The members of the Muslim Student Union at the University of California, Irvine, condemn and strongly oppose the presence of Michael Oren on our campus today. We resent that the Law School and the Political Science Department have agreed to cosponsor a public figure who represents a state that continues to commit human rights violations, thereby breaking international law and law of Israeli accord. We strongly condemn the university for cosponsoring, and therefore, inadvertently supporting the ambassador of a state that is condemned by more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than all other countries in the world combined.
A year after the war on Gaza, in which 1,400 people were massacred, 700 of whom were women and children, Israel attempts to hide the war crimes it has committed behind the deceitful facades of so-called “academics” and “diplomats”. These public relations campaigns aim to secure more than three billion dollars of American taxpayer money that supports Israel’s military forces on an annual basis. The United States is going through the worst economic recession since the great depression, our tuition as UC students is increasing by more than 30% this year, our classes and services are being cut, and yet we continue to supply Israel with billions of dollars worth of brutal and illegal weapons used to oppress and inflict further suffering upon the Palestinian people.
To further understand why we oppose Michael Oren’s visit to UCI, one must consider his professional and military background. Oren personally participated in the Israeli Defense Force in wars that took place in Lebanon and Palestine. Oren took part in a culture that has no qualms with terrorizing the innocent, killing civilians, demolishing their homes, and illegally occupying their land. Oren is an outspoken supporter of the recent war on Gaza and stands in the way of international law by refusing to cooperate with the United Nation’s Goldstone Report a fact-finding mission endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council. The Goldstone Report accuses the Israeli government of committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in the densely populated Gaza Strip.
As people of conscience, we oppose Michael Oren’s invitation to our campus. Propagating murder is not a responsible expression of free speech. Oren and his partners should only be granted a speakers platform in the International Criminal Court and should not be honored on our campus.
Contact: publicrelations@msu-uci.com
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Charles Says:
The behavior of the Muslim students opposing Ambassador Oren’s visit was shameful and irresponsible. Unfortunately, the main effect of such behavior will be to degrade the reputation of U.C.I. as an academic institution and erode the value of whatever degree these individuals might earn – if, in fact, they are bona fide students. Either way, U.C.I. has lost as a result.
Posted on February 9th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
anonymous Says:
Thank you MSU for standing up to the truth!
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 7:47 am
Ali Says:
I condemn and strongly oppose the presence of any Muslim academic, diplomat, religious person or political figure on our campus. There is not one single Muslim country that has accepted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the core expression of western values.
Instead every singles Muslim country honors the Cairo Delegation of Human Rights which places Sharia law above anything else. Our western values are not compatible with Sharia law. Sharia law relegates our religions, our rights, our freedoms beneath Islam’s. There is no equality. Westerners, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews are second class people.
Just look at the Islamic republics of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Somalia where Sharia law is practiced to understand clearly we should no longer pretend these people or their leaders should be tolerated until they accept others as equals.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to not allow any Muslim representative to speak on our campus unless they denounce the Cairo Delegation of Human Rights, and accept values that are compatible with the freedoms we in the west value, and the individual rights and freedoms we also value and understand to be what separates us from Islamic tyranny.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 8:17 am
absurd Says:
this is truly an absurd statement by the MSU. though not a uc-irvine community member, but as an alumnus of a campus with deep tensions between israel and arab students i think that MSU should consider the prickly road their thought travels. and this is the inherent and sad nature of their statement.
first there is no effort to get to know ambassador oren – he remains completely and absolutely an idealogue, a physical manifestation of israel the state. by this measure anyone associated with the state of israel is denied their own persona, a thought that is troubling and goes against any conception of treating an individual as an individual. it shows a brass misunderstanding of human differentiation. lastly – there is a lack of understanding regarding the role a person plays (i.e. the office they represent) and the person themselves. it was fascinating to learn that ambassader oren holds two graduate degrees, one is a phd in near east studies. and that he has an acute scholarly disposition in his books.
in the end i don’t think you have to agree or support a man like ambassador oren, but if we begin to confuse individuals as being agents of a state and not individuals we lack any degree of human compassion or ability to address them individually. the same agency that it takes to stand up and shout or to write this missive is the same agency we must assume others have. live in the real world, not a pretend existence of faux-articulation. ultimately if you believe that ambassador oren is wrong you ought to prove it with your facts, and urgings to power brokers that can do something about it.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Ali Says:
What I saw in the video of Ambassador Oren’s attempted presentation made me realize UC/Irvine is not really a college, so much as a platform for frustrated, misquided, completely uncivilized people (pretending to be students) and a place for them to vent their frustrations and Nazi-like prejudices in a public forum. The adminsitration from the shcool’s president on down should be embarrassed of themselves for allowing and even encouraging an atmosphere where this has become expected.
