Dear Daily Cal Editors,

I am a board member of Students for Justice in Palestine and am writing to inform you about a serious error in a recent posting on the Clog. The event that the author mentions was not sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine. Rather, it was sponsored by another student group called Islamic Awareness. At no time did SJP agree to co-sponsor this event, though we listed it on our list of Palestine-related events in our weekly e-mail. We often include information about such events on our weekly e-mails, even though we have nothing to do with them.

Please post this clarification, issue a retraction regarding the Clog posting in question, and offer an apology at the nearest possible convenience.

Thank you.

Did the author of this post bother to contact SJP or Hatem Bazian before posting this article, to see that SJP did not host this event and that the people present were not brought in by Hatem, who arrived at the event 30 minutes late, even when the men in question were already in the room? I don’t know who is responsible for this but I was at the event and it did not seem like Hatem was anything but a guest speaker. In any case, the reporter should have done a bit more research before spreading this kind of stuff…

I don’t know where the idea that I don’t want my pictures taken at a public event. If anyone looked through the web one for sure would find many photos taken at public events with more tension than the event last night on campus. I hope that in the future communication with the person in question can be undertaken before such a headline.

Hatem Bazian

<a href=“http://calsjp.org/daily-clog-misreporting”>http://calsjp.org/daily-clog-misreporting</a>

On behalf of the Islamic Awareness of Berkeley organization, we condemn any act that would inhibit the free exchange of ideas. As sponsors to the event, we apologize if anyone felt that this free exchange was violated in any way. No one from any sponsoring organization was responsible for any of the above, nor the fault of our speakers, but we will exert more effort in future events to make sure that such an encounter does not happen. Conflicts seize when people have mutual respect, and we will continue to emphasize this. We hope our organizers and members become more alert to this, so that we may lead by example. We hope the offended party or individual accepts our apology and we can move forward and work together to prevent future occurrences.

Sincerely,
Islamic Awareness of Berkeley

Regardless who sponsored the event, the thugs on campus apparently have not been located or confronted about their behavior. This is hurtful to the cause of Islam and should not be tolerated.

The thugs on campus came from the ‘there is only a miniscule amount of terrorist thugs in the islamic religion’ brigade.
What good are these schools for?
You talk shite there.

This is the 1001st piece of proof for me. The mullahs in charge want no record of their bloodthirsty statements. The Religion of Peace isn’t.

Nothing to see here, move along please…

It wasn’t us. Islam is a religion of peace. Jihad means an inner struggle to make one a better person. There is no coercion in Islam. There a seven million peaceful Muslim in the US. Yeah, right. Lies, lies and more lies, but hey the Koran says you can do anything to a nonbeliever.

Why is it that Islam and Violence seem to be synonymous?

Islam is a totalitarian ideology masquerading as a religion that was started by a murderous pedophile. Just like the other ideologies like it that were defeated in the last century, it too must be destroyed. It has no place in modern society.

Why do muslims insist on being losers? Haven’t they learned anything from a thousand years of getting angry and piously attacking their annoying opponents? Anybody can tell you that this is ‘Marketing for Losers 101’.

No surprise here. Physical intimidation and using violence to suppress free speech are page one of the islamic playbook.

Sign this petition to ban the Koran!

http://www.petitiononline.com/banquran/petition.html

And tell others to do the same!

The normal population have had a gutful of the ROP.
I can’t make it any plainer than that.
Rope in your extremists or the future will be islam free.
You will be like abused puppies.
You can’t even fight your own battles and get us to rid you of you Saddams etc.
Grow some cahones and DO IT YOURSELVES.
We’re sick of sticking up for cowards.
Hanging children for having US dollars.
YOU COWARDLY IDIOTS.
Don’t even mention the butchery of halal meats!!!!!!!

The real issue here isn’t the Strauss blog but the responses. On other campuses, the Palestinian and Islamic activextremists do a lot more than grabbing someone’s camera — Ethan, consider yourself lucky — but those opposed to the bullying, shouting down speakers and violence perpetated by the PalestinianIslamic activextremists issue mild, fearful rejoinders which are rarely if ever mentioned in any campus media. As a secular Jew highly supportive of Israel, I’m glad to see a little life in these comments, but am also slightly turned off by suggestions to ban the Koran (or any other book). Instead, I’d suggest readers and believers of the Koran read more history from more sources, and also ask themselves why the 750,000 Arab refugees from the ’48 war are still isolated in camps three generations later, only now there are several million of them. Compare this to the plight of the 900,000 Jews living in Arab countries who were driven out immediately following the war in what the Arab League’s Iraqi delegate called a “population exchange.” called “a population exchange.” Israel took them in, despite the fragility and lack of infrastructure. Why didn’t the other Arab countries, with vast lands and rich with oil, offer the same to their Arab brothers?

There are excellent books on what Fouad Ajami (a secular Shiia from Beirut now head of Middle East Center at Johns Hopkins) called “The Arab Predicament”, there are UN-sponsored studies by secular Arabs re the cultural malignancies afflicting the Arab countries, and there is always the analysis and history written by the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun — the guy who, among other things, interviewed Tamurlane at the Gates of Damascus, next to his trademark pile of skulls. The Arab Islamic society is sick unto death — and the great Kurd warrior Salah-ah-din would be ashamed to see what became of all his efforts. He would have had Saddam’s and Osama’s heads on a platter in a New York minute. But he’d have eventually gotten around to banishing the Palestinian leaders who spent most of their money donated from sympathetic Westerners on suicide bombings, madrassas instead of real education, and keeping Suha Arafat in the Parisian elite lifestyle she’d become accustomed to while denying the Palestinian people economic growth (in which Israel was trying to participate before the intifada). There are many great role models for Arabs and other Moslems to look up to — Ibn Rushd, the great poets and scientists the golden age in al Andalus. It’s sheer folly to look to bloody-minded Mohammed as not just a religious prophet but also as the primary cultural hero.