by Ashley Stewart and Claudia Furmanczyk
The Clipper
EvCC once again found itself on the stage of controversy surrounding the year’s humanities theme when a contentious speaker was invited to campus.
Raymond Ibrahim – editor and translator of a book entitled “The Al Qaeda Reader” – was invited to present his interpretation of Islam as a part of the “Islam in America” series.
The presentation came and went with only a few disgruntled audience members, despite a letter written and endorsed by a multi-denominational group of religious leaders, many who are from Everett.
On April 28, a group of more than 50 religious leaders sent a letter addressed to President David Beyer in opposition of Ibrahim’s invitation to campus. It was titled “Do not support bigotry at EvCC.”
“We are a coalition of local Faith and community leaders who are gravely concerned about Everett Community College’s invitation to Raymond Ibrahim to speak on campus,” the letter said.
The letter alleges that Ibrahim resigned under pressure from the Library of Congress after a 2007 article in a California Muslim newspaper. The article “explained how he used his title of Research Librarian to style himself as an expert in order to speak and write unfounded, hate-filled messages about Islam and Muslims,” according to the letter.
The letter was sent to senators and representatives, government agencies and different publications.
In an email, Ibrahim stated that CAIR has a long history of stifling free speech, providing the link to an article from this year by independent news website WorldNetDaily, which claims that CAIR attempted to conceal documents that connected them to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“If we can’t talk about dangerous ideas on a college campus then I don’t know why we’re here,” said Joyce Walker, director of the humanities center.
“I think academic freedom means we’re here to consider all positions that people raise and then to critically evaluate them – that’s what education is all about. I think it was fine to have him.”
Spearheading Ibrahim’s arrival was Jeffrey Pearce, director of payroll services. According to Walker, who helped coordinate the event, Pearce met with the Student’s Program Board who agreed to pay the $1,500 to bring Ibrahim.
The Humanities Center regularly pays guest speakers.
“I knew he would be a good speaker because of his extensive research into Islamic texts and history, his tenure at the Library of Congress and his academic work comparing ancient and modern Islamic documents,” Pearce wrote in an email this week.
Jason Ripper, an EvCC history instructor, admitted that he was initially upset that Ibrahim was coming to speak, but was glad after.
“We should listen to each other and critique each other and try to understand what’s right and what’s not carefully with a good look at evidence. So Ibrahim, even if most of the campus disagrees with him, he started that process here and that’s a good thing,” he said.
In January, a group called Act! for America launched a Facebook campaign to persuade the college to revoke an invitation to the Center for American-Islamic Relations to speak about being Muslim in America. A total of 66 commentators participated in the discussion on EvCC’s Facebook wall. The college did not respond to the opposition. Dean of communication and social sciences Craig Lewis stated that the college’s policy is not to endorse or condemn different perspectives in a Jan. 28 article in The Clipper.
While the college did not respond to opposition towards the CAIR panel, CAIR Washington executive director Arsalan Bukhari believes that there is a false symmetry being drawn between Facebook profiles and local religious leaders.
“The majority of the attendees, especially the students, were receptive and appreciative of the talk-or so the many emails I received since would indicate,” Ibrahim said in an email this week.
“And, as usual, the media distorted the event by interviewing the two disgruntled Islamists present at the talk, while by and large ignoring the majority.”
One of the more controversial aspects of Ibrahim’s presentation was the concept of loyalty and enmity from the Quran, which Ibrahim said permits, even requires Muslims to lie and be deceitful towards non-Muslims.
“Rather than be concerned whether ‘loyalty and enmity’ breeds distrust of Muslims, I believe the more important question is whether this doctrine is true or not. Obviously, if it is true-if Muslims cannot be loyal to non-Muslims-then our problems far transcend breeding distrust,” he said in an email.
Jeff Siddiqui, a Muslim political activist, had thoughts that countered this opinion.
“Being a Muslim in America is not easy these days. But I’m more afraid for my children, and future generations. Bigotry that starts today will grow by experts such as this guy that give all these fantasies on Islam,” he said.
Siddiqui was also brought to campus as a part of the CAIR panel in January to speak about being Muslim in America.
“[Ibrahim’s] message in the end, if I reduce it to a personal level, it’s sad because it emphasizes division between people, instead of recognizing what they have in common,” Ripper said.
The humanities center will continue this topic into next year with the theme “Islam in America: Common Ground.”
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