The supposed “students” at UC/Irvine are not interested in hearing other opinions. The students at UC/Irvine are so sure “their” opinions. It must be nice to be 20 years old and to have everything figured out. Nice? Or insane?
This school is not about learning, it is about reinforcing prejudice. And the most vile prejudice and prejudices. This school is about twisting the meaning of free speech so badly that it has become to mean anarchy where public speakers (with both legitamcy and legitimate things to say) are shouted down by angry thugs. This is what freedom of speech has come to mean at UC/Irvine.
When the world comes to a place where “MY” opinion is the only one that matters, then I am left wondering what distinguishes this world from Saudi Arabia where nobody is free to express an opposing opinion directed at the royal family. For this is certainly what we saw happen here. Young punks didn’t want to be bothered with hearing anything that might open their closed minds to a different perspective. This doesn’t mean they would have to accept the different perspective, but until someone is open to hear something else it is certain change will not happen. At UC/Irvien instead the thugs shout down anyone expressing a perspective alien to their own.
Is this what UC/Irvine wants? Does UC/Irvine want to become like Saudi Arabia where the strongest voice IS the only voice heard? Because if the administration does not make some significant changes, and significant changes soon, this is where they will find “their” university soon enough.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 11:21 am
A Proud Jew Says:
While I am not a student at UC Irvine, I dealt with similar types of people when I was an undergrad at the University of Maryland. All I can state is that people like these hooligan students at UC Irvine make me feel like I made the right decision by saying goodbye to America and going to grad school in Israel. Israel is the only place in the western world today where speakers are given the respect that they deserve, despite their political opinions. At IDC Herzliya, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spoke, and all of the Jewish people there listened to every word he had to say in a very respectful manner. I don’t understand why these Muslim and Arab students are incapable of that. Israel is the only place where Jewish students are not targeted in a hateful manner and don’t have to live in terror. Regardless, if UC Irvine wants to save their reputation, I think that all of these Muslim and Arab extremists should be expelled. They have no place in western civilization, since they obviously are incapable of respecting peoples right to freedom of speech.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Ilyssa Says:
WELL said Ali. What MSU did at Michael Oren’s talk SICKENS me.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
charlotte james Says:
Why instead of screaming and threatening, you did not try, as adults, to have some sort of dialogue with Ambassador Oren? Why do the Palestinean soldiers use their own people as a shield–(as seen in a video released recently in which your own men went into a Palestinean school and shot at Israeli soldiers?)People in war are capable of doing horrible things, but escalating the violence and hatred is not the answer. Why don’t you redirect your energies into something positive before we all destroy ourselves. Personally I have no desire to be with 72 virgins…I don’t understand what your hurry is.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
robaby1984 Says:
I want to respond some of these ludicrous posts by ‘Ali’ (probably not his real name) and others.
To Ali when it comes to Shariah:
To many, the word “Shariah” conjures horrors of hands cut off, adulterers stoned and women oppressed. By contrast, who today remembers that the much-loved English common law called for execution as punishment for hundreds of crimes, including theft of any object worth five shillings or more? How many know that until the 18th century, the laws of most European countries authorized torture as an official component of the criminal-justice system? As for sexism, the common law long denied married women any property rights or indeed legal personality apart from their husbands. When the British applied their law to Muslims in place of Shariah, as they did in some colonies, the result was to strip married women of the property that Islamic law had always granted them — hardly progress toward equality of the sexes.
In fact, for most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world. Today, when we invoke the harsh punishments prescribed by Shariah for a handful of offenses, we rarely acknowledge the high standards of proof necessary for their implementation. Before an adultery conviction can typically be obtained, for example, the accused must confess four times or four adult male witnesses of good character must testify that they directly observed the sex act. The extremes of our own legal system — like life sentences for relatively minor drug crimes, in some cases — are routinely ignored. We neglect to mention the recent vintage of our tentative improvements in family law. It sometimes seems as if we need Shariah as Westerners have long needed Islam: as a canvas on which to project our ideas of the horrible, and as a foil to make us look good.
