Democrats, Republicans clash over perception of Islam
As Republicans highlight Islamo-Fascism, Democrats stress tolerance
Perry Stein
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: News
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Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is a national project sponsored by the Terrorism Awareness Project, an organization founded by David Horowitz, with the goal of confronting "two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat."
"The root cause of terrorism is not and never has been American foreign policy," said Steve Miller, national director of the Terrorism Awareness Project. "Our enemy is driven by a radical religious motivation, a motivation that is hard for us to understand and appreciate."
The flagship event at Washington University will be a screening of the documentary "Suicide Killers," which explores the mindset of suicide attackers at 7 p.m. in the second floor common room of Shepley Hall.
In response to the controversial event, the College Democrats will be holding "Teach-in for Tolerance" on the Swamp, an event that, according to President Meredith Sigler, was coincidentally scheduled at the same time as the College Republicans' event.
"Immediately, we realized that we needed a response to this event specifically and the ideas that David Horowitz is pushing," said Sigler. "The main purpose of this event is to promote tolerance and to state that what David Horowitz stands for is not what we believe."
The Teach-in for Tolerance event will feature guest speakers Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz, from the department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, and Professor Howard Brick from the History department, with the intention of helping to educate students about the nature of Islam.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 16
Michael Safyan
posted 10/22/07 @ 3:44 AM CST
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** BOTH OR NEITHER **
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While one should not generalize about Islam or Muslims, adherents of radical variants of Islam have murdered thousands in terrorist attacks. (Continued…)
Basil
posted 10/22/07 @ 5:18 AM CST
Teach-in for tolerance has good motives. But it should be directed towards educating the Islamic communities about tolerance towards non-Muslims. All we hear is that Islam is a religion of peace. (Continued…)
Michael
posted 10/22/07 @ 9:03 AM CST
While my personal beliefs line up closely with the Democratic ideal of tolerance, I am disappointed that the two events are scheduled at the same time. (Continued…)
David
posted 10/22/07 @ 9:17 AM CST
"I just wasn't comfortable with the idea that Islam in itself is pushing terrorism..."
Well, me neither. Unfortunately, I think it's true. But he should come to the movie tonight, and let the would-be suicide bombers themselves tell us why they do what they do. (Continued…)
JB
posted 10/22/07 @ 3:21 PM CST
It is funny how we attack an entire people for being violent, when our culture is among the most violent in the world. You are more likely to die in a car crash or a drive-by shooting in America than you are from a terrorist attack. (Continued…)
Sam
posted 10/22/07 @ 3:50 PM CST
In response to the comment from the guy from SPPIF, just because Islam is the largest religion does not mean it cannot be violent. One thing has nothing to do with the other. (Continued…)
Meredith
posted 10/22/07 @ 4:59 PM CST
Hi, I'm Meredith, and I'm the President of College Democrats here. The events were NOT purposely scheduled at the same time, as strange as that sounds. (Continued…)
Joe
posted 10/22/07 @ 10:15 PM CST
I wonder which side the paper is taking here. They must've combed through thousands of photos to find the one with Horiwitz closest to the "Hitler Salute". (Continued…)
Dana
posted 10/23/07 @ 1:14 PM CST
No, no, Joe, I was there. He held it the whole time.
Peter
posted 10/23/07 @ 3:56 PM CST
In case you missed it an MP3 podcast of the Teach-In For Tolerance is available here!
http://reboot.stlimc.org/newswire_audio2007/introduction-teach-tolerance-washington-university-st. (Continued…)
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