UC-Irvine Upholds Suspension Of Muslim Group

IRVINE, Calif. — The University of California, Irvine has upheld its decision to suspend a campus Muslim group after some of its members disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador at a campus event.

However, the university said Friday it would lift the suspension of the Muslim Student Union on Dec. 31 instead of enforcing it for a full year.

In addition, the group will be on probation for two years instead of one, and members must complete 100 hours of community service.

Eleven students were arrested in February for disrupting Michael Oren's speech.

Hadeer Soliman, the group's interim vice president, says the punishment will affect hundreds of Muslims who regularly attend prayer meetings and socialize together.

Comments

[Musa1]

05:28 AM on 09/07/2010

So UC Irwine will allow a representative of an organization or government which continues to defy international law, engage in torture, kills 1000s of civilians, engages in collective punishment, routinely grants impunity to childkillers, and a host or oppressive and corruption actions?

[DKProfilesinPeace]

02:51 PM on 09/06/2010

Life is different behind the "Orange Curtain."

[healthanalyst]

09:39 PM on 09/06/2010

Whole nuther world behind the Orange curtain, they were nuts before the TEA party...

[OP3366]

02:41 PM on 09/06/2010

To some of the responders:
Liberal students have been arrested, clubs suspended, and college newspapers had funding cut for such actions. This only made the news because it was a Muslim society and tension is high. And don't equate protests outside a building where someone is speaking with disruption.

Academic freedom doesn't mean freedom to shut down you don't agree with.

Why punish the whole for the actions of a few? Problem is that this is not a news article but an extended headline. What role did the organization play? And shouting down any speaker is not freedom of speech.

[Mark in Irvine]

08:30 PM on 09/06/2010

the students in question in THIS news event heckleed the speaker and denied him his freedom of speech ... and now they cry that they are victims ... i'd be more sympathetic if they hadn't done what they did. if they can't be good citizens, maybe they should leave town.

[p-niz]

12:41 PM on 09/06/2010

Poser Muslims = idoiots. Get a life.

[SangZe]

10:35 AM on 09/06/2010

Be fair. Ban all christian groups, too.

[Huero]

12:33 PM on 09/06/2010

It was not a ban btu a suspension and any group that were to do the same thing that this group did shoud be dealt with the same way.

[thinkingwomanmillstone]

04:56 PM on 09/06/2010

be fair...read the post. They didn't get banned for being muslim but for disrupting a speech.

[alumcreek]

10:52 AM on 09/07/2010

Whatever happens if Muslims are involved any punitive action is entirely due to Muslims being victimised solely for being Muslims. At least that is their point of view. Much like Christians feeling they are victimized any time someone is critical of their behavior.

[MedinaM]

05:32 PM on 09/05/2010

Why are they going to punish an entire group for the actions of a couple of individuals? Not fair at all.

[Mark in Irvine]

08:32 PM on 09/06/2010

the punishment is on the group that heckled the visiting speaker and prevented him from speaking - nobody who didn't disrupt the guy's speech has been banned ... maybe some members of the group were not personally present when the speaker was heckled, but the heckling was an official group activity, and they didn't stop it from happening.

[gfirmin57]

09:16 AM on 09/05/2010

This sort of thing happens regularly on the UC campus. Usually it's liberals shouting down conservative speakers (like Benjamin Netanyahu at the Berkeley campus). No suspensions when THAT happens, because the disrupters are practioners of Correct Thinking.

[LogicalMathMan]

01:44 PM on 09/05/2010

ummm...no...it's called free speech. Also, nobody even slammed Palin during her speech at one UC campus. I would uphold any citizens right to protest, liberal or conservative.

[gfirmin57]

05:23 PM on 09/05/2010

No. Shouting down opposing voices so that they cannot be heard is not exercising free speech. Just the opposite...except in the leftist's world of doublespeak.

[corwin]

10:51 PM on 09/05/2010

Umm,no. Justice Holmes famously pointed out in his "fire/theater " opinion free speech is about the federal gov't not being able to regulate political speech.
Sorry to bring thought to HuffPO

[ixington]

05:22 PM on 09/05/2010

I am of the impression you've never been to an event at UC Irvine.

George Galloway wasn't able to put in a single word during his visit two years ago due to constant interruption from Zionist pensioners.

