At this past Wednesday night's lecture "The Long Wars," sponsored by the Muslim Student Association, the student leader of the MSA who introduced speaker Imam Abdul Alim Musa explained that the MSA solely looks at "what [the speakers] study and their credentials" before inviting them to speak at events, but never reviews their lecture material beforehand. After being an audience to Imam Musa's extremist message of hate, discrimination, and religious intolerance, I have a suggestion for the Muslim Student Association: maybe you should start.
Imam Musa was supposed to lecture on the war on terror and the war on drugs. I attended because I was interested in the effects of "the long wars" on the Muslim community and human beings as a whole.
Instead, with virtually no evidence to back up his points, Imam Musa claimed that the United States and the Israelis were responsible for the attacks on 9/11; that President-elect Barack Obama is an "idiot" because "no black man should believe in America"; that Martin Luther King Jr. was a coward who should have rebelled against the system more actively and violently; that al-Qaeda doesn't exist; and that by 2050, the Imam aims to change the United States into an Islamic state run by Sharia law.
If the MSA's goal is to have a productive conversation on the dynamics of our world when dealing with terror and drugs, this is not the way to go about it.
The Imam also touched on racism in our society. It's a shameful reality and it needs to change. Our nation and its institutions have a history of racism, but advocating a separatist society where blacks own "black stores in black communities" is just racism by another name.
Denying the effectiveness and courageousness of civil rights leaders like MLK Jr. is showing a blatant lack of respect for a man who had the strength to peacefully change an unfair system.
Calling President-elect Barack Obama an "idiot" because "no black man should believe in America," as Musa claimed, is degrading and wrong. The system still needs changing.
Maybe we should follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. instead of lose faith in our ability to believe in America and progress. I'm sure it feels good to rage against the system and toss blame around, but it takes a lot more courage to do the work to fix it, as MLK Jr. began doing. It's our job to finish his work and achieve the dream, not simply complain and be angry.
It is high time that our nation openly and honestly discusses the problems of racism, religious intolerance, terrorism, drug use, and government corruption. Imam Musa is free to offer his opinion however and whenever he likes. But his fountain of hatred and lies are not something the MSA should support or invite onto our campus if they are serious about solving these problems, which I believe they are.
A student member of the group announced last Wednesday that the views of the speaker don't represent the views of the group or of all Muslims, which is certainly true. But when your organization invites a speaker, they tie their name to that person, whether intentional or not.
I left Musa's lecture sickened, discouraged, and disappointed. I had hoped that I would hear an insightful perspective on modern issues in our society.
I was open to opinions other than my own. But I cannot, and will not, silently accept such blatant lies and hatred on my campus.
I wholeheartedly support the First Amendment. Whether or not I like what he is saying, Imam Musa has the right to spout hatred and thinly disguised anti-Semitism wherever and whenever he wants. My question is this: is that really the message the MSA wants to send?
Are speakers like this really helpful or conducive to intelligent debate? The MSA, like every organization, is responsible for the lecturers they invite to events. It's about time the MSA leadership start taking that responsibility seriously and screen their lecturers more carefully, rather than providing an open pulpit for a message of hate.
Molly Groo is a freshman international relations major and a member of the Towson Democrats.
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