[SJackson]

Former thread: Leftist Brown Shirts Shut Down Horowitz Speech at Emory

The organization: National Project to Defend Dissent & Critical Thinking in Academia--

Coverage from Emory

=======================

 

Outside Group Stifles Horowitz Speech

http://www.theemorywheel.com/detail.php?n=24510

By Salvador Rizzo Posted: 10/25/2007

 

 

Brett Weinstein/Asst. Photography Editor

Two protestors turn their back conservative speaker David Horowitz.

Conservative commentator David Horowitz was forced to cut short his speech on “Islamo-Fascism” in the face of repeated interruptions, heckling and catcalls from some audience members in a packed lecture room in White Hall on Wednesday.

The event played out like a tug-of-war between two groups: protestors who shouted questions or anti-conservative taglines after every few sentences Horowitz spoke and another faction in the audience who became increasingly vocal about their desire to hear him speak uninterrupted.

When the disruptions peaked about 20 minutes into Horowitz’s speech, Senior Vice Provost for Community and Diversity Ozzie Harris stood up at the back of the room and cautioned protesters to sit or risk being forcibly removed. Immediately, one man shouted: “Everyone stand up! They can’t take all of us!”

Horowitz and his bodyguard left the stage at this point and waited in a room adjacent to the lecture hall. Meanwhile, more and more dissenters stood and began chanting: “Racist, sexist, anti-gay. David Horowitz, go away!”

No attendants were forcibly removed, since Horowitz decided to stop his speech and depart altogether after a few minutes of conferring with Harris, his hosts the College Republicans and Senior Vice President for Campus Life John Ford. Many students and administrators — on all sides of the political spectrum — expressed their dismay that Horowitz could not finish his speech.

“They didn’t win, though,” College Republicans Chairman Ben Clark said of the protesters. “I don’t see how this is supportive of critical thinking, even for the most liberal.”

Making his Case

Horowitz himself at first seemed fazed but not deterred by the interruptions. As he paced the stage, he heard and ignored their complaints about his more conservative political stances or other, general complaints about the Iraq War, then moved along with his speech. But when the accusations became more frequent, he began engaging and challenging the dissenters.

“You don’t impress me with your great moral purity,” he said to them. “Please don’t shout your ignorance at me.”

Horowitz prefaced his speech by saying, “Anyone here to hear a diatribe or attacks about Muslims is in the wrong place.”

Then he explained the reasoning behind the term “Islamo-Fascism” by noting that fascism “enforces its principles onto every aspect of human life” and that many Muslim women, for instance, face such regulation. As an example, he cited 130 million Muslim women who have undergone genital mutilation to disable sexual pleasure.

Amid the ongoing catcalls from one group and the shushings from the other, Horowitz stressed the need for open intellectual debate and distinguished moderate Muslims from extremists.

“[Students] should be able to handle criticism, and you should be able to fight back,” he said, to applause. “Every Muslim in the world has a stake in stopping Al Qaeda and Hizbollah. If they are successful, there will be no need for this discussion.”

The Fallout

Most of the vocal protesters at the event were not affiliated with the University, according to the College Republicans, the Muslim Students Association, University administrators and some professors at the event. During the short-lived speech, a handful of them stood, their backs to Horowitz, sporting orange ribbons and signs taped on their backs to show opposition. When Horowitz first took the stage, they greeted him with the Nazi salute.

Clark said that he recognized some of these protesters as Emory students, and said problems would have probably still arisen if the event had been closed off from the public. But Clark could not identify any protesting students by name.

“I really liked that people were able to stop this fascist rally from going down tonight,” said Jay Pasinelli, a dissenter who is not affiliated with the University. “We cannot be a docile audience after what we read on his web page. He ran away like a coward.”

Justin, a student from Georgia State who declined to give his full name because he said he feared public retaliation from Horowitz, said the pre-scripted question-and-answer format frustrated some of the attendants who hoped to engage Horowitz after his speech. Failing that, he said they resorted to interrupting.

“People wanted to come here and say something to this guy,” he said. “[He’s] here to create an atmosphere where Muslim students are targeted.”

