Horowitz Inflates Number Of Schools Participating In His Divisive ‘Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week’

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/23/horowitz-islamofacism/

Horowitz Inflates Number Of Schools Participating In His Divisive ‘Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week’

On college campuses across America this week, conservatives are gathering together to listen to right-wing luminaries such as Ann Coulter and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) as part of David Horowitz’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

Horowitz is claiming that it will be “the biggest conservative campus protest ever” and “a wake-up call for Americans on 200 university and college campuses” about “the enemy.” But on CSPAN’s Washington Journal this weekend, Kareem Shora, the Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, said that Horowitz was dramatically overstating the number of participating schools:

We contacted those institutions, alerting them to the fact that their name was being used, and wondering what exactly was taking place. … It’s important to note though, after we contacted those institutions, most of those institutions indicated that no such events is taking place on those campus. And many contacted the sponsors and told them, “do not use my institution’s name in your campaign,” including some very renowned universities such as Yale and Princeton.

Shora also said that the president of Liberty University, the evangelical school founded by Jerry Falwell, also had their name removed from Horowitz’s list.

Watch it at link~

Horowitz’s efforts have come under fire from critics, who say it will spread “racism and religious hatred” through the use of “a loaded political phrase like Islamo-fascism. Others, such as Middle East expert Juan Cole, say that “Fascism is not even a very good description of the ideology of most Muslim fundamentalists.”

Former CENTCOM Commander Gen. John Abizaid has said that “even adding the word Islamic” is counterproductive to keeping extremism “from becoming mainstream.”

The tactics encouraged by Horowitz and his followers, however, are intentionally fashioned to stoke negative reactions from moderate Muslims “as evidence that they’re on the side of ‘our terrorist adversaries.’” For instance, Horowitz is distributing a “student guide” that encourages participants to draft offensively-worded petitions in an intentional effort to stir divisiveness on campuses by forcing groups to “declare their allegiances“:

Perhaps most importantly, a petition forces students and faculty to declare their allegiances: either to fighting our terrorist adversaries or failing to take action to stop our enemies. For this reason, we encourage you to make a special effort to bring this petition to those groups who might be least likely to sign it, for example to campus administrators, student government officers, and the Muslim Students’ Association.

As Ali Eteraz notes, “this ‘awareness’ week is not about awareness at all, but using anti-Muslim animus to achieve political ends” by attacking Horowitz’s true “enemy”: “the political left.”

UPDATE: Campus Progress has a crib sheet for debunking conservatives during Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

From the Sunday LBN thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3036066&mesg_id=3036115

Recent reports indicates that young voters are leaving the repugs.

Poll: Young voters disenchanted with Republican party



The polls are not stopping repugs efforts on campuses.

And, Horowitz has been tasked with leading them.

on campus who is on Horowitz's email list.

That motherfucker needs to go down in history for his campus McCarthyism.

I'm totally serious about this. How can it be made to happen?

Couple of baseball caps connected to Republicans standing in front of some cliches( Yes, I support the troops. No, I don't stand united with your racist ass), and ignored by all.