“Islamofascism Awareness Week”—and the invitation of David Horowitz, CC ’59 to Columbia—has conservative, liberal, and religious groups braced for debate.
Horowitz, a conservative writer, plans to speak at Columbia as part of a nation-wide college lecture tour organized by his group, the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Chris Kulawik, CC ’08 and president of the Columbia University College Republicans, invited Horowitz to deliver the speech, in which he is expected to address the rights of women in Islamic countries and to denounce some Islamic governments for what he sees as efforts to persecute women, Jews, and homosexuals.
Shira Gordon, BC ’08 and president of the Progressive Jewish Alliance, questioned the tactics of Horowitz, who is Jewish. “What offends me most is that he claims to speak for the Jewish community,” she said. “His packet says students should ask Hillel for its support. It offends me that he’s trying to speak for my community, even though I disagree with him,” she said.
Horowitz has sparked controversy in the past, for while Horowitz claims to advocate for moderate Muslims who are persecuted by so-called radical “Islamo-Fascist” and jihadist regimes, he has been criticized in the past for making generalizations about the entire Islam religion.
“It’s [“Islamo-Facism”] a movement that’s not aimed at a religion. It’s aimed at an entire culture and way of life,” said Ali Shefai, CC ’10 and president of Turath, an on-campus Arab students association.
“How do we know what he’s [Horowitz is] going to say?” Kulawik said in response to early concerns. “There is an attempt by some groups to call him a racist, or bigoted, when he is doing more for moderate Muslims than any other group on the Columbia campus.”
Horowitz has also been criticized for calling chapters of the Muslim Students Association terrorist fronts and for bullying Muslim student groups on college campuses to sign his Islamo-Fascism petition. Jack Orleans, a local activist and member of the off-campus group The World Can’t Wait—Drive Out the Bush Regime, expressed outrage at Horowitz’s request. Horowitz’s “effort to enlist radical students in making Muslim student association chapters sign a petition is a form of McCarthyism and, much worse, a form of fascism,” Orleans said.
Last year, Horowitz published a book detailing the “101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.” According to Gordon, the Progressive Jewish Alliance and the Columbia University College Democrats may invite the nine Columbia professors condemned in that book to speak on campus. The Progressive Jewish Alliance also plans to make armbands or T-shirts and to write a petition on behalf of Hillel protesting Horowitz’s use of the Jewish community to further his argument against Muslim radicals.
Many groups agree that it is important to stay involved. Adil Ahmed, CC ’08 and president of the Muslim Students Association, attended a meeting with Dean Christopher Colombo and University President Lee Bollinger about Horowitz’s speech.
Likewise, Gordon says that some of the members of her group have “been attending coalition meetings.”
On the other hand, some groups worry that staging large-scale protests would give Horowitz credence they think he doesn’t deserve.
“You don’t fight fire with fire,” Ahmed said.
“He [Horowitz] has the right to come speak and people have the right to listen to him,” Shefai said.
Kulawik agreed that Horowitz needs to be heard. “One our most famous alumni and one of the most articulate people to address these issues is coming to campus,” he said. “Given the state of politics at American university campuses, it is an upward slope for anyone from the right wing to voice their opinion.”