Please read PART 1 first.
As stated in part 1 of this report, after the panelists (Dr. Brook, Dr. Sultan, and Dr. Pipes) took the stage and began their opening dialogs, and as Dr. Daniel Pipes began discussing the jihadi threat around the world including the UCLA campus, the protests and disruptions began.
(Again, as stated in part 1, the pictures in the auditorium and outside after dark aren’t of high quality. I apologize.)
Dr. Pipes continued to speak, despite the fact that was apparently distracted by something that was transpiring in the audience. I looked behind me and noticed that several audience members began rising from their seats, notably a few young women of Middle-Eastern descent wearing hijab (and it looks like that gentleman in the glasses is flipping me the bird. POWER TO THE PEOPLE, DUDE! Ahem.) No one shouted and no one created much of a ruckus initially. They simply made their way to the aisles and the exits.
Thus the protesting of Dr. Pipes and the panelists began–with a bit of a whimper.
Dr. Pipes continued to speak, but he was slightly preoccupied with this initial tide of the protest. Still, he and the panelists conducted themselves professionally. They didn’t acknowledge the activists with anger or disdain, choosing rather to ignore them for as long as possible.
More protestors rise and head for the exits. As you can see, it continued quietly and with a considerable amount of reserve from those in revolt, so much so that many in the audience barely took notice, as you can see in the above picture.
Unfortunately, this relative decorum would not last.
Welcome to the Age of Aquarius. The above three women must be having one hell of a flashback because they can’t seem to remember that this is 2007 and not 1969. As they passed me up the aisle, making their way toward the exit, it became apparent to me that more had likely been planned by the protestors, and specifically these three elderly ladies, in order to create chaos and disorder within the nights proceedings. As one can see from this photograph, the three women all had black shirts with large white letters plastered on the front. It was obviously meant to spell out “LIAR” but the opportunity to stand united and actually spell the word for the panelists and/or the audience never came to pass. Alas, the will to fight seems to have been drained from these particular women. They didn’t even try, opting instead to simply walk out of the auditorium without executing their carefully laid plan–without even trying.
At least, the “R” and the “A” lady gave up. The “LI” lady wasn’t as easily deterred.
This particular protestor, pictured above, was evidently the better third of the “LIAR” lady trilogy. While she didn’t have anything intelligent to say, she said it loudly and repeatedly.
“LIARS! LIARS! LIARS! LIARS! LIARS!” All the while she too made for the exits.
Wagging her finger at the panelists, the “LI” lady resumed her retreating diatribe, “LIARS! LIARS! LIARS!”
By the time she started shouting, so too did the audience, admonishing her and the other protestors disruptive behavior. Many in auditorium at this point were adding their voices to the din, urging the “LI” lady to beat a hasty retreat so the panelists could forge ahead.
The protests from these three women didn’t quite make sense to me. If they were protesting Dr. Pipes and the other panelists, claiming they were liars, then it was apparent to me they (the three ladies in particular) had never even attempted a read of the Qur’an. Many of the statements by the panelists, even this early in the discussion, could be referenced directly from the words and actions of Muhammad within the pages of the Qur’an, or even better, the Hadith. So dubbing the panelists liars was inaccurate. They weren’t there to lie. They were there to provide truths and opinions on what actions might or must be taken to protect the west from radical Islam.
As Dr. Sultan stated during the event, no one has ever murdered someone because they were emulating Jesus. If one wishes to emulate the prophet Muhammad however (as every good Muslim is taught and required to do as Muhammad is the embodiment of the perfect man and all men and women should be like him), killing and murdering by his example is sanctioned within the pages of the Qur’an and the Hadith.
Finally, one last protestor unfurls a large sign (too big for his wingspan to handle appropriately as you can tell from the above picture–it seems to read “s DON’T SUPPORT TE SPEECH.”) Needless to say, the sign was difficult to read.
Dr. Pipes in the upper left calmly waits until the protests subside.
I think it said, “DON’T SUPPORT HATE SPEECH.” I heard quite a bit of hate speech from the “LI” lady. She spewed “LIARS!” forth with quite a bit of acerbically drenched venom, but I didn’t notice hate speech coming from any of the panelists. Some in the auditorium may have been slightly surprised by some of the verbiage coming from Dr. Brook for example, but hate speech appeared relegated to the protesters alone.
As the disruptions subsided, Dr. Pipes resumed his initial comments. You can see he had to remove the lav mic attached to his lapel and bring it closer to his mouth because some in the back of the venue had difficulties hearing him speak.
After a couple of minutes, I became audibly aware that a commotion was taking place outside of the building. Predicting more protests, I quickly shot from my seat (no offense to panelists hopefully) and made my way outside to see what might be taking place.
Yup. More protests. The individual on the far right of the above picture even sported a fashionable kaffiyeh and military fatigues while banging peacefully on his tabla.
I couldn’t quite make out what the sign read though.
