Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week on College Campuses - A Report

Update 10/29/07 - Dennis Prager at Univ. of Cal at Santa Barbara  reports a triumph  -  Phyllis Chesler reports that her evening at Columbia University with Ibn Warraq and Christina Hoff-Sommers was likewise a "refreshing triumph."  (Note: Warraq has just published a new book, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism)  - Here is a report from the University of Pennsylvania, and here is a report from George Washington University.  David Horowitz offers a summary overview of the week saying,

The week of October 22-26 witnessed the largest, most successful campus demonstrations by students not associated with the anti-American left in the history of campus protests. 114 college and university campuses participated in “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which highlighted the threat from the Islamic jihad, and the oppression of Muslim women. It featured speakers such as former Senator Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter, Robert Spencer, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager and Daniel Pipes . . .

In response, anti-American leftists and organizations supporting the Islamic jihad organized a national campaign of vitriol and hate that was almost unprecedented. This campaign revealed the lengths to which the anti-American left will go to prevent the public from discussing the nature of the holy war that has been declared on them. It was characterized by a political McCarthyism whose levels of character assassination and slander had not been seen since the early days of the Cold War. Speakers for the events and students organizing them were attacked as religious bigots and anti-Muslim “racists” and “fascists.”

Our speakers showed admirable courage in their willingness to endure the slander and attacks they knew that challenging the left would entail. But it was our students who braved the fiercest attacks from members of their campus communities. I can’t say enough how proud I am of the students I met this week on the campuses I visited, and the many others who worked with us to make this week a success. Without their willingness to stand up and be counted, there would have been no Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

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I have reported previously on "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week"  here and here.  It's time for additional updates.  For those who have not read about this week of emphasis on 109 college campuses, an interview David Horowitz gave to National Review Online  is the best thing you could read.  Horowitz spoke at Emory University tonight and he reports he got 15 minutes into his speech before he was shouted down and could not continue.  Videos and comprehensive reports are available at Incorrect University.   

Of his experience at Emory University, Horowitz said:

The left merely inflicted a defeat on itself, since civil America, both left and right, will be appalled at the spectacle. Moreover, it's impossible to shut down Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week which has been the intent of our "critics" from the beginning.

We set out to start a discussion about Islamo-Fascism and the oppression of women in Islam (and the deafening silence of Women's Studies Departments over that oppression) and we have done just that. On 114 campuses and in

the national press on national TV and across the Internet and the talk-radio network, people are talking about Islamo-fascism and the oppression of women in Islam and the silence of Women's Studies departments about that oppression. That was what we set out to achieve and we have.

In the process we have exposed the hateful tactics of the left, including the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (whose pro-Hizbollah founder can be seen on Hizbollah TV here) who organized a national campaign of slander against the students that organized our events and the speakers who came to their campuses.

No sane person will believe their malicious character assassinations and attacks which have become a familiar currency of leftist outrages; their disgraceful behavior will win them no allies.

Emory will get a big black eye from this evening's events which is unfortunate but inevitable. Universities like Emory are paying the price of not taking care of the important task of establishing a campus decorum appropriate to civilized discussion. As I have said many times, there should be zero tolerance for disrupters at campus events, and that means a sufficient police presence to eject the barbarians when they enter the gates. Unfortunately, that didn't happen this evening.

Other reports:

Nonie Darwish at Berkeley - shouted down.  Horowitz writes  of her appalling treatment.

Robert Spencer Was at DePaul - in his comments on the evening he notes the following:

Freedom Folks, whom I had the pleasure of meeting there, has coverage of the evening, plenty of pictures, and video of the talk I gave.

And that reminds me: if you really like that tie, you can see it again in Atlas' video of a talk I gave at the Counterjihad Summit in Brussels last week, which comes at the end of a long and informative post about the summit itself.  [Me: Very much worth noting]

Christopher Hitchens defends the term "Islamofacism" in this article.

Update 10/30/07 - The text of David Horowitz's speech delivered at the University of Wisconsin Oct. 22, 2007 is available here.  And Phyllis Chesler's speech delivered at Columbia is available here.