Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 10:17:30 AM
"We should raise our flag, our American flag, and say, Allah bless America," Saleem said. "Because - after all - if we don't like her, we should leave her." Kamal Saleem, One of Three Ex-Terrorists Speakers.
The three men billed as ex-terrorists - Walid Shoebat, Zachariah Annani and Kamal Saleem - speak in Rackham Auditorium last night.
(DEREK BLUMKE/Daily)
LSA junior Hanan Dakhlallah protests the speakers. (PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daily)
Department of Public Safety officers remove a heckler during last night's speech by three men billed as ex-terrorists in Rackham auditorium. (DEREK BLUMKE/Daily)
From: The Michigan Daily
A fury over 'ex-terrorists'
Protesters say event promotes intolerance
Lisa Haidostian and Daniel Trump
Posted: 1/31/07
More than 300 people - including both students and non-students - protested an event last night organized by the University's chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom called "Terrorism: The World's Greatest Threat."
Billed as a lecture by three ex-terrorists, the event drew opposition from several student groups and the Michigan office of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
A large crowd gathered outside of the Rackham Building an hour before the event's scheduled 7 p.m. start. Flashes of yellow shirts worn by the protesters showed through the winter coats of many in the crowd.
A half hour before the event, YAF Chair Andrew Boyd shouted "We're ready!" and the doors to the auditorium opened. The aisles filled immediately with people in yellow shirts, who had gathered early for the event.
As the protesters rushed to fill seats, already-seated YAF members stuck their feet out into the aisles.
After the initial surge, seats continued to fill steadily.
By the time the event began, protesters make up about a quarter of the audience.
Once the auditorium reached capacity, YAF Vice President Ryan Fantuzzi took the microphone.
"I ask those who would like to disrupt this event to leave as soon as possible," he said. "There are many who support peace and freedom who would like your seat."
But the protesters didn't get up.
The first speaker was Kamal Saleem, who said he was recruited by the Palestine Liberation Organization when he was 7 and trained with live weapons to fight Israelis.
A website for the three speakers says Saleem converted to Christianity after being treated by a Christian doctor.
"We should raise our flag, our American flag, and say, Allah bless America," Saleem said. "Because - after all - if we don't like her, we should leave her."
As Saleem finished this remark, much of the crowd roared with applause while others were silent or voiced their disapproval.
"If we don't like her we should change her," a woman in the back of the auditorium yelled.
After 15 minutes of Saleem's speech, the heckling intensified to the point where Saleem stopped speaking and asked the woman to "shut up."
"Why aren't the moderate Muslims protesting about the extremists of their faith?" he asked the crowd again prompting loud applause.
After 30 minutes, the protesters in yellow stood up and walked out. There was some jeering from the remaining audience, but the exit went off with little incident.
Roughly a quarter of the seats in the auditorium emptied during the walkout.
After an hour, Fantuzzi took to the stage and issued a warning to the same woman who had continually heckled the speaker. She ignored the warning, and Department of Public Safety officers escorted her from the building.
Sirene Abou-Chakra, one of the organizers of the protest, condemned the woman's behavior.
Walid Shoebat, the last speaker, drew cheers from the remaining members of the audience with his final remark.
"We will have peace when we love our children more than we love peace," he said.
After the event, about 30 people lined up to meet the three men.
While the speakers at the root of the controversy were answering questions, the protesters were holding a meeting of their own.
The swarm of protesters, mostly students, made their way to the Michigan League Ballroom to discuss the protest and the goals of the Arab and Muslim community.
"The main purpose of the protest is to really call out the fact that this program is generalizing an entire group of people and saying the actions of a few represent everyone," Abou-Chakra said in an interview before the event.
Muslim Student Association Vice President Abdul-Rahman El Sayed, who spoke at the protester's counter event, said he was elated at the success of the walkout.
"We've done something good today, and we need to keep that going in the future," he said.
Some in the audience, however, found the walkout disruptive and ineffective.
"The protesters deprived themselves of a voice," said LSA junior Jasper Kigar. "They should not have walked out. "
The event's purpose was to educate the campus community about the dangers of Muslim extremism, not promote intolerance, Boyd said in an interview before the speeches.
All Credit Given to:
Lisa Haidostian and Daniel Trump and The Michigan Daily
January 31, 2007 Ann Arbor
Panel on terrorists draws crowd, protests
Some have called three speakers at U-M fakes; organizers says they wanted to improve cultural climate.
Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News
ANN ARBOR -- Amid hecklers, an apparent death threat and a staged walkout, a panel discussion by three self proclaimed "ex-terrorists" managed to carry on at University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium on Tuesday night.
"Yes, we confess we were terrorists, but by confession we can begin to heal," said Walid Shoebat, one of those who spoke at the event marked by outbursts, protests and disappointed students turned away from the auditorium crowded with more than 1,000 people.
The men, who say they committed acts of terror against Jews, were invited to speak by the conservative student group Young Americans for Freedom, which wanted to discuss differences between the extremist Muslims and the vast majority of peaceful Muslims, according to group co-chairman Andrew Boyd.
However, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and at least one expert on jihad have called the men fakes.
"Without doubt, the threat from political extremism is serious, and the threat of homegrown jihadism is growing, but this type of extremist language is as much a threat to stability as a bomb attack itself," said Tom Quiggin, an expert on global jihadism who has researched one of the ex-terrorist's stories.
Shoebat, who is American, was joined by Kamal Saleem, another U.S. citizen, and Zachariah Anani, a Windsor resident. Anani was recently targeted by Islamist groups, which threatened his life if he spoke at U-M, according to his representative.
Shoebat and Saleem say they are former members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, according to their Web site. Shoebat said he participated in acts of terror against Israel and was later imprisoned in Jerusalem.
Anani was a teen militia fighter, where he was trained to kill Jews, according to www.3xterrorists.com. He says he killed 223 people.
Students opposed to the speakers wearing maize walked out of the event midway as a way to symbolically to protest the message. Once the 200 students left, scores waiting outside were refused entry.
U-M freshman Kamelya Youssef, who helped organize the symbolic protest, said if the true intention of Young Americans for Freedom was to improve the cultural climate on campus, then the group should have worked with the Muslim and Arab groups.
"This is something that we feel will provoke discrimination, and this is something that is not going to improve the campus climate," she said. One heckler was removed by police, which led to a standing ovation by the crowd.
Young Americans for Freedom sparked controversy in October when it sponsored "Catch an Illegal Immigrant."
"I get so upset that people are all so politically correct, especially on this campus," Boyd said in an interview last week. "I think it's at times necessary to be more outspoken."
The ex-terrorists said they risk their lives to spread what they consider an important message.
Robert Birach, an immigration law attorney in Detroit, said the men would have had to have disclosed their affiliation with the PLO on their applications to become U.S. citizens if what they claim is true.
"Failure to list the affiliation on the citizenship application is enough to go back and open the file and charge them with fraud and perjury," Birach said.
"And now they are admitting to being former terrorists. So under the Real ID Act, that's enough for their removal from the United States."
You can reach Marisa Schultz at (313) 222-2310 or mschultz@detnews.com.
All Credit given to: Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070131/METRO/701310398/1003