“The purpose of this protest is as simple as it is crucial: to confront the two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat.” This is how the Terrorism Awareness Project describes the goals of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (IFAW).
IFAW was held during the week of Oct. 22-26 and targeted approximately 200 college and university campuses nationwide. The project was created by the David Horowitz Freedom Center and David Horowitz was one of many keynote speakers to speak on college campuses during the week.
IFAW also urged campuses to stage sit-ins in women’s studies departments to protest their silence about the oppression of women in Islam and to distribute pamphlets on Islamo-Fascism. Titles of such pamphlets include “The Islamic Mein Kampf,” “Why Israel is the Victim” and “Jimmy Carter’s War Against the Jews.”
Faculty members in the women’s studies department at the University of Washington received pamphlets slid under their doors.
However, Whitman sophomore Russ Caditz-Peck said he thinks IFAW had no effect on Whitman’s campus.
“I think if Whitman had been targeted as one of the colleges, then obviously there would have been much more awareness and much more student involvement,” said Whitman faculty member Kari Tupper.
Although dialogue between faculty members led to clear concern about the issues behind IFAW, many faculty members were unaware of the anticipated events of the week in advance.
Last year, over half the students in an Islamic Movements class at Whitman received e-mails from the Terrorism Awareness Project. According to sophomore Susannah Lowe, the e-mail provided a link to the Web site and asked students to contact the project if they were interested in having someone come to Whitman to talk about Islamo-Fascism.
“I just didn’t know how they had gotten my e-mail address and how they knew that many of us were in the Islamic Movements class,” said Lowe.
“Some of the material on the Terrorism Awareness Project Web site was pretty upsetting to me and seemed pretty hateful,” said Tupper. “It is difficult to imagine how the approach described in the Web site could promote constructive dialogue.”
Many college and university campuses, including the University of Washington, organized protests against IFAW and the ideas behind it.
This year, no Whitman students were visibly active in the events of the week, whether protesting for or against the goals of the Terrorism Awareness Project.
According to Caditz-Peck, many students were not even aware that the week of Oct. 22-26 had been designated as anything so controversial.
“I think, while awareness weeks in general tend to foster a positive awareness of issues, that Islamo-Fascism is really kind of a dangerous word to create an issue out of, because it tends to create the idea that Islam and fascism are inherently connected when in reality that isn’t the case,” said Caditz-Peck. “The use of that word promotes ignorance about Islam.”
