Horowitz Lambasts Columbia, Liberals

In a much-anticipated appearance last Friday, conservative writer David Horowitz, CC ’59, attacked the professors at Columbia University, addressed abuses of women’s rights in predominantly Muslim countries, and discussed the U.S. War on Terror.

Horowitz’s speech, organized by the Columbia University College Republicans, was the culminating event in Horowitz’s “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” a controversial lecture tour of 114 college campuses across America. Columbia University Public Safety officers flanked the doors of the CUID-only event and administered a baggage check, but Horowitz spoke to a relatively calm audience that failed to fill Roone Arledge Auditorium. The crowd was enthusiastic, though some potential critics were absent, opting for protests held at the same time.

In his address, Horowitz criticized Columbia, liberals, and critics of the term “Islamo-Fascism.”

“When I came to this campus as a freshman 52 years ago ... the gates and the atmosphere was a lot more hospitable to actual thinking than it is today,” Horowitz said. As an undergraduate, he said he was a Marxist in a place where most professors were not.

“I detect somewhat of a double standard at this University and others that I’ve been to, in that nooses have been put figuratively on the doors of the College Republicans,” Horowitz said, alluding to an incident at Teachers College more than two weeks earlier when a noose was found hung on the door of an African-American professor. Horowitz decried the “national hate campaign” that targeted “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” and his research. “There’s always a noose, of course, over my head.”

Horowitz clarified the term “Islamo-Fascism,” saying he intended the week to serve as a defense of moderate Muslims. He said that Algerian Muslims first coined the term when “Islamo-Fascist” organizations slaughtered them in the 1990s. Many have countered that Horowitz applies the term to the religion broadly and does not limit its use to extremists.

Horowitz also spoke about his campaign for academic freedom, which he says is stifled by a far-left academy. “Professors must not present their opinions as undisputed facts,” he said.

“I find it important to discuss the issues of academic freedom,” Zach Rosenberg, CC ’09, said after the event. “It’s apparent that the University is more liberal than average American society and what he [Horowitz] said about not having conservative professors is absolutely accurate.”

Addressing the liberals at Columbia, Horowitz said, “You are getting a worse education than the conservatives,” because conservatives “are all challenged all the time. ... A conservative on the faculty is as rare as a unicorn.” He said that education at Columbia is one-sided, citing the example of the Women’s Studies department, which he says does not deal with the oppression of women in Muslim countries.

“There are a hundred and thirty million girls in the Islamic world who have had their genitals sliced off because according to a perverse interpretation of Islamic tradition, female sexual pleasure is evil.”

After the event, the College Republicans hailed the speech as a success. “For weeks now, protesters have been creating an image of Horowitz,” said Chris Kulawik, CC ’08 and College Republicans president. “They discovered today it was different from what many expected. It wasn’t this giant conspiracy.”

The speech generated predominately positive responses from the audience.

Unlike his appearance at Emory University—during which a boisterous audience prompted police to escort Horowitz off stage in the middle of his speech—Horowitz was able to deliver his speech at Columbia in its entirety. Audience members submitted questions on index cards, which Kulawik sifted through and presented.

Horowitz cut Kulawik off before he finished reading some questions. The audience met many of Horowitz’s points with enthusiastic clapping. “The audience was respectful. Horowitz was able to present his views. Although a lot of the views are certainly things that a lot of people disagree with, they were able to be heard and questioned,” Jon Siegel, CC ’08 and Student Government Board president, said after the event.

When Kulawik read a question inquiring about “American fascism,” Horowitz dismissed the question, saying that “people who think there’s an American fascism are delusional.”

“This event could have had a live question-and-answer session,” David Bender, GS, said after the event. “You discredit Columbia students when you say that if we’re allowed to ask questions in a live fashion we’re going to start warring.”

As Horowitz spoke, many of his more vocal critics—including the College Democrats—attended a panel discussion in which four Columbia professors who Horowitz has denounced as dangerous discussed the perils of Horowitz’s ideas.