Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Washington U. hosts first Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week
By Perry Stein
The Student Life (Washington U.)
10/22/2007

(U-WIRE) ST. LOUIS, Mo. — In honor of the first Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, College Republicans are hosting a film screening. College Democrats have responded by arranging "Teach-in For Tolerance." Both events are to take place tonight.

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is a national project sponsored by the Terrorism Awareness Project, an organization founded by David Horowitz, with the goal of confronting "two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat."

"The root cause of terrorism is not and never has been American foreign policy," said Steve Miller, national director of the Terrorism Awareness Project. "Our enemy is driven by a radical religious motivation, a motivation that is hard for us to understand and appreciate."

The flagship event at Washington University will be a screening of the documentary "Suicide Killers," which explores the mindset of suicide attackers at 7 p.m. in the second floor common room of Shepley Hall.

In response to the controversial event, the College Democrats will be holding "Teach-in for Tolerance" on the Swamp, an event that, according to President Meredith Sigler, was coincidentally scheduled at the same time as the College Republicans' event.

"Immediately, we realized that we needed a response to this event specifically and the ideas that David Horowitz is pushing," said Sigler. "The main purpose of this event is to promote tolerance and to state that what David Horowitz stands for is not what we believe."

The Teach-in for Tolerance event will feature guest speakers Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz, from the department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, and Professor Howard Brick from the History department, with the intention of helping to educate students about the nature of Islam.

"A large thing that David Horowitz's Islamo-Fascism Awareness week does is play on cultural biases," said Sigler. "I just wasn't comfortable with the idea that Islam in itself is pushing terrorism and it is a fundamental part of who they are."

College Republican President Samuel Gittle said that he decided to hold this event in order to raise awareness among students about the continuous threat of terrorism.

"Terrorism stems from people who pervert Islam," said Gittle. "The main purpose of this event is awareness of Islamic terrorism, and that it still is a threat to us six years after 9/11."

This awareness week is designed to promote Horowitz's ideas, and over 100 college campuses will be holding events in conjunction with this project.

Horowitz, who spoke at Washington University in 2005, will speak at Columbia University, George Washington University and various other schools throughout the week.

"It's a wonderful opportunity for students to get a factual education in this deadly struggle with which we are faced," said Miller.

Miller said that the College Democrats holding a counter event demonstrates a lack of understanding of the issue at hand. "[Opposing this] would be like opposing efforts in the 1930s to raise awareness of the rise in fascism," said Miller. Gittle also said that people who immediately disagree with the event are misinterpreting the intended ideas of the organization.

"I think in their whole opposition to our event, they're a little bit naive," said Gittle. "They are taking the event out of context, they're protesting something they don't understand."

The Teach-in for Tolerance is being co-sponsored by more than eight other groups including the Muslim Student Association, Students for a Peaceful Palestinian- Israeli Future (SPPIF), the Social Justice Center, and College Libertarians.

According to SPPIF President Robert Fares, Horowitz presents a radical claim about terrorism and his beliefs are not consistent with the facts stated in history books.

"His information is basically propaganda," said Fares. "It's wrong to say that violence and terrorism come from Islam because Islam is the largest religion in the world. [Violence and terrorism] come from [the] conditions of life."

Despite the College Republicans' event, Sigler said she does not think Horowitz's ideas will be widely accepted by the University's students.

"I don't think that such an unfounded claim can catch on in such an intellectual place," said Sigler. "Wash. U students are more intelligent than to believe that Islamic structure promotes terrorism."

Both Sigler and Gittle agreed that this should not be a partisan debate of Democrats against Republicans or vice versa.

"We're trying to make this clear that this isn't against the Republicans, this is in response to David Horowitz," said Sigler. "The moment you make this Democrat vs. Republican you make this a political issue instead of a social one, and this is a social issue."

In spite of all the controversy and negative publicity its been facing, Miller said he anticipates Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week to be a successful event on college campuses.

"It's going to be a tremendous success. I have great faith in the program's content and the students organizing it," said Miller.

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