Who’s Afraid of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week?

David Horowitz questions why so many are afraid of "Islamo-Fascism" week at Columbia University. What really surprises me are the horrible anti-American, antisemitic comments that follow the article. One anonymous commenter - obviously a Muslim or Islamic supporter - pleads with fellow Muslims not to react violently to Islamo-Fascism week. Is that what the 'religion of peace' has become? The slightest criticism and violence is expected? To me, that says more about the Muslim community than Islamo-Fascism week ever could.

Why is an idea so frightening to some members of the Columbia community that they need to organize a campaign to suppress it before it is even aired? Why have some Columbians taken it upon themselves to conduct a hate campaign against students who want to discuss issues that affect us all? Why, on the other hand, were many of these same groups determined to welcome to Columbia a dictator who is providing weapons to kill American men and women in Iraq, who has called for the extermination of the Jewish state, and who presides over a regime that has murdered 4,000 gays and hung women from cranes for alleged sexual improprieties? If the welcome mat was okay for Ahmadinejad, why do these people want to deny a platform to Columbia students who are concerned about the threat of Islamo-Fascism?

Is Islamo-Fascism a threat? In fact, this is exactly the kind of question that will be discussed during the week of Oct. 22-26 at Columbia, unless campus leftists obstruct it the way they did Jim Gilchrist’s attempt to discuss the border issue last year. The fascist threat is real, and not just in Iraq or Iran.

Writing in a recent issue of Spectator, Zahra Khimji, a Columbia sophomore, complained that Islam should not be part of this discussion, while suggesting that the Islamo-Fascists constitute “an incredibly minute minority” of her religion. Would this were so. Some polls estimate that 10 percent of Muslims support Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. An al-Jazeera poll put the number at 50 percent. In other words, somewhere between 150 million and 750 million Muslims support a holy war against Christians, Jews, and other Muslims who don’t happen to be true believers in the Quran according to bin Laden. This is not an “incredibly minute” cohort.

Who’s Afraid of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week?