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A four part series on a recent panel at UC Irvine. (1, 2, 3, and 4)

Any readers interested in speeding up the Clash of Civilizations, here's just a hint as to what it'll look like.

Speaker: After that chant, we're going to talk about just who the Prophet Mohammed was. Guy behind me: He was a camel driver!
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Abed noted that the cartoons were offensive to him, and that all Muslims didn't agree with this depiction of Jews. The audience was clearly not buying it; there was some hissing and booing and general grumbling. Then Reverend Jesse got his turn to speak, and did he ever speak his mind. Jesse started out by saying that he was not at all surprised by these cartoons, showing caricatures of Jews. The reason for this, he said, was that "Islam is an evil religion". The audience went nuts, applauding for all they were worth.
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During this time, Lee engaged in something of a crusade against Abed and against a particular Muslim member of the audience, the aforementioned person sitting a couple rows in front of Agi and me. In the process of interrupting Abed, Lee was interrupted by this Muslim protester. Lee, flying over irony at the speed of sound, accused the audience member of being a "fascist" multiple times because he would not let him finish his point.
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Lee even went so far as to tell this man to "go back to the Middle East" (which got the biggest applause of the night to that point), and another member of the audience yelled from behind us, "sit down, Osama!". The lady next to Agi muttered almost under her breath, "this is the true Islam", and a guy behind and across the aisle from me said that "they're all just morons". (-ed. Obviously he's not from the "I don't hate Muslims, I hate Islam" school)
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By now, the people in the audience are openly mocking Abed as he speaks. Lee interrupted Abed in the middle of a point, then shouted down the moderator as she tried to give Abed the floor back. I gave up on taking notes about then, and just waited for the sorry spectacle to end.

The Disgruntled Chemist, in his summary thoughts, says "Both groups, frankly, came out looking quite bad." And I certainly agree. You can get the lgf'ers view of the panel here. Politically active Muslim groups on college campuses tend to center around Palestinian issues, and inevitably end up working with the most far left groups on campus. The worst was apparently the vaguely threatening chants of "Neocons you can’t run, we all know what you have done!" and "Muslims unite, stand and fight!".

But that was the worst of it. There was no actual violence. In fact, the closest it came to violence is when a good Christian fellow rushed towards a Muslim heckler.

I think it's safe to say that this panel was not intended to try and hear the side of moderate Muslims. "The Unveiling of the Cartoons & A Discussion to Confront Terror" was the title, which could as well have been "Muslims: Here's Some Cartoons You'll Find Offensive, Now Justify Your Existence." Nor was the Muslim fellow the only heckler, as the above described.

Anybody wants to keep arguing that Islam is the problem, that it's an evil religion, that argument quite naturally leads to this, and worse.

The feeling of hatred, of raw emotional anger, was palpable in the audience for almost the entire debate.

(Related.)

Posted by Dorkafork at March 3, 2006 06:40 PM | TrackBack (0)