Outsider Responsible For Fliering Room

A Berkeley, Calif., "undercover journalist" has confirmed that he posted fliers about former Palestinian militant Walid Shoebat on bulletin boards near the Muslim Students Association's prayer room in Earl Hall before last week's event featuring the pro-Israel speaker.

The fliers, copies of a press release that challenged the students for their decision not to attend the event, were posted by Lee Kaplan, a 54-year-old writer who has written about bias at colleges across the country. Kaplan, who is working on a book about American higher education and the war on terror, said he felt that the fliers were not offensive, calling the controversy surrounding it "a big brouhaha, much ado about nothing."

"From what I've been hearing, this is a great insult to Muslims. Of course, everything is a great insult to Muslims these days," he said, also suggesting that students read Shoebat's book Why I Left Jihad. Kaplan, who was at Wednesday's speech at the invitation of the Walid Shoebat Foundation and who is not affiliated with the University, attacked Columbia as a bastion of anti-Semitism.

"I think that the manner in which he went about getting his message across ... shows that he simply wasn't trying to promote the event. ... He was trying to intimidate us," said Omar Siddiqi, CC '09 and president of the Muslim Students Association. "I think he [Kaplan] is a bit unstable, and I hope that nobody on campus has any affiliation with him."

The fliers quoted Shoebat as saying, "It is interesting to note that the official line of the Arab Student groups on campus is not to protest against us peacefully or even to turn up. ... This should prove that standing up to intimidation and bullies is the only option on campus and in the free world."

"It's important for people to know that though we were silent, we weren't silenced," Siddiqi added. "We aren't intimidated by these people."

Chris Kulawik, CC '08 and president of the College Republicans, which sponsored the event, said that the postings were not made in affiliation with the group.

"His decisions were his decisions," Kulawik said. "We don't agree with him."