Students Hold Rally Against Pundit's Speech

To protest a speech by conservative author David Horowitz, CC ’59, a small crowd clad in orange gathered on Low Plaza to chant against racism.

The rally was held to show disapproval over Horowitz’s visit and his broader “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.” During the controversial week, speakers visited more than 100 universities to talk about extremist Islam.

While the rally included some graduate and undergraduate students, the crowd consisted largely of local residents and activists from the off-campus liberal nonprofit organization The World Can’t Wait! Drive Out The Bush Regime.

Demonstrators spoke out against “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” as “racist” and offensive to all Muslims. “It’s taking an entire belief system and equating it into fascism,” said Mahira Chishty, a first-year in the School of Social Work. “I want you all to look inside yourselves and ask yourselves, ‘Have you ever been racist?’”

At the event, Horowitz repeated his claims that extremist and fascist Muslim leaders had killed thousands of moderate followers of the faith.

“Horowitz believes that every person of the Islamic faith, regardless of circumstances or background or plans for the future, is inherently violent or conniving, or somehow untrustworthy,” Shlomo Bolts, CC ’10, said.

But Bolts cautioned against classifying Horowitz as “an enemy.”

“Ultimately such hatred and divisiveness do not contravene either to academic debate or to society as a whole,” he said. “As a democratic society we must find room even for people whose attitudes are unjust or undemocratic.”

Others took a different view. “We need to go to shut him down,” said Dan Peyser, a student in the School of Social Work and a member of the Progressive Labor Party.

“That means not just asking him tough questions. He should not have a platform to speak from.”

“It’s a campaign of demeaning Muslims that’s transparently disguised as an attempt to justify a new war with Iraq and Iran,” said David Judd, CC ’08 and a member of Columbia Coalition Against the War.

Horowitz was also criticized for his conservative leanings. Some speakers focused on denouncing the Bush administration in more general terms. Noah Baron, CC ’11, said in a speech that he could not take Horowitz seriously until he started organizing against American measures such as the PATRIOT Act. “People’s rights are not used to make a point,” Baron said.

“This whole program of misinformation is trying to provide a cover for the Bush regime,” said Jonathan Brown of The World Can’t Wait. “It’s providing a cover for bringing a fascist regime into the world.”

Others found fault with the Columbia University College Republicans for inviting Horowitz to speak. “Racist cowards are a pathetic, disgusting minority, but of course they can only be encouraged by the College Republicans who continue to invite the most vile bigots to our campus,” Karina Garcia, CC ’07 and a member of the Columbia Coalition Against the War, said. “They have again invited someone who stands for the tradition of slavery and exploitation, colonization and oppression.” Garcia and others railed against Horowitz for his alleged statement that “African Americans benefited from slavery.

The rally ended with protesters shouting a series of chants: “Blacks, Latinos, Arabs, Asians, and whites! No racist war, no more, no more, defend our civil rights!”