The Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week concluded with the Bruin Republicans’ main speaker event. Journalist Joe Kaufman spoke about his findings of the terrorist ties in some Islamic groups.
He began his speech by recalling his reaction on Sept. 11, 2001. As a child, Kaufman had thought of the World Trade Center as “the Superman of all buildings.”
“When 9/11 happened, I took it personally,” Kaufman, who writes for FrontPage Magazine, said.
The majority of Kaufman’s research has focused on various Muslim groups operating in America, and how they can be tied back to extremist groups.
After Sen. Barbara Boxer presented an award for “outstanding service” to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in December 2006, Kaufman was outspoken about the group’s ties to fundamentalist Islam groups. The award was later rescinded.
Kaufman said few people are aware of the scope of terrorist funding in this country’s history.
“(Terrorist) operations were being run from America,” Kaufman said.
The council was founded by Hamas, an Islamic militant organization. Both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, a multinational Islamic political group, have helped start many Islamic groups across the world, according to Kaufman, including the Muslim Student Association.
Monica Rowand, a first-year communication studies student, said she came to the event to hear a different point of view from her own.
“I don’t agree with what the Bruin Republicans are saying and I want to know the logic behind their statements,” Rowand said.
Salomon Hossein, a member of MSA, said Kaufman rarely mentioned the club in his speech, and when he did, he lumped them in with Islamic radicals.
“(The speech) hardly … was about MSA. He went on about known terrorist organizations,” which MSA is not, Hossein said.
Later in his speech, Kaufman was especially concerned with a past issue of Al-Talib, the UCLA newsmagazine geared toward the Muslim community. In a July 1999 editorial titled “Jihad in America,” the Al-Talib staff wrote, “When we hear someone refer to … Osama bin Laden as a “˜terrorist,’ we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter.”
A caption for the cover read “Osama bin Laden, freedom fighter and philanthropist.”
Mustafa Siddique, the current editor of Al-Talib, said the publication no longer holds this view.
“Obviously this was done before 9/11,” Siddique said. “People didn’t know (bin Laden) would do such things.”
“Of course we condemn all people who kill in the name of Islam,” Siddique added.
Kaufman also cited an Internet forum for young Muslims where one young man wrote that Americans will eventually realize the fundamentalists are correct, “even if they have to realize it at the barrel of a gun.”
Though FrontPage Magazine is considered a conservative publication, Kaufman does not consider himself completely right-wing. He believes the Bush administration has made mistakes.
“I believe we have fought this war on terrorism all wrong,” Kaufman said. “Today, the majority of Americans hate this war.”
John Ellis, a law student and former treasurer of Bruin Republicans, said Kaufman’s message demonstrated the true reason the group sponsored this week’s events.
“I think there have been a lot of misconceptions about Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, and this cleared it up,” Ellis said.
“It’s been very frustrating that people put words in our mouth” and then go on to condemn them for what they supposedly said, Ellis added.
Hossein said the event was not a positive one for MSA.
“I believe he made every Muslim look bad, because he associated (moderate Muslims) with terrorist organizations,” Hossein said.