Update 9:52am Eastern 10/23. Incorrect U tracks the backlash. Here’s a lovely photo of one of the anti-IFAW protesters at Berzekeley:

Update 9:08am Eastern 10/23. RobertSpencer at DePaul.

Update 9:57pm Eastern. Here’s a new video from the Horowitz Freedom Center on the violent oppression of women in Islam…

Update 4:00pm Eastern. Megan Sego at UC Berkeley’s California Patriot is liveblogging the Nonie Darwish event tonight.

Update 3:30pm Eastern. A new purported bin Laden audio tape calls on jihadis to unite.

Update 2:10pm Eastern. Jim Hoft reports on the IFA week backlash.

***

The irrepressible David Horowitz is the man behind Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which kicks off today. The Left and the jihadi apologists are in a snit, of course, and you already know what the grievance hoaxers at GWU attempted to do in their effort to deflect attention away from our true enemies and smear the organizers and supporters of IFAW.

The moonbats at Indymedia are calling on their minions to attack David’s campaign:

Horowitz means what he says, and it’s not at all an idle threat. What’s called for is nothing short of inflicting political defeat on them. In some ways, Horowitz has provided an opening for progressive and revolutionary-minded people to pry open and seriously change the terms of the whole debate, on campus and beyond. There is a basis for this—but it will require a major leap in awareness, mobilization and determination.

People need to step back and look at the whole picture, the whole sweep of U.S. society and where it is heading. Students especially need to recognize what it would mean to have such a week go uncontested, to allow such forces to set the terms of discussion and political life, to have a genuinely fascist political program and ideology not just legitimized but widely promoted as the main trend on campuses.

Work needs to be done immediately to transform the campuses across the country. Horowitz and “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” need to be exposed for what they are, in diverse and creative ways. There need to be public forums and classroom discussions about “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” and the threat it poses. Campuses need to be saturated with posters. Those who are planning protests against the fascists, and defense of Women’s Studies departments and Muslim student groups should be supported. The forces behind “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” need to be exposed and isolated. Other forces caught up in it need to be presented with the truth about Horowitz and what “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” is all about.

These people are not the champions of anything progressive. They are proven liars who are responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and laid that country to waste. They are readying a strike against Iran, which could include the use of nuclear weapons, as part of a global crusade which they say will last a generation. They engage in torture on an industrial, world-wide scale. They include biblical literalists who want to create a world which would be a horror for women, and for gays and lesbians.

“Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” must be repudiated and politically defeated. Work needs to begin now with distributing materials, like this paper, that expose what this is really all about. When the week comes, people need to be informed and mobilized, ready to deal this fascist offensive a decisive political defeat. Horowitz needs to be thoroughly called out and identified as persona non grata, someone with no right whatsoever to try and impose his fascist vision on universities. At the end of “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week”, these fascists need to be defeated, deflated, discredited and sent packing. If this offensive is thrown back, their ability to launch further attacks on professors and on critical thinking and dissent will be undermined. The momentum of campus brownshirts could be reversed. A very different dynamic in the universities is possible.

The battle against “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” and the brownshirt offensive may be the crucible through which a new generation cuts its teeth and finds its place in history. All who want a better world should relish this fight.

The Muslim Student Association at Penn State is also up in arms:

The biggest fear among Muslim students, faculty, administrators, and community is that the event creates an environment of intolerance, fear, and prejudice. Faculty could be perceived by their students as fascists; students could view their colleagues as promoters of fascist agendas, and staff could be alienated by colleagues and superiors. Repercussions could lead to tension and divisiveness among students, hate crimes, and additional alienation of the Muslim community in general. Pennsylvania State University promotes diversity, equality, freedom of belief, and safety of its community. The said event compromises those values to say the least.

