“Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week:” Expose & Defeat This Reactionary Offensive
From The National Project to Defend Dissent and Critical Thinking in Academia
www.defendcriticalthinking.org
David Horowitz has announced “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” (IFAW) for October 22-26, to take place on campuses around the country. Horowitz has enlisted some of the most extreme, and dangerous, ideologues as spokespeople, and is working with Christian fundamentalists, military and veteran’s groups, and the entire range of conservative and reactionary student organizations in an attempt to hold what he says will be the largest conservative university protest in US history.
This is a move to deepen the already serious chill in academia by bringing together an aggressive social base and unleashing it on what Horowitz calls the “tenured left.” It seeks to unleash a pogromist and hate-filled atmosphere against Muslim students, equate dissent and critical thinking with treason, attack Women's Studies Departments, and build the US “will to fight” more wars of aggression in the Middle East, particularly against Iran. It hypocritically claims to oppose the oppression of women and gays under Islamic rule, while promoting Christian fundamentalists who want to outlaw not only abortion but birth control as well, and argue that homosexuality is a sin punishable by death and women should not work outside the home.
IFAW cannot be allowed to go down unchallenged. It needs to be thoroughly exposed, repudiated and politically defeated. Go to www.terrorismawareness.org for Horowitz’s plans and the list of schools targeted – and visit www.defendcriticalthinking.org for analysis and resources for combatting Horowitz and his dangerous allies.
How DARE these people parade as anti-fascist?!
Anyone familiar with Horowitz and his allies can only respond with outrage to their claim to be opponents of fascism, intolerance and bigotry.
How dare David Horowitz, who says that Blacks should be grateful for slavery and that Blacks owe a debt to whites for ending slavery, talk about the "right of all people to live in freedom and dignity"?!
How dare Ann Coulter, who said of Muslims, “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity," masquerade as an opponent of "all forms of religious supremacism, violence and intimidation"?!
How dare Rick Santorum, who equates homosexuality with bestiality and openly advocates the revoking of women's right to abortion and birth control, parade as a defender of the rights of women and gays?!
"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week:" An Avalanche of Lies, Distortions, Bigotry and Hate.
• Horowitz claims that IFAW will confront the "Big Lie" that George Bush created the "war on terror:"
If Bush was just responding to 9/11, why did he target and invade a country that had nothing to do with it? Why did he lie about WMDs to justify that aggression and why is he now threatening another country, Iran, that also had nothing to do with 9/11? And for decades, the US and Israel have destroyed secular governments and forces in the Middle East and elsewhere, while actively supporting Islamic fundamentalist forces, as in Afghanistan. In Iran, the US overthrow of the elected government of Iran in 1953 and the decades of support for the brutal regime of the Shah contributed to the conditions which gave rise to Islamic fundamentalist rule there.
• "A major theme of the Week will be the oppression of women in Islam."
The speakers for IFAW include some of the strongest supporters of the Bush administration, whose policies have been catastrophic for women, both here and internationally. Horowitz's speakers for IFAW include biblical literalists like Frank Pastore who uphold the execution of gays and the equation of abortion with murder. It's notable that the IFAW petition includes the demand for "The equality of dignity of women and men." Not equality, but the "equality of dignity" – a meaningless phrase which can be twisted to fit the most patriarchal of viewpoints.
• IFAW will feature sit-ins "designed to protest the … silence of Women’s Studies departments in the face of … Islamic gynophobia:"
Women's Studies scholars have actually written extensively on the treatment of women (or gays and lesbians) under Islamic fundamentalism. Horowitz's problem with Women's Studies Departments is not their supposed "silence" but the simple fact that they exist. His website is full of rants directed against Women's Studies professors. Part of his overall agenda is the elimination of Women's Studies, along with Ethnic Studies, Social Work, Social Justice, and other programs which arose out of the struggles of the 60s and 70s. And without Women's Studies departments and the feminist struggles which gave rise to them, people like Horowitz would not even be giving hypocritical lip-service to the oppression of women anywhere.
• Horowitz says that IFAW only targets "Islamo-Fascists," not "non-radical muslims:"
IFAW is an explicit attempt to demonize and isolate Muslims in this country. Horowitz identifies the Muslim Student Association as a front organization of the Islamo-Fascist jihad intent on world domination, and demands that they sign his petition or be branded as "the enemy." IFAW speakers like Gregory Davis say that "Islam and its faithful adherents are trying to undermine our secular governments with the ultimate aim of replacing them with Sharia. Terrorism is a means to this end as are Islamic proselytizing, fund-raising, lobbying, education, etc." Horowitz has also said that "the Palestinians" (not some of them, or just the radical ones, but all of them, including those who are not Muslim) "are part of the Islamo-fascist jihad against the West."
• IFAW's Petition demands "The right of all people to live free from violence, intimidation, and coercion:"
This, from people who are clamoring for war against Iran, who support Israel's policies of military occupation, targeted assassinations and collective punishment; who support a government which is responsible for the deaths hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, which has engaged in, advocated and legalized torture, established a secret prison system, engaged in widespread and illegal spying, and gutted habeas corpus and other basic civil liberties?
• IFAW's Petition supports "The freedom of the individual conscience: to change religions or have no religion at all."
IFAW speakers include Christian fundamentalists who believe that anyone who does not share their literal interpretation of the Bible will go to hell. Rick Santorum, one of the main speakers for IFAW, has said in order to win against "Islamo-Fascism, "We must educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate … We need to do more, as I said, to spread these ideas throughout your campuses."
• And more, from Horowitz's Frontpage.com
John Perazzo, who wrote "Why IFAW is Needed" for Horowitz's frontpage.com, also wrote "Black Racism and 'The Jena Six.'" He called the Jena 6 a "pack of thugs" and "raging predators," and says the real problem is "black racism, a disturbingly widespread phenomenon in contemporary America" – while the hanging of nooses from a "whites only" tree (in 2006!) is simply "a dumb (non-violent) prank by a bunch of teenage idiots."
Some suggestions on what can be done.
• Call a meeting (immediately!), to discuss why IFAW is so dangerous, and to make plans to oppose it. Reach out broadly and boldly to students, unite with progressive political groups, feminist and Women's Studies Departments, GLBT groups, Muslim student organizations and faculty. Reject the terms of debate set by Horowitz: opposing IFAW does not mean supporting terrorism or Islamic fundamentalism.
• Defend professors, Muslim student groups and Women's Studies Departments, which are under attack.
• Challenge organizers and speakers of IFAW at every opportunity with facts and truth.
• Hold public forums by faculty and others.
• Saturate campuses with flyers and posters, exposing Horowitz, IFAW and what it's all about.
• Submit resolutions opposing IFAW to faculty and student senates.
• Write op-eds, place ads, and give interviews to campus and other media.
• Share material (flyers, graphics, posters, articles, etc.) with others. Send them to the National Project to Defend Dissent and Critical Thinking in Academia (www.defendcriticalthinking.org). Share your experience and plans, send us reports and updates on your activities, discussions, and plans, so that others around the country can learn from them.