But Muslim Students Association President Sarah Zaim, speaking on behalf of the MSA, disagreed with the confrontational tactics that suffocated Horowitz’s speech.

“It’s such a shame,” Zaim said. “This is an academic environment. We’re supposed to listen, especially if we disagree.”

Zaim said none of the MSA members attending the event stood or voiced protest. They did submit questions before the lecture, she said, about why Horowitz has not been more vocal in supporting moderate Muslims and why he chose the word ‘fascism’ to define something as expansive as a religion.

While Horowitz waited in the adjoining room after Vice Provost Harris’ call to order, Zaim considered addressing the audience as MSA president to ask that they let Horowitz finish his speech. Afterward, she bumped into Horowitz at Starbucks and told him she regretted how the event transpired.

“That was a very generous thing to do,” Horowitz said. “It made me very interested in what she thinks.”

Views on Free Speech

Imam Nadim Ali and other members of Atlanta’s Muslim community gathered after the event for an impromptu discussion in White Hall’s lobby.

Ali, of the West End Masjid Community, accused Horowitz of promoting a “dyslexic view of history” when he approaches Islam.

“[But] I was silent,” he said. “He does have a right to be ignorant.”

Ali said all faiths have historically had problems with women’s issues and war, two reasons Horowitz gives in justification of the term “Islamo-Fascism.”

He said the vocal protesters probably saw Horowitz as “a figurehead for the right-wing leadership” running the country and aimed their criticism during the event accordingly. He said people weren't wrong to speak up during the speech.

“There was free discourse on both sides,” Ali said. “[Horowitz] could have ignored them, but he chose to engage people.”

It was not an opinion shared by other attendees, such as Emory English professor Mark Bauerlein, who decried what he saw as a suppression of an Emory event by outsiders. An event, he said, that could have prompted a valuable educational opportunity for students.

“This is a poor day for academic debate,” he said. “This is not simply something against David Horowitz, it’s something against Emory University.”

University President James W. Wagner did not attend the speech but said the outcome would have been different had it been limited to Emory students and faculty.

"I'm confident that our Emory community would have expressed its support or disdain in a method more consistent with academic discourse," he said. "It is a sad reminder that the sort of ideals that we hold as community at Emory are not universally appreciated and practiced."

Vice Provost Harris and Vice President Ford, the most senior administrators at the event, declined to comment.

Horowitz also said he thought the event had been overtaken by a group of outsiders he later identified on his blog as the United for Peace and Justice.

“All they wanted to do is say their slogan,” he said. “They just came to destroy [the event]. It’s going to, unfortunately, give Emory a black eye, which it doesn’t deserve.”

On Thursday, Horowitz spoke at George Washington University, where he said the audience had been "polite" during his speech. There, he fielded questions at the end, some of which challenged his views.

And one demonstrator there was arrested, he said, near the very end of the event.

"You have to admire his discipline," Horowitz said. "The guy waited two hours."

Had he been given the chance to finish his speech at Emory, Horowitz said he would have addressed the importance of understanding who the enemy is, how American blunders with terrorism date back to President Carter's administration and his take on Iraq.

— Read a transcript of the Wheel editors' interview with David Horowitz.
Contact Salvador Rizzo.

 

 

[agere_contra]

So - the lefties shrieked at Horowitz for 25 minutes, and when asked to stop, it was their free speech which was under attack. Uh-huh.

[william clark]

What hypocrisy by a group with that name, considering that Dissent and Critical Thinking have given way to indoctrination in academia, and this moron represents the result. If they lived up to their name, they’d have been sponsoring Horowitz’s appearance.

[MNJohnnie]

I believe that it was this situation that led many to shout out, feeling their voices would not be heard otherwise

So rather then actually try to engage in debate, the usual Leftists university punks decides that a completely understandable attempt to organize an orderly debate is "stifling their voices"

Hmm wonder when all the people who's voices were stifled by their Leftist punk thug behavior are suppose to to be heard?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Emory University’s administration really ought to be embarrassed and ashamed at what transpired on its campus, but of course its not, being the good bastion of liberalism that it is.

[laotzu]

His(Horowitz) retorts to the audience consisted of childish name calling......A chant broke out, "Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay, David Horowitz Go Away."