The MSA at the University of Washington wants people on campus to wear green to protest IFAW:

Hala Dillsi, a member of the UW Muslim Student Association, believes Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week promotes fear and intolerance. She is distributing green armbands and encouraging people to wear T-shirts that are green — traditionally the color associated with Islam — on Wednesday in solidarity with local Arabs and Muslims.

The student group also is organizing a forum Oct. 29 in which professors and local Muslims discuss and answer questions about Islam.

Members of the Muslim Student Association, along with other organizations, also plan to hold protests outside Wednesday and Thursday evening’s Awareness Week events.

The MSA doth protest too much. No wonder they are so incensed.

Horowitz told the WashTimes:

Provoking protest is nothing new to Mr. Horowitz, an ex-Marxist and a leader of the 1960s New Left who has been the target of pie-throwing incidents during his campus appearances as a conservative speaker. He doesn’t mince words when describing his former ideological comrades.

“The left has only one strategy when dealing with its opponents, and that’s to smear them,” Mr. Horowitz, 68, says in a telephone interview. “They learned from Stalin.”

…Mr. Horowitz says conservatives should not tolerate accusations of “hate” from left-wing activists.

“We’re not just going to sit and take it,” he says. “We’re going to fight fire with fire. They are the haters, and we’re going to stick them with that.”

Support IFA Week here.

The calendar:

Brown University
Robert Spencer – 25th, 7pm, Salomon Hall 101

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Greg Davis – 24th, 7:30pm, Phillips Hall

Clemson University
Mike Adams – 25th, 7pm, Hunter 100

Columbia University
David Horowitz – 26th, 12pm, Lerner Cinema
panel with Phyllis Chesler, Ibn Warraq, and Christina Sommers – 24th, 8pm, Math 203

DePaul University
Robert Spencer – 22nd, 7pm, Cortalyou Commons

Dartmouth
Robert Spencer – 26th, 7pm, Dartmouth Hall room 105

Emory University
David Horowitz – 24th, 8pm, White Hall 208

Lawrence University
Jonathan Schanzer – 24th, 7:30pm, Youngchild Hall

George Mason University
Luana Saghieh and Alan Nathan – 22nd, 8:30pm, Johnson Center Cinema

George Washington University
Michael Ledeen and Daphne Patai – 22nd, 10am, Mt. Vernon Campus, Eckles Auditorium
David Horowitz – 25th, 8pm, Marvin Center

Penn State University
Rick Santorum – 23rd, 8pm, 119 Osmond

Princeton
David Horowitz – 16th, 8pm, McCosh 10

Pepperdine
Tammy Bruce – 22nd, 7pm, Student Lounge

SFSU
Brian Sussman – 24th, 12pm, Jack Adams Hall

Temple University
Rick Santorum – 24th, 8pm, Student Center 218

Tufts
Daniel Pipes – 24th, 7pm

Tulane University
Ann Coulter – 22nd, 7pm, McAlister Auditorium

UC Berkeley
Nonie Darwish – 22nd, 7pm, Evans Hall 10

UC Santa Barbara
Dennis Prager – 25th, 7pm, Girvetz 1004

UCLA
Cyrus Nowrasteh – 23rd, 6:30pm, Moore 100
Nonie Darwish – 24th, 7pm, Haines 82
Joe Kaufman – 25th, 7pm, Moore 100

University of Miami
Cyrus Nowrasteh – 24th, 7pm, Whitten University Learning Center

University of Pennsylvania
Rick Santorum – 24th, 5:30pm, Hillel-Steinhardt Hall
panel with Daniel Pipes, Dr. Stephen Gale, and Ed Turzanski – 22nd, 7pm, Huntsman Hall

University of Rhode Island
Robert Spencer – 24th, 7pm, Memorial Union Ballroom
University of Washington
Michael Medved – 25th, 7pm, Smith 120

University of Wisconsin, Madison
David Horowitz – 22nd, 7:30, Wisconsin Union Theater

USC
Ann Coulter – 24th, 6pm, Annenberg School of Communication – G26

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