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June 16, 2008 | 8:47 am

Why a Jewish student chose against UC Irvine

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Back in March, I wrote about a community report that took UC Irvine administrators to task for the anti-Israel atmosphere on campus:

An anti-Israel speaker praises suicide bombers. Posters display Nazi symbols, anti-Israel slogans and the Israeli flag with blood dripping from the Magen David. A Muslim student says “F—- Israel,” drops his drawers and shows his swastika tattoo to a non-Jewish student.

Yes, student-invited speakers, like Amir Abdel Malik Ali and Muhammad Al-Asi, often refer to Zionists as the “New Nazis” and “Zio-Nazis;” students have called for Israel to be wiped off the map; and the Muslim Student Union hosts an annual Palestinian awareness week that accuses Israel of apartheid and genocide and this year was dubbed “Never Again? The Palestinian Holocaust.”

There are many fair criticisms of Israel, but don’t expect to hear them at UC Irvine.

One recommendation of the independent task force—formed by the Hillel director and comprised of a former member of UCI’s medical school faculty, four rabbis and a Presbyterian pastor—was for Jewish high school seniors to boycott UC Irvine. This was broadly dismissed by the local Jewish establishment, whose leaders were baldly attacked in the report, and I would agree that the logic is counterintuitive. If the campus already is hostile to Jewish students, and, at least at times, it is, wouldn’t you want strongly committed Jews to enroll there and create a more vibrant Jewish student community?

Of course, politics and religion aren’t always logical.

Here Spencer Morgan of Poughskeepie, N.Y. explains why he didn’t commit to UC Irvine (aside from the fact that Vassar is one of the best liberal-arts colleges in the country):

I heard Allyson Rowen Taylor speak at a Chabad event and she discussed the issues on the campus to a room filled with parents who had no idea what was going on in the public arena. After reading about UCI online, and speaking with others who have seen the campus antics, I decided to go elsewhere, not only for reasons of the intense hatred of Jews at UCI, but because I wanted to be free of the “apartheid walls” and the vitriol of speakers who create hate with my fellow students. I searched for a campus with high academics where study was a priority, and the influence of the MSU was minimal if not absent. While there are issues at my campus, they are tiny compared to the issues of the UCI campus.

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“..A Muslim student says “F—- Israel,” drops his drawers and shows his swastika tattoo to a non-Jewish student.”

This is understandable. Apparently, he didn’t want to run the risk of having to have a Jewish foot surgically removed from his rectum.

Comment by Shoded Yam on 6/16/08 at 10:08 am

As a student at UCI, I would say that anti-isreal sentiments do exist at UCI. However there is a great jewish community as well. The week before the MSU’s Palestinian week there is a week where the pro-isreal club have speakers and posters celebrating Isreal. So I think both sides do get respresented. Though apparently it was worse before I attended UCI.

Comment by Tristan on 6/16/08 at 11:01 pm

May I suggest that the students at UCI and Poughkeepsie’s own Spencer Morgan invest a few evenings this summer exploring Dr. Andrew Bostoms latest release,
“The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History” ISBN-10: 1591025540
ISBN-13: 978-1591025542 which introduces the reader to the main Antisemitic motifs in Islam’s foundational texts—the Koran, and the gloss on its Antisemitic verses as discussed at some length by the major classical and modern Koranic commentators; the hadith (the words, deeds, and even unspoken physical gestures of Muhammad as noted by his companions); and the sira (earliest pious Muslim biographies of Muhammad, especially those by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Saad). Key illustrations of how such Antisemitic motifs were applied across space and time are also provided. The remainder of the book consists of eight additional sections (Parts 2 through 9).
Part 2 includes three simultaneous translations of a range of Antisemitic Koranic verses, and ends with Haggai Ben Shammai’s 1988 essay examining the major Antisemitic motifs in the Koran and the Koranic exegesis.

Part 3 consists of extracts from the canonical hadith collections illustrating a broad range of Antisemitic motifs. George Vajda’s magisterial 1937 essay on the Antisemitic hadith literature—presented in full English translation for the first time, along with its 202 annotations—concludes this section.

Part 4 illustrates, again via extensive extracts, the major Antisemitic themes in the early Muslim biographies of Muhammad (i.e., the sira), and closes with the first time English translation of Hartwig Hirschfeld’s mid 1880s analysis of Muhammad’s subjugation of the Jews of Medina.

Part 5 includes numerous extracts from writings on Jews by Muslim jurists, theologians, and scholars during Islam’s classical and pre-modern eras. This section concludes with a reproduction of Moshe Perlmann’s seminal analysis of the 11th century anti-Jewish polemic in Muslim Spain, and another first time English translation—Vajda’s important study of the late 15th century Moroccan theologian, al-Maghili.

Part 6 contains full essays or extensive extracts from writings on Jews by modern era Muslim jurists, theologians, and scholars. It includes, importantly, major first time Arabic to English translations of materials by current Al-Azhar Grand Imam Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, popular Koranic exegete ‘Afif ‘Abd al-Fattah Tabbara, and Hamas “Koranic scholar” Salah ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Khalidi.

Part 7 reproduces twelve annotated maps of the history of the Jews from the Islamic Near east originally published in a collection by Sir Martin Gilbert.

Part 8 contains numerous analyses by major contemporary scholars of Islam on the dhimmi condition for Jews, and Muslim Antisemitism, across space and time, from early Islam, through the present era. First time English translations from both European languages, i.e., French and German, as well as Hebrew, are included.

The final section, Part 9, includes documents and eyewitness accounts which illustrate the impact of Islam’s anti-dhimmi and more specifically Antisemitic dogma, with a particular emphasis on the past 200 years, through the present. Part 9 includes evidence of rarely discussed phenomena such as chattel slavery for Jews under Muslim rule through the mid 19th century in Kurdistan, and into the early 20th century (at least) in both the Atlas mountain regions of North Africa, and in Yemen. This closing section end, perhaps appropriately, with multiple examples of the modern rhetoric of Antisemitic jihad genocide.

Comment by ancient antisemitism on 6/17/08 at 10:17 am

Uh, a federal investigation found no evidence of criminal conduct by the university and found that all complaints lodged were either exaggerated or fabricated.  Seriously, why do these stories persist?

Comment by Jersh on 7/08/08 at 11:49 pm

“These stories persist” because there is a big difference between criminal conduct and discomfiting circumstances. Talk to anyone at UC Irvine—pro-Israel students, anti-Israel students, the administration—and they will say there have been problems and flashpoints of conflict between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students. This doesn’t mean debates and protests between and led by students from each group plague the university atmosphere. But, from time to time, they have flared up. The frequency has declined but clearly continues, apparent from the above photo I shot of Malik Ali speaking in May during Palestinian awareness week.

Comment by Brad A. Greenberg on 7/09/08 at 1:53 am

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