“Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” – Expose & Defeat This
Reactionary Offensive
From The National Project to Defend Dissent and
Critical Thinking in Academia
www.defendcriticalthinking.org
David Horowitz has announced “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” (IFAW) for October 22-26, to take place on campuses around the country. Horowitz has enlisted
some of the most extreme, and dangerous, ideologues as spokespeople, and is working with Christian fundamentalists, military and veteran’s groups, and
the entire range of conservative and reactionary student organizations in an attempt to hold what he says will be the largest conservative university protest in US history.
This is a move to deepen the already serious chill in
academia by bringing together an aggressive social
base and unleashing it on what Horowitz calls the
“tenured left.” It seeks to unleash a pogromist and
hate-filled atmosphere against Muslim students, equate
dissent and critical thinking with treason, attack
Women’s Studies Departments, and build the US “will to
fight” more wars of aggression in the Middle East,
particularly against Iran. It hypocritically claims to
oppose the oppression of women and gays under Islamic
rule, while promoting Christian fundamentalists who
want to outlaw not only abortion but birth control as
well, and argue that homosexuality is a sin punishable
by death and women should not work outside the home.
IFAW cannot be allowed to go down unchallenged. It
needs to be thoroughly exposed, repudiated and
politically defeated. Go to www.terrorismawareness.org
for Horowitz’s plans and the list of schools targeted
– and visit www.defendcriticalthinking.org for
analysis and resources for combatting Horowitz and his
dangerous allies.
How DARE these people parade as anti-fascist?!
Anyone familiar with Horowitz and his allies can only
respond with outrage to their claim to be opponents of
fascism, intolerance and bigotry.
How dare David Horowitz, who says that Blacks should
be grateful for slavery and that Blacks owe a debt to
whites for ending slavery, talk about the “right of
all people to live in freedom and dignity”?!
How dare Ann Coulter, who said of Muslims, “We should
invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert
them to Christianity,” masquerade as an opponent of
“all forms of religious supremacism, violence and
intimidation”?!
How dare Rick Santorum, who equates homosexuality with
bestiality and openly advocates the revoking of
women’s right to abortion and birth control, parade as
a defender of the rights of women and gays?!
“Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week:” An Avalanche of Lies,
Distortions, Bigotry and Hate.
• Horowitz claims that IFAW will confront the “Big
Lie” that George Bush created the “war on terror:”
If Bush was just responding to 911, why did he target
and invade a country that had nothing to do with it?
Why did he lie about WMDs to justify that aggression
and why is he now threatening another country, Iran,
that also had nothing to do with 9/11? And for
decades, the US and Israel have destroyed secular
governments and forces in the Middle East and
elsewhere, while actively supporting Islamic
fundamentalist forces, as in Afghanistan. In Iran, the
US overthrow of the elected government of Iran in 1953
and the decades of support for the brutal regime of
the Shah contributed to the conditions which gave rise
to Islamic fundamentalist rule there.
• “A major theme of the Week will be the oppression of
women in Islam.”
The speakers for IFAW include some of the strongest
supporters of the Bush administration, whose policies
have been catastrophic for women, both here and
internationally. Horowitz’s speakers for IFAW include
biblical literalists like Frank Pastore who uphold the
execution of gays and the equation of abortion with
murder. It’s notable that the IFAW petition includes
the demand for “The equality of dignity of women and
men.” Not equality, but the “equality of dignity” – a
meaningless phrase which can be twisted to fit the
most patriarchal of viewpoints.
• IFAW will feature sit-ins “designed to protest the …
silence of Women’s Studies departments in the face of
… Islamic gynophobia:”
Women’s Studies Departments have hardly been “silent”
on the treatment of women (or gays and lesbians) under
Islamic fundamentalism. Horowitz’s problem with
Women’s Studies Departments is not their supposed
“silence” but the simple fact that they exist. His
website is full of rants directed against Women’s
Studies professors. Part of his overall agenda is the
elimination of Women’s Studies, along with Ethnic
Studies, Social Work, Social Justice, and other
programs which arose out of the struggles of the 60s
and 70s. And without Women’s Studies departments and
the feminist struggles which gave rise to them, people
like Horowitz would not even be giving hypocritical
lip-service to the oppression of women anywhere.
• Horowitz says that IFAW only targets
“Islamo-Fascists,” not “non-radical muslims:”
IFAW is an explicit attempt to demonize and isolate
Muslims in this country. Horowitz identifies the
Muslim Student Association as a front organization of
the Islamo-Fascist jihad intent on world domination,
and demands that they sign his petition or be branded
as “the enemy.” IFAW speakers like Gregory Davis say
that “Islam and its faithful adherents are trying to
undermine our secular governments with the ultimate
aim of replacing them with Sharia. Terrorism is a
means to this end as are Islamic proselytizing,
fund-raising, lobbying, education, etc.” Horowitz has
also said that “the Palestinians” (not some of them,
or just the radical ones, but all of them, including
those who are not Muslim) “are part of the
Islamo-fascist jihad against the West.”
• IFAW’s Petition demands “The right of all people to
live free from violence, intimidation, and coercion:”
This, from people who are clamoring for war against
Iran, who support Israel’s policies of military
occupation, targeted assassinations and collective
punishment; who support a government which is
responsible for the deaths hundreds of thousands of
Iraqi civilians, which has engaged in, advocated and
legalized torture, established a secret prison system,
engaged in widespread and illegal spying, and gutted
habeas corpus and other basic civil liberties?
• IFAW’s Petition supports “The freedom of the
individual conscience: to change religions or have no
religion at all.”
IFAW speakers include Christian fundamentalists who
believe that anyone who does not share their literal
interpretation of the Bible will go to hell. Rick
Santorum, one of the main speakers for IFAW, has said
in order to win against “Islamo-Fascism, “We must
educate, engage, evangelize and eradicate … We need to
do more, as I said, to spread these ideas throughout
your campuses.”
• And more, from Horowitz’s Frontpage.com
John Perazzo, who wrote “Why IFAW is Needed” for
Horowitz’s frontpage.com, also wrote “Black Racism and
‘The Jena Six.'” He called the Jena 6 a “pack of
thugs” and “raging predators,” and says the real
problem is “black racism, a disturbingly widespread
phenomenon in contemporary America” – while the
hanging of nooses from a “whites only” tree (in 2006!)
is simply “a dumb (non-violent) prank by a bunch of
teenage idiots.”
Some suggestions on what can be done.
• Call a meeting (immediately!), to discuss why IFAW
is so dangerous, and to make plans to oppose it.
Approach progressive political groups, feminist and
Women’s Studies Departments, GLBT groups, Muslim
student organizations and faculty. Reject the terms of
debate set by Horowitz: opposing IFAW does not mean
supporting terrorism or Islamic fundamentalism.
• Defend professors, Muslim student groups and Women’s
Studies Departments, which are under attack.
• Challenge organizers and speakers of IFAW at every
opportunity with facts and truth.
• Hold public forums by faculty and others.
• Saturate campuses with flyers and posters, exposing
Horowitz, IFAW and what it’s all about.
• Submit resolutions opposing IFAW to faculty and
student senates.
• Write op-eds, place ads, and give interviews to
campus and other media.
• Share material (flyers, graphics, posters, articles,
etc.) with others. Send them to the National Project
to Defend Dissent and Critical Thinking in Academia
(www.defendcriticalthinking.org). Share your
experience and plans, send us reports and updates on
your activities, discussions, and plans, so that
others around the country can learn from them.
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