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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Muslim Student Union's interesting defense

From AP:
A University of California campus has asked the U.S. Justice Department to look into allegations that money raised at a Muslim student group event went to a terrorist organization.

UC Irvine spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said Wednesday that the university forwarded to federal investigators a complaint that funds collected at a May 21 speech by controversial British politician George Galloway went to his group, Viva Palistina.

The Zionist Organization of America, which filed the complaint, said in a statement that the Muslim Student Union, which hosted the event, "illegally used the campus as a base for fundraising for the terrorist group Hamas," and the money raised "may have been for the purpose of providing material support and resources to Hamas."

And what does the MSU respond?
Muslim student leaders say the allegations are false. They acknowledged in a statement that they might have mistakenly breached university policy, which bans such fundraisers. But they argued that the Zionist group filed the complaint as part of a smear campaign to intimidate Muslims and create a hostile environment on campus.
They also said:
ZOA and affiliates’ targeted attacks against the MSU indicate nothing more than a bad faith intent at denying MSU their constitutional First Amendment rights of speech, religion, and association.

Here is the webpage for the fundraiser. On another page, MSU says "everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the cause."

Does Viva Palestina support Hamas? Very much so:

In March, Viva Palestina's leader, British MP George Galloway, defiantly handed a bag of cash directly to a Hamas minister (click here to see the video from the Middle East Media Research Institute):

"I, personally, am about to break the sanctions on the elected government of Palestine. By Allah, we carried a lot of cash here. You thought we were all fat. We are not fat. This is money that we have around our waists ... We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of the contents. And we make no apology for what I am about to say: We are giving them to the elected government of Palestine; to the Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh."

So the MSU cannot deny that it raised money for Hamas through Viva Palestina, breaking not only university policy but also US law. Yet somehow it still denies the allegations. And its whiny defense is that since the Zionists are bothering them by pointing out their crimes, they should be let off scot free.