[Musa1]

05:26 AM on 09/07/2010

Muslims just don't have the political or financial or religous clout in California as Zionists do.

[alumcreek]

10:58 AM on 09/07/2010

You mean a bunch of old people shouted him down? WOW! Goof for them. They should do it more often at their age. I hope when I am a pensioner I will have the strength to go shout down some twerp. By the time I am a pensioner I will surely have some ability to discriminate between those who mean well for mankind and those who mean well for biggoted jerks trying to run the world.

[renderstrue]

08:10 PM on 09/04/2010

I would like to see a code of academic freedom at every university. Anyone who interferes with free expression of ideas and debate should be expelled from the university community.

[Turukano]

12:36 AM on 09/05/2010

I will remember that when the skinheads come to campus.

[healthanalyst]

09:41 PM on 09/06/2010

I remember when the Klan showed up. Armed too,

[alumcreek]

11:04 AM on 09/07/2010

Are you sure that any skinheads can find a school? They all left so long ago that they don't even remember failing the third grade and shoving off to seek a razor and a bipolar mentor.

[gfirmin57]

09:17 AM on 09/05/2010

That would indeed be nice. But it will never happen because too many leftists would find themselves out on the sidewalk, unmatriculated.

[LogicalMathMan]

01:45 PM on 09/05/2010

Really?! And yet your Mother Ship FAUX keeps reminding her viewers that professors spread liberal propaganda. Who's going to teach the conservatives in college? Other conservatives? They are too busy making money on the backs of citizens to even consider teaching positions.

[WSS61]

06:27 PM on 09/04/2010

Boy, it the reverse had happened there would have been violence and bloodshed!

[Turukano]

12:37 AM on 09/05/2010

Way to spread the intolerance, buddy.

[Angelus2007]

02:55 PM on 09/04/2010

"Hadeer Soliman, the group's interim vice president, says the punishment will affect hundreds of Muslims who regularly attend prayer meetings and socialize together."

I don't get that. It isn't like they aren't allowed to socialize. They just can't do it as a student group. Nothing stopping friends from hanging out.

[NativeChika]

01:44 PM on 09/06/2010

It's probably because they get together and have religious events and prayer. Of course it wouldn't stop a couple people from hanging out but as a whole this is very disruptive especially because it Ramadan where people come together almost everyday to break fast daily.

[Angelus2007]

12:04 AM on 09/07/2010

They could all still get together if they wanted. They just wouldn't be able to use schools facilities as they do as a group, and probably can't use school bulletin boards or anything to advertise. There would be nothing than emailing the entire roster and work out the ability to pray together.

[avatoin]

02:48 PM on 09/04/2010

Wait... is it just those that disrupted the speech or is it anyone in the group? The article didn't make that clear.

[Jean-Paul DuQuette]

12:56 PM on 09/04/2010

This is really a non-story. UCI (and probably most universities) would penalize any student group for an organized heckling of a guest speaker. And the 100 hours of community service is perfectly acceptable because that's what ALL student organizations say they're for in the first place. Though this blurb might oversimplify the situation, my knee-jerk reaction was, "You should've targeted the admins who invited the ambassador and, failing that, built student awareness about the darker side of Israel during the week prior to his visit. Instead, you let your emotions get the best of you. And there ARE other places to meet for prayers and socialize till the ban is over."

[ChicagoBob]

02:24 AM on 09/04/2010

"Hadeer Soliman, the group's interim vice president, says the punishment will affect hundreds of Muslims who regularly attend prayer meetings and socialize together."

That's a worthless statement. How will it affect them? Will the now show a little respect for the free speech of others? Will the demonstrate peacefully? Did the publicity increase membership?

My experience with Islamic groups on college campuses is limited but I have been impressed by how little tolerance they have for other beliefs while at the same time demanding tolerance for their beliefs, especially the foreign Muslim students.

[mggwa]

11:40 PM on 09/03/2010

I am glad to see civility being enforced; by a California university no less.

[EducatedWoman]

05:35 PM on 09/04/2010

mggwa, you don't say where you're from, but no need to be snarky. It's not Californians who are protesting the development of a Muslim community center in Manhattan or disrupting soldiers' funerals. There is absence of civility in every part of the country.

[Huero]

12:46 PM on 09/06/2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/us/08mosque.html

Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition