlightenment”
It is nothing of the sort. Those who hold the left wing values and espouse
tolerance are mistaken this is not a situation where all you need is love. You
cannot love an ideology that wants to destroy you.
All men of good will must make this issue an international priority must stand
up and tell the muslim world that they are wrong, must not let this ignorance
spread like the cancer it is to the rest of mankind. The sooner we all treat
islam with the contempt it so richly deserves, the greater the benefit to all
mankind.
All men
of good will must spread the truth and face this monster head on with a full
understanding of the cost of failure.
U probably should get out more and read what is Islam before u dare and talk barefacedly about others
You might try some critical introspection before you bloviate nonsense and humiliate yourself.
I assume you have traveled to at least one country where Islam is the established religion to see what how actual Islam affects their citizens. Maybe you could share with us one thing that implemented national Islam that you have seen in a Muslim country could do for the US.
you must be a Jew to say that cuz Jews don’t respect the prophets
And here we have an actual example of how the anti-Israel talk is just anti-Jewish talk.
or someone trying to give the impression that that is the case because it feeds a strategy of rebutting substantive criticism of israel’s occupation with obfuscating claims of racism. either way, something to be condemned.
Really? Instead of recognizing anti-Jewish comments, you will try to ignore it by pretending that it is someone trying to trick us into thinking that someone doesn’t like Jews.
You must be butt-ignorant to make such a statement.
It would be easier to not mix anti-Semitism and anti-Israel speech, if Arab and Muslim groups didn’t keep doing things that made us think they are anti-Semitic. Like the Cal Muslim Student Association supporting the visit of Farrakhan.
dude, farrakhan’s views on jews are super disturbing, but it was the black student union that brought him here, regardless of who co-sponsored. i doubt you would go out on a limb and say that means that black students at Cal are anti-semites (at least you probably wouldn’t say such a thing in the real world when stripped of your anonymity). Farrakhan’s talk wasn’t even about Israel anyways, from what I heard second hand (didnt go to it myself), so to connect the two is sort of stretching it in the context of all the principled criticism of Israel that goes on at Cal that isn’t at all remotely anti-semitic. I mean the ADL for instance opposed the mosque at GroundZero in NYC, but that doesn’t mean that those inviting the ADL to speak on campus are pushing an anti-Muslim agenda. Israel’s policies suck and the only thing Israeli partisans can do is play the anti-Semitism card to distract from the substantive points. That said, I wouldn’t have given Farrakhan the light of day either.
There wouldn’t be any reason to go out on a limb and say that all black students were anti-Semites unless you were a racist who couldn’t reason. I believe that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is so large at Cal because of people’s feelings about the Jewish religion. There are lots of other groups in the world that are at each other’s throats, and we don’t see the student or public interest outside of the people directly or indirectly involved. Now I am not saying that all people or even most people supporting the Palestinian side are anti-Semites. I am saying that the passion and fervor that powerful groups have about Jews has escalated the whole thing to a level that is bringing in people who wouldn’t consider being involved in any other conflict around the world.
i think you miss “frank’s” point. just like the conclusion that black students are anti-semites would be an illogical and racist conclusion to draw from farrakhan’s visit, so is the implication of your original post (that Muslims are anti-semites, or give us reason to think they are). if you wouldn’t hold another group to the same standard then perhaps you are the one engaged in the illogical racism, no? your belief about why the pal-is conflict is large at berkeley surely describes someone out there, but the vast majority of students at Cal are probably passionate about challenging Israel because they are outraged by an immoral and criminal occupation that receives unparalled support from our own government rather than because everyone is a closet anti-semite. I mean come on, is the similar popularity of the Tibetian cause motivated primarily by an anti-Chinese agenda? almost no one at berkeley is hating on jews or hating on chinese. its about the injustices.
If it was just about injustices, then students would be paying more attention to conflicts that are doing much more damage. This isn’t about all students being anti-Semites, but that the world’s attitude towards Jews has always helped to make them more of a target than you would expect.
basically your logic means no one can criticize israel’s occupation unless every other worse injustice in the world is first gotten to first (not that you have any idea what other issues israel’s critics fight for or against). almost every activist issue that an activist is passionate about can be trumped by something that might universally be considered worse. if you fight for abortion rights then why aren’t you fighting to end world hunger instead. if you are fighting for stopping education cuts, then why aren’t you fighting to end the conflict in congo. if you are fighting for civilians in bahrain then why aren’t you fighting for civilians in syria. almost surely you aren’t ouraged by people doing good work on things that are serious injustices, even if in your estimation they aren’t the singular most pressing issue. but, there is a good reason that americans in particular might gravitate to the israel occupation issue above some other international issues: israel is the us’ number one recipient of military aid so people might feel more responsible for the evil being done by in their name and with their money. it also gets away with its crimes with impunity in the us. wake up. its not about anti-semitism. go talk to someone from jewish voice for peace or any of the thousands of other Bay area Jews who make fighting the occupation a central part of their activist work.
I didn’t make any statement that would logically say no one can criticize Israel unless other issues are dealt with first. I said that more people are interested in the Israel-Palestine conflict than would be expected unless there was another catalyst behind the conflict. You think that other catalyst is the US support for Israel, and I think it is more related to anti-Semitism. I think you make a good point about how US aid for Israel could inspire more people to get involved with the issue. However, I do think that US aid to Israel is based more on the US’s response to historical anti-Semitism. The Nazi, Arab, and other groups’ attitudes and actions toward Jews seems to have inspired much of the US support for Israel. I know that there is a large push by Christians to have the US support Israel, and that is another example of religion’s affect on the situation.
My only point has been that there is a large religious aspect behind the anti-Israel protests. However, I also recognize that there is a large religious aspect behind pro-Israel support.
today I_h8_disqus has spoken unassailable truth
Remember when that professor heckled the vigil against anti-semitism on Sproul? The anti Israel forces don’t even try and behave
Hilarious. Muslims whine about their “civil liberties”, while at the same time working to replace our government with a shariah state that recognizes no rights for unbelievers.
LOLOLOL: “working to replace our government with a shariah state that recognizes no rights for unbelievers”
evidence plz?!? (and not merely of some one-off whack-job, but of systematic effort)
moreover: Palin, Bachmann, CHRISTIAN THEOCRACY (DOMINIONISM) IS ALIVE IN AMERICA
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/14/dominionism-michele-bachmann-and-rick-perry-s-dangerous-religious-bond.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/dominionism-beliefs-among-conservative-christians-overblown/2011/08/17/gIQAb5eaNJ_story.html
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/dominionism
obvious troll is obviously retarded
There’s no “Christian theocracy” in this country, and any suggestion that Christians are forcing their ways on others that even approaches the totality of Sharia law is ludicrous. You are truly an idiot.
The Clown’s name “inept trolling”
QED
Par for Bezerkeley…
So you believe there are people trying to replace our government with a Christian theocracy, but you don’t believe there are people trying to replace our government with a Muslim theocracy? The intelligent citizen would simply resist any effort to establish a state religion.