In February 2008, the David Horowitz Freedom Center asked 100 chapters of the Muslim Student Association, including the one at UC Santa Barbara, to sign the Declaration Against Genocide.

In an era when genocide is making a slow-motion comeback, only an extremist worldview would regard this document as controversial. The Declaration calls for an affirmation of “the right of all people to live in freedom and dignity,” the equality of men and women and the universal freedom of religious conscience. It calls for a repudiation of a notorious hadith – a saying of the Prophet Muhammad – that tells Muslims the day of redemption will come only when “Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them, until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” The Declaration condemns Hamas and Hezbollah, along with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for demanding the destruction of the Jewish state – a genocidal act.

Not a single Muslim Student Association out of the 100 we approached – the Santa Barbara chapter among them – has responded to our appeal or signed the Declaration.

While the UCSB chapter of the MSA is unwilling to declare itself against the genocide of the Jews that the Islamic radicals of Hamas and Hezbollah are planning, it has been quick to complain to UCSB officials about an advertisement the Freedom Center placed in the Daily Nexus earlier this week. The ad points out documents captured by the FBI showing the Muslim Student Association was created by the Muslim Brotherhood to engage in a long term “stealth” jihad against America and to provide support for its war against the west. Not coincidentally, the terrorist organization Hamas was also created by the Muslim Brotherhood.

While the Muslim Student Association postures as an ethnic group and a religious and cultural organization – and, as such, receives university funding – it is, in fact, none of the above. It is a political organization, an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, providing moral and propaganda support for the jihad network. When the Muslim Italian cleric Abdul Hadi Palazzi, a critic of Islamic radicals, spoke on the UCSB campus a few years ago, he told the audience that terrorism was something all Muslims ought to reject. Members of the Muslim Student Association who attended loudly and repeatedly disrupted the speech, shouting insults at the cleric and yelling anti-Semitic slogans, including, “We cannot live with Zionism!” Why are student fees being used to fund an organization like this?

In the Daily Nexus article about our ad (“MSA Refutes Ad in Nexus Connecting Group to Jihad,” Daily Nexus, April 15), MSA President Faheem Ahmad responded to our accusations by saying the Muslim Student Association does not receive funding from the Muslim Brotherhood. We never said it did. But, revealingly, Ahmad did not deny the MSA was created by the terrorist organization, which spawned al-Qaeda and created Hamas as well. Ahmad denied the MSA is acting as a support for the jihad network, but, at the same time, he refuses to condemn the genocidal incitements and actions of Hamas and Iran. Instead, he claims, the MSA is “against violence in any form.” Well, talk is cheap and abstract talk even cheaper. Let Ahmad explain why the MSA obstructed the talk of a Muslim who was speaking out against terrorism. Let him condemn the terrorism of Hamas and Hezbollah. Then we will take what he says about violence seriously.

One particularly offensive aspect of Ahmad’s response in the Daily Nexus is his claim that criticism of Islamic radicals is an attack on all Muslims. This claim is a cynical attempt to exploit America’s well-known disposition toward tolerance and inclusiveness. The vast majority of Muslims do not support terror, would not attempt to obstruct a speaker criticizing terrorism and are not part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s jihad network.

The fact that all 100 campus MSA chapters that we asked to sign the Declaration Against Genocide refused to do so is explained by the political origins of MSA and by its political agendas. What is unexplained is why UCSB student fees are used to fund such an organization.

Text of the Horowitz Freedom Center’s Declaration Against Genocide as well as the booklet, The Muslim Students Association and the Jihad Network can be accessed at http://www.terrorismawareness.org.

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