Wednesday, October 22, 2008

David Horowitz speech

Last night I had the pleasure to attend a speech given by David Horowitz. I have to start by saying I had some serious reservations about going to this event. I had never really heard of this man, and am relatively ignorant on the issues of Israel and Palestine. That's not to say I don't care about these issues,especially given my own face to face battle with Islamic terrorism, but that I have spent the majority of my time reading up on domestic issues. The school paper made the man out to be some sort of Anti-Muslim extremist and that extra security for the event was provided. Also, the organization hosting the event has somewhat of a controversial history. So with all that in mind, I was somewhat worried about what the speaker would say.

I thought Mr. Horowitz did a very good job not offending anyone. He started out his speech by saying their are good Muslims as well as Bad Muslims. I'm pretty sure you can say that about any group or race. He gave a history of how Israel came to be and talked about the Muslim Brotherhood. He talked about a bunch of things I, to be honest, had somewhat of a hard time following. He did pose the question to the MSA (Muslim Student Assoc) asking them to Denounce Terrorist Organizations such as Hezbollah. I thought for sure this would be an easy task. I thought we could all agree that terrorism is bad,but boy was I naive.
During the Q&A portion of the speech, a man from the Council on American-Islamic Relations(CAIR) stood up and attempt to discredit Horowitz.He said asking Muslims to denounce terrorists, after giving a speech about Muslim atrocities, was unfair. The school Paper quoted him as saying "Its like asking, when did you stop beating your wife?" I think this guy is obviously misguided. Everybody in this world should denounce terrorism. We should all be able to agree that terrorist actions are evil and wrong. Anyones inhability to do such a simple thing, does make me question them. If a white person refused to denounce the KKK, we would assume they where racist would we not?
The school paper editorial board said,"The MSA should not have to denounce organizations they do not openly support." The question then becomes why wont they denounce them? I will openly denounce any terrorist group responsible for killing innocent people. The paper went on to say that Horowitz insights hatred. I thought Mr. Horowitz did an excellent job saying not all Muslims are bad. He started and ended his speech that way.

1 comment:

Eliza Vielma said...

I completely agree with you. I'd never feel offended or not answer a question like that - even if I wasn't affiliated with the organization, etc.

If you're against terrorism, when asked, why wouldn't you simply denounce it?