Everyone look out! Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is here! According Aria Miran’s article about Horowitz (“National Event Centers on Issue of Radical Islam,” Daily Nexus, Oct. 22), Islamic fascism is the greatest threat to Islam. Islamic fascists are responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 Muslims, they are inspired by Hitler himself and they are planning to invade our imagination.

Yeah, right. IFAW is going to talk about the abuses of Islamic fascism on Islam. Far from it. Just look at the events sponsored by Horowitz: Dennis Prager and the movie “Obsession” will be the highlights of the week. That’s like a guy sponsoring Jewish Money-Grubbing Week stating that greedy Jews are ruining Judaism and he is going to bring a Ku Klux Klan member to talk about it. Prager, a conservative columnist, will talk about Islamic abuses of gays’ rights after he calls gay marriage destructive to the institution of marriage. He is going to defend moderate Muslims, as he bashes the first Muslim congressman for swearing his oath on the Quran. “Obsession” will show you thousands of Islamic fascists shouting “Death to America!” and killing Americans, but will probably not show them shouting “Death to moderate Muslims!”

This event is supposedly going to give strength to moderate Muslims. But just like Walid Shoebat’s visit last year, they will probably leave the room feeling like everyone fears them. While Shoebat talked about the horrors of Islamic fascism, he omitted the peacefulness of Islam. “Obsession” will attack our imagination and instill images of Islam as a violent religion – it will intertwine moderate and fascist Islam. We will leave the room fearing all of Islam, counterproductive to its stated purpose. Such a movie has no purpose to serve peace. Such a movie does not show the horrors moderate Muslims face. Instead, it will cause moderate Muslims to be silenced in fear of hate crimes against them if they speak out.

And ironically, that is exactly what Islamic fascism is. You hear people stating that all Muslims support Islamic fascism because you never see them speak out against it. You can’t speak out against fascism in a fascist state. Fascism severely limits freedom of speech: You speak out, you die. Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, a Sunni leader who organized Sunni opposition to al-Qaeda, was one of those people. His efforts led to a near eradication of al-Qaeda from the Anbar province, only for the group to assassinate him with a roadside bomb in September. Freedom of speech is something we value highly in America – so highly we often forget many countries in the world do not have it. So when we see a lack of criticism of Islamic fascism from Muslims, we forget they lack the ability to criticize their governments as we do.

I wrote an article about this subject at the end of the last school year (“Blame the Extremists, Not Israel or Palestine,” Daily Nexus, June 7). It seems like that title still upholds, as “Obsession” appears to be the rebuttal to “Occupation 101.” Once again, the extremists on campus are trying to squelch the opposition by screening movies so horridly biased they show people in disagreement as murderous.

Both movies lack depth and mix reality with imagination. The extreme right-wing Jews make it hard for some to speak out against them just like in an Islamic fascist state. Anything we say criticizing Israel or IFAW makes us a disgrace to Judaism in their eyes, just as Dennis Prager’s attack Jewish secularists on his show. It only takes 1 percent to terrorize everyone. However, to live life on a 1 percent doctrine is a farce. We should not live in constant fear the extremist is our midst. We should live normal lives. And most importantly, we should not classify 1 percent of a population as a representative of the entire population.

So this week, IFAW will highlight the terrorism of Islamic fascism. But please, walk away from these events knowing they are not serving the purpose they should, and are making things worse for moderate Muslims. They do not represent the feelings of all Jews, all Christians, all Republicans or all Democrats. They represent the views of the extremist in our midst.

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