[samtheman]

Leftists can’t stand it when other people get to talk. They have to shut up everyone who doesn’t agree with them 100%.

Don’t taze me bro!

[Doc91678]

So what happens next book burning and arrests of those that have differing opinions?
Is that what these people of Columbia University and Emory are striving for?
They shout about Free Speech. But who is the Free Speech for?
They have just negated the First Amendment.

[darkwing104]

Dear Jay Pasinelli, "Outsider",

Your silence was an tacit approval of their actions, don't lie about it to justify your racist bigoted socialist stupidity.

[ctdonath2]

No raindrop considers itself responsible for the flood.

[subterfuge]

Is this from the “Leave Brittany alone!!!” guy?

Like I’m going to read that drivel.

[albie]

Bed wetting, hand wringing, screeching liberals like yourself fall into the same category time and time again when this happens. “It was his/her fault”. Not taking responsibility for your actions is a tried and true characteristic for a liberal. The others include screaming and sweating while the conservative tries to make his/her comments. Don’t forget my little Marxist friend...a liberal point of view is based solely on emotion. A conservative, on common sense. It all comes down to one of the oldest yet most descriptive sayings...”Libs GIVE a man a fish. Conservatives TEACH a man to fish.” Sorry. “Libs give a man/woman/homosexual/metrosexual/transexual a fish.” Whew! That was close.

[Bluebird Singing]

“-Jay Pasinelli, “Outsider”
Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, Atlanta”

Should read:

Jay Pasinelli
“still a stupid, rebellious adolescent”

[Mjaye]

What a bunch of typical liberal thugs who wouldn’t know the meaning of “free speech” if it hit them in the face. The Left can never tolerate any opposition because their twisted views don’t hold up to any scrutiny. They wouldn’t have to look far to find the racism, intolerance and discrimination practiced by their own. Sounds like a ragtag group of 60’s wannabes that don’t have any core values.

[VeniVidiVici]

[commentary signed by]-Jay Pasinelli, "Outsider" Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, Atlanta

I always get a chuckle over these self-proclaimed "Revolutionary" and "Communist" dolts. They never seem to realize that such dissent would NEVER be allowed in the world they wish to create.

Come to think of it, it's exactly what David Horowitz experienced minus being tossed into the Lubyanka.

Here is a picture of Mr Pasinelli's free speech being celebrated by fellow Revolutionary Communists in armor

[joeystoy]

ping

[theBuckwheat]

Correct me if I missed something, but this person who said they stood silent to protest Horowitz’s speech, never once touched on the salient point of that speech, which is that Islamism is a mortal danger to the west and seeks to enforce the Three Demands on us (convert, submit or die).

So, the exact complaint against Horowitz was what? What he said or the fact he was attempting to speak? It appears from the video of the event, the protest was against the content.

The Left loves to scold the rest of us when we object to something they are presenting on television or National Public Radio. Their standard answer is, if you don’t like it you are free to change the channel. In other words, if you are standing in an area where someone is saying something you disagree with, you are free to leave.

Well, these people were free to leave when Horowitz was speaking, but instead of extending to him what they demand of the rest of us, they made it impossible for him to speak.

Free speech is dead on this campus.

[Paulus Invictus]

These libidiots have set a precedence. What would they say about “free speech” protests if conservatives stood and booed their speakers, including Hitlery? Oh, I know, they would be maced, tazed and thrown out of the building, then arrested. O’Reilly tried to argue with a female RAT spokeswoman last night about the Horowitz affair, and she said over and over that the protest was “free speech”. Liberals are truly insane.

[wideminded]

NPR was going to do a piece on Horowitz the other day. I didn’t hear that, but I did hear how the local station introduced it: “Coming up we have a segment on David Horowitz, who runs smear campaigns against professors whose political views he disagrees with.”

[avacado]

" we arrived to the event Wednesday night to a few stacks of index cards with instructions to write our questions down. I believe that it was this situation that led many to shout out, feeling their voices would not be heard otherwise."

No proof or facts... just "feelings" so they took it upon themselves to act like jackasses without writing down questions nor listening to that which they had opposing "feelings" about.