Hawkeye's Blog

The threat of militant Islam on US college campuses

By Lee Kaplan Friday, May 16, 2008

An unusual thing happened on April 29th at the University of Colorado.

"A decidedly pro-U.S. and pro-Israel event took place on Ward Churchill’s old stomping grounds at the Boulder, Colorado campus as former PLO terrorists

"I’m just worried the event will be disrupted like our others," Jack Roldan, vice-chair of the CU College Republicans, told me just days before the event. "When John Ashcroft was our guest, the radicals and MSA carried on so much during his speech nobody could hear him. The same thing happened when we invited Madeleine Albright. Not only was the interference by leftist Palestinian students and the Muslim Students Association, but also from off campus groups like

***Hanan Ashrawi is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She has long been the darling of certain segments of the Western media thanks to her fluent English, her PhD, and her gender. For example, Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes has lauded Ashrawi as a "Palestinian who has been at the peace process longer than almost anyone" (program aired December 11, 1994). Ashrawi frequently appears on American television and radio. One rare exception to the journalistic fawning over Ashrawi was Barbara Amiel's 1993 profile of the Palestinian spokeswoman in the London Sunday Times. Amiel was struck by the "lies and distortions" in Ashrawi's retelling of events. A Palestinian Christian who is a longtime Holocaust denier, Ashrawi officially joined the PLO's "Palestinian Diplomatic Committee" and the "Intifada Political Committee" in 1988. Then, in 1991, Yassar Arafat appointed her as Official Spokesperson of the Palestinian Delegation to the "Middle East Peace Process." She served as the PLO's Minister of Higher Education and Research, and for one year was Head of its Political Committee. While pretending to be an "independent" civic activist outside the PLO, just quietly interested in protecting human rights for everyone besides Jews, in fact her non-profit organization (named MIFTAH) is propped up with $850,000 per annum granted it directly by Yasser Arafat. Ashrawi's MIFTAH web site makes it clear that she has never come to terms with Israel's existence and has never met an Arab suicide bomber she does not like.***

The 2 ex-terrorists event marked a watershed moment in getting the message out that jihad being promoted on US college campuses and can be checked if only some minor efforts are made by those seeking to present the truth in cooperation with college administrators and campus law enforcement.

I was attached to the event by the Walid Shoebat Foundation to organize in advance attendance and to head off any problems with the MSA on the Boulder campus. This event, titled "Why We Want to Kill You," after Shoebat’s latest book, introduced attendees to the terrorist backgrounds of Shoebat and Saleem, both of whom were once assigned by the Muslim Brotherhood to promote militant Islam and jihad within the United States during their younger years and who had been actively involved with terrorism through the PLO in the Middle East in their youth. Shoebat explained to a rapt audience about how he had been assigned to Loop College in Chicago and worked from a basement with a militant imam to promote jihad in America. Saleem told the audience how he went on his first terrorist mission for al Fatah while less than ten years old and later as an adult who was assigned by the Muslim Brotherhood to spread jihad within the US, particularly on college campuses.

The event, like previous events, had many obstacles to overcome just the week before. Posters about the event that were authorized by the campus administration were torn down almost as fast as they went up or covered with posters from an Islam Awareness Week presented by the MSA on campus that same week. The distribution of free advance tickets, available at the Student Union also had problems; when people came by to get them they were at first told the event had already been sold out and was inaccessible or that persons without student ID could not obtain them. It was never made clear if this was intentional or an error on the part of staff. The campus police demanded double the police officers for security resulting in an additional $5,000 expense for the College Republicans that was ultimately met.

But the worst vilification in advance of the event came from the local

The MSA in one breath would declare both men as terrorists that should be arrested if they were really ex-terrorists, then proclaim its support for terrorist groups like Hamas and Hizballah. Both Shoebat and Saleem were accused of being frauds out to make money and the press cited as their source comments from Ibrahim Hooper, the head of CAIR that has had several of its leaders already indicted and prosecuted for aiding terrorist movements like Hamas. Some intelligence gathered before the event revealed the MSA planned to drown out the speakers by screaming "Allahu Akhbar" during the event. But once the campus police were alerted about this and advised to warn the MSA not to do so, the plan fell apart. As an added precaution, every seat at the event had a disclaimer listing the state law about disrupting a lawful meeting and the legal penalties involved with a warning that intentional disruptions would lead to prosecution. There was no repetition of near riots and heckling as has occurred atUC Irvine, UC Berkeley and other campuses in the past.

Only days before, some MSA students approached the College Republicans’ table in the student union where tickets were also being distributed to declare they found the event "offensive." These students spoke of "Israeli state terrorism" in the same breath they claimed to oppose terrorism, but also acknowledged their support for Hamas. At the same time, when I asked how many of the MSA students had read the Hamas charter, none had. One 18 year-old, who identified himself as Vice President of the campus MSA, whose family came from Iran, said that Iran does not persecute Jews, that Ahmadinajhad never said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map, and was misquoted by all the news agencies of the world. He claimed that all exhortations to jihad and calls to kill Jews were mistranslations (apparently only he knew how to translate the Koran). The next day at the question and answer period after Shoebat and Saleem spoke, he, thje student, announced that if the US went to war against Iran, he would go fight for Iran that he referred to as "my country," despite his growing up in and attending college right here in America.

It was to ideas like these that both ex-terrorists addressed as a need for people in America to understand that worldwide jihad is being promoted as much in the colleges of America as it is overseas through the Muslim Students Association and its affiliated groups. Kamel Saleem pointed to the US flag on stage and said, "I don’t advocate against all Muslim people. There are many good Muslims," he continued, "But I want to see Muslim-Americans running with the US flag saying they support America against America’s enemies,." emphasizing the epiphany he had since starting out with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Accused by another MSA student of staging the event to make money or sell books, Walid Shoebat replied, "I’ll gladly open the urged people to become aware of this and fight it. Despite the clarity of his message, one student, a former President of the MSA at the University of Colorado tried to shout over him, "What’s your message? What’s your message?" as if he had spent the last two hours in a vacuum.

"My message," said Shoebat, "is for you to shut up!" at which point the entire audience rose to their feet in a standing ovation. The MSA members remained seated, but it was clear the rest of the Boulder, Colorado crowd did enthusiastically get the message.
And this time they got the point with no interruptions. Not one heckler had to be removed that evening to the astonishment of the

Lee Kaplan is an investigative journalist. He is also a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the Israel National News and a senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network.

THIS is a warning that WE must NOT Ignore and the warning AND the DANGER are BOTH coming from our OWN,, from within our OWN institutions of Higher Learning…OUR OWN COLLEGES..

We have LONG known that there is a difference between Intelligence and Education..

We have YET to recognize the difference between Education and Indoctrination whether it be Islamic Militantism or Socialism..It is ALL Anti-Americanism…

EITHER way..Beware the ENEMY within…They represent the most DANGEROUS Threat to America,, the American People and the American way of life..MORE so then ANY outside Enemy,, no matter HOW powerful or well equipped THAT enemy may be..Even MORE dangerous then the "Phony Soldier"…