Ahh! Of course. The protesters had taken the opportunity to transform the panelist’s discussion, Totalitarian Islam’s Threat to the West, into a peace protest against the war in Iraq. That makes perfect sense, especially since the discussion rarely focused on Iraq or the American military adventure within. In fact, the only time the war in Iraq every really surfaced in the dialog was during the question and answer period at the end. This event was not about the Iraq war, but the protesters felt (in a somewhat bigoted manner) that speaking about radical Islam must logically relate directly to that conflict, despite the fact that the majority of the worlds Muslims do not live in the Middle East.
Within this group marched Muslims, hippies, students, young children and even babies (who obviously had no idea why everyone was shouting so angrily.) It was ragtag, and barely organized. The march itself was pathetically short, mostly regionalized to the west face of the building wherein the panelists were speaking, and the south side of the building.
I honestly can’t remember what everyone was shouting. All I can say is how disappointed I was to see what appears a fellow metal-head, framed in the center of this photograph, participating in the peace march. Dude, metal is not peaceful.
I was sad to see I had just missed Muslims participating in salah–their prayers, but at least I managed to snap a picture of their rolled up musallah.
There were some young Muslims minutes later praying, but my camera did not take any adequate photographs of their activities unfortunately.
Finally, I re-entered the auditorium and took my seat, taking in the rest of the discussion. Oddly, I had been wondering earlier in the day as to why this issue of radical Islam is such a polarizing one. In general, why does it divide so evenly down political lines? Why is it so partisan? If the left is the champion of women’s rights, equal rights, no war, etc. why would they so recklessly wish to support a religion as oppressive to its followers, particularly its women, as Islam? I mean, the left generally would rather abolish all religion anyway. Why fight for a religious faith that sanctions plural marriage, marriage to children and the subsequent pedophilia (as Muhammad did with Aisha when she was six), beating of women, killing of dissidents, etc.? These are some of the major tenets that the left purports they desire so strongly to prevent, yet they stand in solidarity with Islam. So why the blatant hypocrisy?
Dr. Pipes and Dr. Brook actually satisfactorily answered my question thanks to a question from the audience. The reason why leftists support Islam is because they all share a common enemy–George W. Bush specifically and western culture and society generally. Who cares if Muslims, under the auspices of Islam and Muhammad, commit abhorrent acts of terror, killing scores of innocent people throughout the world? They hate George Bush. They hate the West and the decent individualistic values we stand for.
It was an interesting and enlightening evening and I hope Dr. Pipes will make his way back soon, for myself and those who wanted to hear what he and the other panelists had to say, and for the panelists right to say it.
[…] UPDATE: PART 2 is now up. […]
Thanks for the extended coverage of the protests and the pictures. The walk-out was simply a stupid, pointless interruption of very brave, civilized and articulate people by brutes not deserving of the little attention they forced others to give them. They certainly didn’t score any points for Islam, peace or civilization. Hope you’ll get a video and do some interviewing. Good luck.
Thanks for the detailed coverage of the event. I was wondering if I could acquire the originals of these photos, for our club archive. Thank you.
Aaron
LOGIC – Director of Media
Roger,
Thanks for coming by and commenting. While I don’t agree with the intentions or politics of the protesters, I applaud the idea they felt they needed to do it. Unfortunately, and as I’ve said, if we lived in a society many of them would like to see come to pass (a sharia law Islamic state) there is no way in hell they would be able to protest in such a fashion.
Aaron,
I would be happy to provide you pictures of the event. Provide an email and I’ll send them along. The original files are a bit large, so I will probably have to send them through several emails.
Thanks for asking.
I wonder how long this propaganda against Muslims and the religion of Islam will continue. All you are doing is fueling the flame that is people wanting to learn more about this religion, what you and your cronies need to understand is that the more attention you bring, the more exposure Islam will get. More and more Americans are converting than ever before, why one might ask? Because when the academics actually study the religion, they realize that this way of life is actually superior than anything they’ve ever known to believe. If you want more and more people becoming Muslim, go ahead and keep putting on these “hate filled” events. Islam is NOT being spread by the sword, its being spread by reason, logic, and intellectual curiosity. If Pipes ever wanted to have a “debate” or real discussion, there are avenues of discourse that are available…but of course he rather be on panels such as this where he would rarely be questioned on the merits of most of what he writes. I disagree with the disruptions, but i also disagree with the message. Lets have an intellectual discussion, after all, this is the West right?
samuel,
Thanks for dropping by.
Yes, more people are learning about Islam, and that is exactly the way it should be, though I can say with certainty, and particularly since 9/11 that there are far more people who have become exposed to militant Islam and Muslim extremism than there are those who are converting to Islam, and that is precisely because those who flew their planes into the twin towers, the most heinous terrorist act in the history of modern times, did it in the name of Allah. If they did it in the name of Buddha, then I guarantee you there would be a lot more citizens concerned about militant Buddhism. That is not the case, however.
What Islam really needs right now, more than ‘debate’ or ‘intellectual discussion,’ is legions of moderate Muslims who will speak up and condemn militant Islam. But apart from a mere brave few, those moderates are not coming forward to rescue their religion from violent fanatics. Until that happens, Islam will be a religion not of peace, but of terror, subjugation, humiliation, retribution, deception, and murder.
Hi.
Good design, who make it?