Free Speech at UC Irvine is being Challenged!

On Monday, February 8th, 2010 at UC Irvine, the campus community was invited to hear a lecture by Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren.  The ambassador, however, was disrupted repeatedly by members of UC Irvine Muslim Student Union (MSU), forcing event organizers to nearly cancel the speech. In what was a unique opportunity for UC Irvine students to hear from a distinguished and influential policy maker, MSU's concerted effort to censor the Israeli Ambassador contaminated UCI's learning environment that day.  With complete disregard for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, MSU unveiled a scary reality: under current university policies, MSU and other radicals can with relative ease control what we listen to on campus.  This reality must change.

Free Speech is Under Attack - Fight Censorship!

What happened at UC Irvine is not about the Arab-Israeli conflict, its about the right to FREE SPEECH.  Those who attempted to disrupt the event want to control WHO gets to speak and WHAT students are going to hear. Israelis were the target on Monday, but they were not the first and will not be the last.  If we value freedom, we CANNOT tolerate this. We must stand up against censorship.

Take Action Now

Write to UCI's administration and let them know:

• That such incidents must not be tolerated. Free speech is not the freedom to silence others.
• The university must enforce freedom of speech.
• The university must suspend or expel the students who were arrested.
• The university should freeze university funding of the Muslim Student Union while investigating the role it played in planning the demonstration. The president of the MSU was one of those arrested.
• The university should demand that the students involved issue a public apology to Ambassador Oren, the university administration, the student organizations that co-sponsored the event, and to community members who came to learn from Ambassador Oren.
• UCI is in a critical position as a result of this unfortunate incident. It has captured worldwide attention. UCI has the opportunity and the responsibility to serve as a role model for other university administrations plagued with similar extremist efforts to silence dissenting views. UCI must take the lead in restoring a reasonable climate on our campuses.

ACTION: Please send a copy of the letter below (or write your own) to the addresses below.  Please take five minutes and do this yourself. Now is not the time to be passive on this issue. Your activism can and will make a difference. We need you now.

Please write to:
Chancellor Drake
chancellor@uci.edu
949.824.5011 (You may call and leave a message.)

Office of the Dean of Students (the person determining the punishment)
deanstu@uci.edu
949.824.5181

Mark G. Yudof
President of the University of California
president@ucop.edu

Dear Chancellor Drake and Office of the Dean of Students,I am appalled by the mob-like behavior of students who repeatedly disrupted Israeli Ambassador Oren's lecture on February 8 at UC Irvine. Please see the video at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w96UR79TBw.

I applaud you for having the worst offenders arrested and fully support your taking strong disciplinary action against them and forceful measures to prevent similar occurrences.

The well-orchestrated effort by Muslim students and their political sympathizers to shout down and silence Ambassador Oren is an assault on free speech and an abuse of our universities, liberties, and values. It should not be tolerated.

You must not capitulate to the twisted logic of student groups and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), which have rushed to defend these students, claiming that their right to free speech was violated. It was not. From the outset, they were invited to stay and ask questions during the Q and A, but they chose disruption over education, embarrassing themselves, the university, and our community.

Nor has their voices been silenced on campus. Over the past several years, the Muslim Student Union has regularly hosted speakers, most of whom spewed anti-Israel and anti-Semitic diatribes that echoed traditional anti-Semitic tracts.

To my knowledge, Jewish and pro-Israel students have never disrupted these events, despite the damaging and flagrant hate, bigotry, and outright lies that characterized them. Yet, the Muslim students tried to prevent a distinguished speaker with dissenting views from speaking or being heard. In a mockery of American values, they and MPAC claim that free speech is the freedom to silence others. It is not. Such views must be forcefully repudiated.

Enough is enough. This event is a microcosm of what we have seen at UC Irvine in the past and at too many other universities. It is time for responsible adults to say no to this thuggish intolerance and bigotry and to restore reason and informed debate at our institutions of higher learning.

We urge you to:

• Enforce freedom of speech.
• Suspend or expel the students who were arrested.
• Suspend funding of the Muslim Student Union while investigating its role in planning the disruption. The president of the MSU was one of those arrested.
• Demand that the students involved issue a written public apology to Ambassador Oren, the State of Israel, the co-sponsors of this event (including the UC Irvine administration), and community members who came to hear the lecture.
• Take firm measures to ensure that this does not happen again at future events.
• Seize this opportunity to take the lead in restoring reasoned and informed debate on campus. You are in the public eye because of this unfortunate incident. Your statements and actions can serve as a model for other university administrations also plagued with extremist efforts to silence debate and foment intolerance. We urge you to assume this critical responsibility and make the right choices.

I look forward to your response,

YOUR NAME