‘Islamist Threat’ panel stirs emotions at UCLA
The audience at the panel discussion on “Totalitarian Islam’s Threat to theWest” wanted red meat, the protestors wanted to make a stir, the battery ofcampus cops at UCLA wanted to prevent violence — and all sides got prettymuch what they came for.
In contrast to most academic panels, which often leave the listener at sea onthe speaker’s point, the three on the dais made their views crystal clear.
Their opening statements alone made President Bush or former Israeli PrimeMinister Ariel Sharon look like bleeding heart peaceniks. For example:
Yaron Brook, president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute:”Islam is a totalitarian ideology which wants to control the world. You can’tnegotiate with it. It must be crushed by force, it must be crushed militarily …it can be defeated easily, if we have the will to do so.”
Wafa Sultan, Syrian American lecturer and author: “There is no difference inthe political ideology of radical and moderate Muslims. You need amicroscope to see the difference.”
Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum: “Islam wants to imposeshariah [Islam’s fundamental religious law] on the whole world and controlevery aspect of life. We must crush the will of Islam until its followers give upthis goal.”
The scene on April 12 at UCLA’s Moore Hall, the site of the discussion, wasreminiscent of a busy airport during a security alert.
Policemen guarded all four entrances to the hall and some 400 attendeeswaited patiently in line for individual body checks before grabbing scarceseats.
After a while, a lone protestor showed up, carrying a sign with the words,”Hands off Syria, Iran, Down with U.S. Aid to Israel.”
The bearer of the sign identified himself as a member of the Spartacus YouthLeague — shades of Berkeley in the 1940s — but declined to give hisname.
He proved to be a Trotskyite decoy. Inside the hall, about 20 members of theMuslim Students Association, some from as far away as San Luis Obispo andIrvine, were waiting for Pipes to speak.
As soon as he opened his mouth, the students got up and left, while theaudience hastened their exit with rhythmic chants of ” Out, Out, Out.”
Officially sponsoring the event was a student group called LOGIC, which,according to its Web site, stands for Liberty, Objectivity, Greed, Individualism,Capitalism. It is an affiliate of the Ayn Rand Institute, which was out in forcewith sign-up tables, pamphlets and free copies of its founder’s massivebestseller, “Atlas Shrugged.”
The central philosophy of Rand, both the author and the institute, is”objectivism,” which holds, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “that allreal achievement is the product of individual ability and effort, that laissez-faire capitalism is most congenial to the exercise of talent, and thatselfishness is a virtue, altruism a vice.”
The most visible current champion of the philosophy, and, with Pipes, themost outspoken foe of Islam, is Yaron Brook, who was born in Jerusalem, theson of recent immigrants from South Africa, and served three years in militaryintelligence. He earned a civil engineering degree at the Technion, but felt”oppressed by Israeli socialism” and left for the United States in 1985.
Brook was named head of the Ayn Rand Institute in 2000, and since then hastripled its size, he said. Headquartered in Irvine, the institute now has 34employees and a $6 million annual budget.
He told The Journal that while the institute focuses mainly on domesticissues, such as the defense of capitalism and business, he felt he had tospeak out against the “existential threat” of Islam.
“There are few others willing to call a spade a spade,” he said.
Brook sees no significant shift in the “liberal” attitude of most American Jews,which calls largely for encouraging moderate Muslims, rather than a WorldWar II-type “unconditional surrender” by Islam.
“There seemed to be some shift to the right after Sept. 11,” he said, “but nowthe large middle segment doesn’t know what to think.”
— Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor
(Web editor's note: For a similar demonstration at a similar Pipesappearance at UCI, seethis YouTube video.
Goldhagen: Iraq conflict increased worldwide anti-Semitism
“Anti-Semitism has become particularly acute as a result of the conflict in Iraqand is taking on the forms, ideas and structure of globalization,” Daniel JonahGoldhagen said in a speech at the Yom HaShoah program April 15 atSephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Westwood.
Goldhagen, the author of “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans andthe Holocaust,” believes much of today’s anti-Semitism is centered in theIslamic world and is a function of “the obsessive focus on Israel as a pariahstate.” Moreover, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism are frequently linked.Goldhagen illustrated this by citing a British Labour parliamentarian quotedsaying that Bush, Rumsfeld and their associates are “puppets of a Jewishcabal which has taken over the government of the United States.”
In spite of the fact that Christian churches are no longer interested indemonizing Jews, there has been a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe,where a large percentage of the population believes Jews are more loyal toIsrael than to their own countries. Violence against Jews and Jewishinstitutions has increased so much that, especially in France and Germany,Jews once again feel physically threatened and forbid their children to displayoutward signs of their religion such as wearing kippot or Stars of David.
While earlier forms of anti-Semitism were local in nature, Goldhagen says thatglobal anti-Semitism extends beyond national borders and focuses on Israeland the United States. Where once Jews were characterized as powerless, slyand corrupt, “their image has changed from Shylock Jews to Rambo Jews,”powerful in contrast to “the poor, suffering Palestinians” whose images areseen the world over.
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