Students Ask College Republicans to Pull Sponsorship from Hateful Forum

Irvine, CA: The Muslim Student Union at the University of California, Irvine (MSU-UCI) today called upon the College Republicans on the UCI campus to revoke their sponsorship of the February 28th event entitled "The Unveiling of the Cartoons and A Discussion to Confront Terror". In a letter sent to the College Republicans, the Muslim student group stated that such an event would only serve to incite hatred against Muslims and spread Islamophobia on campus. MSU-UCI also called upon the California Republican Party to repudiate and distance itself from the bigoted action of its student college branch.
The cartoons that the College Republicans are planning to display at their event have insulted more than 1.3 billion Muslims across the globe, evoked universal condemnation across the Muslim world, and ignited a series of global protests.
"Displaying the cartoons at UC Irvine will only incite hatred against and deeply hurt its Muslim community, and create an atmosphere of animosity and Islamophobia on campus," said Marya Bangee, a member of the MSU-UCI board. "This is diametrically opposed to the spirit of a university campus, a place for intellectual debate that fosters mutual understanding and respect," she added.
She also noted that even the Bush Administration, along with the state department, has condemned the publication of the derogatory cartoons and praised the American press for showing collective restraint in not publishing them.
MSU-UCI condemns any event that discriminates or insults a particular religious or ethnic group. It calls upon on people of consciousness, all student organizations, the UCI administration, and the University of California system at large to reject and condemn events that serve only to incite hatred and bigotry on our campuses.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------