Moreover, Ali Shariah is not uniform code of law that every Muslim country follows the same way. Most of the Shariah laws are subject to the interpretations of Islamic judges and are not absolute and constantly being reformed. As Muslim countries become more modernized, Shariah laws are becoming lesser strict and the application of them when comes to punishments are being applied to a much lesser extent. Shariah has even been used by non-Muslims to argue equality with Muslims in Muslim countries because the Hanafi school of Islamic Jurisprudence has said that a non-Muslim life is equal to a Muslim life and thus discrimination against non-Muslims based on Shariah can’t be justified. So as you can see, there is no uniform school of thought in Shariah, and many Muslims have successfully used some more liberal aspects of the Shariah to refute more strict aspects of it.
As for you Proud Jew, absurd and Al:
When you are talking about freedom of speech, your hypocrisy is soo blatant because I remember the huge protests and disruptions that erupted when Ahmadinejad tried to speak at Columbia and other Universities and that he was insulted and refused entry to many other places. What these protesters did, who by the way were also CHRISTIAN AND JEWISH, not just Muslims, is not stifle freedom of speech, because all they did was voice their opinion even if they did interrupt Mr. Oren. After individually making their comment, each student then moved to leave the room and allow Oren to continue his speech. Whether or not one agrees with the students’ tactics for expressing their opinions during this event, all students should be free to exercise their free speech without being subjected to arrest, intimidation, and even death threats.
SO WHILE OREN WAS ALLOWED TO FINISH HIS SPEECH, THESE STUDENTS WERE LATER ARRESTED FOR THEIR OWN FREE SPEECH.
These students had the courage and conscience to stand up against aggression, using peaceful means. We cannot allow our educational institutions to be used as a platform to threaten and discourage students who choose to practice their First Amendment rights. I encourage these students to file a lawsuit against the UCI Police and if they are expelled for voicing their opinion they should sue UCI too.
Posted on February 10th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Jean Olson Says:
As someone living in the Irvine Community, I assure you these types of incidents at UCI are damaging the reputation of the school itself. It indicates a lack of effective discipline from the UCI Administration and an inability to instill responsible behavior from their students. Of course, such incidents also reflect negatively on Muslims in general, which I would think people of the Muslim faith and heritage would find abhorrent. I will be interested to learn what happens to those arrested and what the Administration does to prevent further problems. I would respond by having a variety of speakers favorable to Israel, so that Muslim students/visitors who were disruptive would realize their uncivilized methods of protest produced an undesired result for their cause.
Posted on February 11th, 2010 at 6:28 am
califlefty Says:
When will Drake finally be held accountable??
Posted on February 12th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
MickM Says:
What a black eye to the academic reputation of this university. As for the protesting thugs–they only succeeded in demonstrating their total disregard for the time-honored tradition of open debate in an academic setting. They also showed, quite clearly, the warped ideology of hate that drive Islamic fascist extremists. It is time to admit what drives this ideology: raw, unvarnished bigotry. Left unopposed by people of moral clarity, we will soon see a tragic repeat of 1930’s Germany.
Posted on February 14th, 2010 at 8:30 am
Howard Says:
Robaby1984 has a flawed understanding of free speech. Free speech does not extend to a heckler’s veto. In fact, government (e.g., a state university) is obligated by the first amendment to protect a speaker (Ambassador Oren) from those who would try to silence him (the Muslim students). It seems, further, that these students do not understand the purpose of a university, which is to hear and consider divergent views. Perhaps being expelled and serving prison time will at least give them some perspective on how to behave in civil society.
Posted on February 14th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Abby G. Burton Says:
What I find so ironic about what occurred at UC Irvine during Ambassador Oren’s appearance, is that those protestors would never be able to have such freedom were they living in a country where their goal of shutting off the freedom to speak is actual government policy.
And were those protesting students living in a Muslim country where free speech is not allowed, not only would they have not been permitted to even stand up, they would not be holding blackberrys and iphones.
Indeed, the young women protestors would not have even been allowed in the room. And more than likely, those who had the courage to raise their voices in such an oppressive country, would’ve been “disappeared” forever.
There is something empirically wrong and skewed about students trying to shut down an open forum where their presence and opinions and questions are not only welcomed, but would’ve been addressed.
There are many reasons why participating in open forums is seen as dangerous: one is that opening up debate could undermine the authority of the powers that be and another is that hearing other views and ideas might shake the foundation of what is suppose to be solid, incontrovertible personal/political/social beliefs.
Ambassador Oren expressed regret that he couldn’t have an open dialogue with those students who sought to silence him.
Unfortunately, because their fear of possibly hearing something that might challenge their own ideological mindset is stronger then their desire to truly try to effect change, those student protestors have devalued and weakened their own voices.
