The Muslim Student Association, a national religious organization, is connected to radical groups that want to destroy the West, says an author who will be lecturing at Lehigh Thursday.
David Horowitz, whose lecture is sponsored in part by the Lehigh Patriot, said that although the majority of students in the Muslim Student Association, which has a chapter at Lehigh, have joined under the assumption that it is a cultural or religious group, the national organization "is connected to the jihad network."
"Our complaint is that they are tied to organizations that want to destroy the West and are part of the jihads," Horowitz said in an interview Wednesday.
Horowitz, who says he does not hold anti-Muslim views, cited several incidents in which he says individual chapters of the Muslims Student Association repeated or posted texts of an Islamic text called Hadith, which he says calls for the killing of Jewish people, among other connections to terrorist organizations.
Horowitz has circulated a statement condemning the acts of Hamas and Hezbollah to about 100 Muslim Student Association chapters over the last two years, of which he said none have signed.
Interviews conducted with current members, advisors and professors familiar with Lehigh's Muslim Student Association, however, paints a different picture.
"Muslim students on campus have always offered welcoming interactive and educational programming open to all students, faculty and staff," said Bill Hunter, director of the Global Union and adviser to the Muslim Student Association. "They have done some wonderful programs."
Hunter said he thinks Lehigh students are smart enough to recognize radical viewpoints, but was concerned that speakers may try to create a riff between students that does not exist.
Muslim Student Association member Jafar Hussain, '11, said he plans to attend the lecture, but hopes to challenge Horowitz on his characterization of the Muslim Student Association and of the Islamic faith.
"Horowitz has as much of a right to share his beliefs and his views as does anyone else. The issue we have is that we just don't see eye-to-eye on these issues," Hussain said. "I feel like what he does on college campuses adds fuel to the fire and it doesn't create solutions."
Hussain, who was born in Canada and whose mother and father both emigrated from Pakistan, said his faith has shaped the way he sees the world, but welcomed viewpoints that challenge his beliefs as educational. His parents now live in Pennsylvania.
Lehigh Patriot co-editor Trevor Drummond said they chose Horowitz because he is in align with the Patriot's free and open discourse of ideas. Drummond is also the communications officer for the College Republicans, which has been publicizing the event for Paint the Campus Red week.
"His message was most in line with that of the Patriot, and that is to promote a healthy and intellectual discourse on campus," Drummond said.
Drummond defended Horowitz's representation of the Muslim Student Association as substantiated because it is based on research done by Horowitz's group, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, although he did not believe it applied specifically to Lehigh.
Drummond said they were most interested in Horowitz's work as it applied to academic freedom in college, which he believes is predominantly liberal. He said they hope people will leave "if not in support of what we believe, thinking about what we believe and asking more questions about what we believe."
The College Republicans screened a film Wednesday night about radical Islam.
University Chaplain Lloyd Steffen, who has worked with Lehigh's Muslim Student Alliance, said Horowitz is distorting information about Muslims for political reasons, but thought his lecture could serve as an educational experience for attendees.
"Horowitz and folks like him - you can find them on the right and the left - I'm not sure that people who take extreme views are really interested in informed conversation," Steffen said.
This is not Horowitz's first time to speak at Lehigh. He spoke previously spoke in 2005 to discuss academic freedom.
Steffen said Horowitz's new work on the Muslim Student Association is strange.
"This business about them being associated in some way with terrorists activities is a bizarre case to make," Steffen said. "We're very grateful to have [the Muslim Student Association] at Lehigh."
Lecturer to link national student group to radical Islam
Lehigh University l The Brown and White
By Chris Knight