University of Southern California's MSA Chapter
A religious organization on a college campus represents more than just their members—they represent the students of that religion to the university campus. Imagine yourself in an official capacity. Now imagine that you think it's OK to send out a joke mocking the Holocaust, making two separate references to how Israelis extort money from the United States, and finally implying that Jews are cheap. Consider the full text of an email that the University of Southern California (USC) Muslim Student Union (MSU) sent to its members:Salam, There will be an MSU board meeting on Monday (tomorrow) after maghrib insha’Allah (~5pm). If you are interested in attending and may not be on the board, you are more than welcome to attend. We’ll be going over MSA West, Last Week’s Event, Next Semester, and MSU Board Structure insha’Allah. If you’re interested in helping out with stuff next semester, being on the board next year, or just interested in the inner-workings of MSU, please do come.
What: MSU Board Meeting
Time: 5:15pm sharp
Location: Parkside Lounge
Wassalam,
[name suppressed]
--
On a side note, here’s a funny joke..
This may be insensitive (to Israelis at least), and if you are easily offended, do not read it. But it sure is funny:
If an Insect Falls in Your Cup of Coffee, what would you do?
Here is one analysis:
1. The Englishman: Throws the cup away and walks out of the cafe.
2. The American: Takes the insect out and drinks the coffee.
3. The Chinese: Eats the insect and throws the coffee away.
4. The Besieged Palestinian: Drinks the coffee and eats the
insect.
5. The Israeli: Sells the coffee to the American and the insect to the Chinese. Screams that his security is in peril.
- Accuses the Palestinians of throwing the insect in his coffee.
- Alleges that Hezbollah, the Syrians and the Iranians advocate attacks with weapons of mass insects.
- Relates this vicious attack to Islamic Terrorism, Attacks on Human Rights, Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the Diaspora, the Discrimination against Noah's Ark.
- Commands Arafat to immediately stop insects from flying in the air or landing in coffee cups.
- Re-occupies the West Bank and Gaza, raids houses, cuts off water and electricity, humiliates and terrorizes civilians, kills or maims anyone in his way.
- Imposes more military aid on the Americans.
- Demands a 100-year, billion-dollar, loan from America to buy another cup of coffee.
- Claims life-time free coffee from the cafe as compensation.
Leaders of the Muslim Student Union seem to believe that part of their official position is to mock Israelis and Jews. Keep in mind that this is a University funded organization. Over the last few years universities haven’t done their best to distance itself from anti-Semitism. Seemingly innocent jokes are the first step toward creating a culture of desensitization and degradation, which ultimately culminates in open attacks on students.
Of course, no one ever thinks about the consequences and that’s why this is acceptable behavior in the first place.
Also consider the comments on the MSU listserv. In response to some USC Jewish groups' Holocaust memorials (and, let's remember, Muslim leaders were not exactly innocent in instigating the Holocaust and issued bloody pogroms against Middle Eastern Jewry), members of the MSU's listserv have posted some of the following contributions. All misspellings and grammatical cleverness is in the originals:
holocust schmolocost.....
that whole thing drives me nuts.
there arent that many holicost surviviers.
most of those guys havent experienced anything -- except possibly excess. its a tool the zionists use... but to be honest wonder how effective it is these days.
And:
Just thought id contribute its fun reading about the holohoax. it probably happened but 6mil is a lot i think the figure was much smaller and yes i think its possible to fabricate such a story. the jews are masters at this and congrats to them for being able to do so. not only do they claim sole bearers to the "anti-semetic" crimes, but they are able to live of reparations forever. smart idea dont you think?
The Muslim Student Union is a university-sanctioned organization whose elected representatives represent USC Muslims to the University and to the community. How could such an environment emerge? On UC Irvine's campus, the administration told campus Jewish leaders that they are not to refer to themselves as Zionists because that will "undermine dialogue" with Muslims on campus. Put aside the absurd "blame the victim" sensibility that underlies this idea that Jews should be forced to dialogue on terms that deny their right to self-defense or pride - it seems the height of absurdity to believe that the kind of vicious hatred displayed above (prevalent in pro-Palestinian activism across American college campuses) turns on linguistic niceties.
The University of Southern California MSA invited Taliban ambassador Sayyid Hashimi to speak on campus six months before 9/11.
At the 7th annual MSA West Conference held at the University of Southern California in January 2005, former MSA UCLA member Ahmed Shama said: “We want to restore Islam to the leadership of society. … The goal … is the reestablishment of the Islamic form of government.” Shama praised Hamas and Hezbollah for being “uncompromising” on their principles, and for refusing to “shake hands with the other side.” He lauded the terrorist leader Muqtada al-Sadr for “legitimately fighting against [U.S.] occupation” in Iraq. He identified Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as part of the “mainstream Islamic movement.” He praised Hamas’ resolve that “the only solution to the current occupation is military resistance. Not shaking hands. Not dialogue.” And he declared, “We have an obligation to make sure that our MSAs are part of the global Islamic movement.”
Consider that in 2006 the Muslim Student Union at USC protested against the unveiling of the Danish Cartoons. The group called for “responsible speech” and suggested that the Objectivist Club at USC should not have unveiled the cartoons at an event regarding free speech. Most recently the Muslim students on the campus of the University of Southern California have condemned a school decision to take down certain hadiths – or sayings of Muhammad – that called for genocide of Jews and had been posted on a student group's website. The provost on the campus, reacting to a letter sent by the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Simon Wiesenthal Center, decided that the best recourse was to remove the hadith which calls for genocide against Jews. The provost cited that the hadith was “despicable” and does not abide by USC’s Principles of Community. As a private university, USC’s provost is entitled to this decision and to removing the quote from the school server. That has not, however, stopped the MSU at USC from crying foul and defending the presence of this despicable hadith.
These behaviors exhibited by the MSU, which is a chapter of the Muslim Student Association, all point to a systemic problem and radicalism on the part of Muslim organizations on campuses.