Abby G. Burton
Posted on February 15th, 2010 at 10:32 am
Mark Says:
So let me get this straight – I can exercise my freedom of speech by loudly interrupting you every time you try to make a point?
In this case, the MSU had every right to make the above announcement and to peacefully protest OUTSIDE the venue. The students who disrupted deserve disciplinary action from UCI, not protection of their supposed free speech rights.
If you want to exercise civil disobedience, you must accept the consequences of your actions. Thoreau refused bail, asking Emerson why he (Emerson) was not in jail.
If the last sentence means nothing to you, read up on civil disobedience before engaging in adolescent “protests” like that of 9 February.
Posted on February 15th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Qazu Says:
I totally agree with robaby1984. The idiocy of arresting these courageous students is apparent.
What a lot of you do not realize is that these protests were not sponsored by MSU; they have stated that numerous times. They were acting on their own accord, even though not all the students (and their supporters) are Muslim.
Posted on February 15th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Tina Kader Says:
I agree it is wrong to interrupt any speaker but it’s more wrong to allow anyone involved in genocide to speak at any institution in America. No matter what anyone says, Israel is responsible for colonization of a country that is not theirs, the murder of civilians, and anyone that’s been there has witnessed knows they are pretty much doing to the Palestinians what Nazi Germany did to them…..but at a slower rate and using US tax payers dollars. The US should not allow such speakers from countries that oppress people, to speak……and although the students wrong to have protested by yelling out insults one can understand their frustration. They are still American’s…..no matter their color or origin.
Posted on February 17th, 2010 at 7:15 am
M Ejaz Says:
I believe it’s totally unacceptable to interrupt a speech of a public figure such as Mr Oren
I believe in people getting there point across but only in a civilised manner
I believe the actions of a few MSU students should not reflect the opinions of the entire university
I believe in international laws and regulations.
I also believe in being able to live in freedom, especially in your own country, and I believe the use of phosphorus on civilians is illegal, as is the murder of hundreds of innocent women and children, as is the occupation, I believe the weapons of aggression are unnecessary, and finally I believe the students did a marvellous job to stand up to express their views in whatever peaceful manner they chose.
Posted on February 17th, 2010 at 11:33 am
F. Levin Says:
Foreign students who can not respect the rules of their host country and educational institution should be expelled and sent home. They are guests, not residents. They are here to learn. If they don’t like how we do things, they are free to leave. And if they break our laws, they should expect to be deported.
Posted on February 18th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Ali Says:
Robaby presents a fantasy interpretation of Sharia law. His presentation of Sharia law cannot be found in any one of the 57 OIC member countries. And, in fact, in all 57 of these OIC countries Sharia law as practiced is not tolerant or compassionate, but is repressive and cruel instead.
The bottom line is we in the West practice the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All Western countries are signatories of this declaration.
Meanwhile there is not one OIC country that has agreed to honor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for instead they have agreed to honor the Cairo Delegation of Human Rights. This document condones a two-tier legal and human rights system where Muslim countries and Muslim are awarded greater rights than those allowed non-Muslims and non-Muslim countries.
So Robaby can spin Sharia law so as to confuse those who know little about it, but the simple truth is if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck than chances are it is a duck. By this I mean that if it quacks like Saudi Arabia, or it walks like Iran, and if it practices human rights like Somalia than chances are it is a Sharia State, for these three countries all practice Sharia law. And what does this say about human rights under Sharia law? Nothing other than that if it is enacted throughout the world than all non-Muslims might as well be dead ducks.
Posted on February 19th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Zot Zot Says:
Ali nailed it.
If the students didn’t want to hear the guy speak and couldn’t control their emotions, they should have stayed home. They could have protested outside. They could have posed challenging questions to Oren durign the question and answer period. Instead, they choose to violate the rights of those who attended the lecture to hear a guest lecture speak.
People attending the lecture may have ended up disagreeing with Oren. Their convictions may have been stronger by having challenged their beliefs. The students who interrupted the speech do not understand the value of the First Amendment. They seem to think that anyone representing Israel should be denied the right to speak on the campus.
Posted on February 20th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Anonymous Says:
The MSU’s behavior is embarrassing and has been embarrassing since I was at UCI. The MSU is making a joke of my school. In graduate school, the only thing my fellow students know about UCI is the way the Muslim Student Union behaves.
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 at 10:24 pm
Haaretz reporting Says:
Haaretz is reporting that Oren is willing to come back to UC Irvine to exchange ideas.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1155135.html
Posted on March 9th, 2010 at 1:37 am