MUSLIM PROBLEMS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA....
Sword of Laban
Orange County Register
February 8th, 2010
Eleven people were arrested Monday evening during a raucous lecture at
UC Irvine where Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren came to talk about
U.S.-Israel relations. (UCI earlier said that 12 were arrested.)
Oren was interrupted 10 times Monday while trying to give his speech
before 500 people at the UCI Student Center, where there was heavy
security. Oren took a 20 minute break after the fourth protest, asked
for hospitality and resumed his speech, only to be interrupted again
by young men yelling at him every few minutes. Many members of the
audience also applauded Oren.
After the 10th interruption, several dozens students who opposed
Oren’s talk got up and walked out and staged a protest outside. It is
not clear whether they were members of the UCI Muslim Student Union,
which issued an email earlier in the day condemning Oren’s appearance
on campus.
Oren continued talking, completing his speech at 6:42 p.m. Originally,
he planned to take questions from the audience. But that was canceled
after the repeated delays.
The second person yelled about “Zionism.”
The third yelled, “Israel.” The fourth could not be clearly heard.
UCI Police Chief Paul Henisey said it is not clear whether any of the
protesters are UCI students.
Mark Petracca, a UCI political science professor, lost his temper and
yelled, “This is embarrassing … Shame on all of you.”
UCI Chancellor Michael Drake also told the audience that he was
embarrassed by the outburst.
Drake and Petracca were booed by many people, and applauded by others.
Hours earlier, UCI’s Muslim Student Union said in an email today that
its members “condemn and oppose the presence of Michael Oren, the
ambassador of Israel to the United States, on our campus today. We
resent that the Law School and the Political Science Department on our
campus have agreed to cosponsor a public figure who represents a state
that continues to break international and humanitarian law and is
condemned by more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than all other
countries in the world combined.”
The Jewish Federation Orange County said earlier in the day that it
had been informed that Oren’s speech at UC Irvine late today might be
disrupted by protestors.
Shalom C. Elcott, president of JFOC, said in a statement today that,
“We have been informed that some students may attempt to disrupt the
event. We want to assure the community that our goal is to create a
positive environment — indeed, a sacred space - for open dialogue,
intellectual debate and civil discourse that befits a university
setting.”
This was not the first time that there has been confrontation at a
political lecture at UCI.
In January 2007, Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum was interrupted
by protesters at UCI while giving a speech titled, “The Threat to
Israel’s Existence.” The protesters ended up getting into a brief
shouting match with some members of the audience.
Police identify 11 students arrested at UCI
February 9th, 2010
UC Irvine Police arrested 11 people Monday evening on suspicion of
disrupting a speech that Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren was giving on
U.S.-Israel relations. (Original story about the protest.) The
protesters — 8 UCI students and 3 UC Riverside students — were cited
for disrupting a public event. (UCI said last night that 12 people had
been arrested.)
Police have identified the students as:
UC Irvine
Joseph Tamim Haider
Osama Ahmed Sabry Shabaik
Mohemed Mohy Eldeen Abdelgany
Ali Mohammad Sayeed
Asaad Traina
Mohammad Qureashi
Aslam Akhtar
Hakim Nasreddine Kebir
UC Riverside
Taher Herzallam
Shaheen Waleed Nassar
Khalid Bahgat Akari