My Life inside the Muslim Students Association

I went back to school after many years of being out to get my degree. I majored in history with a focus on the Middle East and with a particular interest in studying Islamic history. So I took a lot of those kinds of classes where I came in contact with many of the Muslim students at my institution.

I was usually the one dissenting voice in the classroom when it came to things like the Israel-Palestine conflict, the war on terror, and the clash of civilizations. Being right after 9-11 we were all so very sensitive on both sides about what the course of the future should bring.

Since I was older it was easier for them to just right me off. After all what do older people know, right? When you’re in early twenties you think you know everything, and political radicals of all kinds well, that’s even worse.

What was that saying attributed to Churchill about liberal thinking? If you’re not a left winger at twenty you’ve got no heart, if you’re still a left winger at forty, you’ve got no brains. Or something like that.

So, I gained a bit of a reputation among leftists and Muslims as being a combination O’reilly devotee and idiot. Ok, fine.

While taking an Islamic history class on the Ottoman Empire 15th-20th century, I saw a poster on the wall of the classroom asking for membership in the Muslim Students Association (MSA).

I am reasonably sure that the MSA has a national directive to collect for Islamic charities during their meetings. And, as we have seen through several well researched, published accounts that many times this money ends up in the hands of Hamas, Islamic Jihad or other al-Queda like organizations, for the express purpose of killing Jews and Christians.

As despicable as that is, they are still allowed to operate under the freedoms granted to them in this country,

I already knew of their activities from the displays and activism they utilized on campus, but still, I would fantasize how cool it would be to be a fly on the drapes during their meetings listening to them wax eloquent about everything from how they are being persecuted as Muslims to what kind of degrading spectacle they can come up with to offend Jews in the community.

As much as I would have liked to have been part of those discussions, I knew that could never be, because my face, if not my name, was too well known to be able to move around an organization like that without being spotted, and then ousted.

However, after giving it some more thought my name was a bit more obscure. Professors would sometimes call on students without saying anything and sometimes it was “Larry,” or “Mr. Hart.” With my name on one of their rolls it still would be difficult to put together who I was unless you were actually looking for it.

After all I didn’t know every Muslim student as the Muslim population in L.A. is quite large and the local campuses sport a sizable population of Muslim students. In order for my name to be spotted it would probably have to be one of the students, or professors who were also sympathetic to Muslim causes, I actually had interaction with. While that was not impossible under the right circumstances it wouldn’t be likely either.

I would be more invisible if I could just get by with my name, even for a little while.

I decided to sign up for the email list just to see what might happen. Email was beginning to get very popular around the turn of the century and universities were using it extensively. I couldn’t attend meetings or functions but with the advance of email at the time I might be able to get a few tidbits of information that way.

I took a fatalistic attitude toward the whole situation, if they busted me, they busted me. Being on an email list is not all that big a thing. Let’s be honest, receiving an email newsletter once a week or so, would not constitute a breech in their security or anything. I thought it would be fun and I would deal with any repercussions if it came to that.

Because I was still an arms distance away from what might have been even more revealing, the kinds of information I received I was not ground breaking. I couldn’t go to the FBI with it or anything like that.

It wasn’t as good as actually getting next to these people up close and personal but so what, I really didn’t want to get any closer to them then they would allow me to anyway.

During my tenure as a name on their email list I received messages on a weekly or semi weekly basis. Most were about upcoming social events, movies they acquired with an Islamic theme, and discussions that would go on at the university from time to time, some political and some technical concerning living arrangements, food preparation, especially Halal, and alerts about cars parked illegally etc.

But, in between all of this mundane twenty-something nonsense I also remember the following items that may be of interest. The quotes are in quotes because that is how I remember them, but it was several years ago so I might not have the actual wording correct.

Once they sent out an email memo reminding all MSA members to bring their favorite anti Zionist picture, story, or video so they could incorporate it into the national MSA anti-Zionist/free Palestine week. They added as a qualifier “remember, showing Zionism as evil is paramount. It is the only way to convince Americans to support the Palestinian struggle.”

Another time they repeated a memo from National MSA headquarters or some other national overseeing agency, (I can’t remember which) asking members to promote the idea of Islam being a “religion of peace” on their perspective campuses. Playing off a president Bush comment and using it to further the idea that 9-11 was not committed by Arab Muslims.

By the way the anti-Zionist week I mentioned showed evidence that it was Jews who brought down the twin towers, not Mohammad Ata and his gang.

Another time they urged MSA members to enroll into Jewish study courses for the express purpose of monitoring those classes for both sympathetic and non sympathetic Jews, so they could line up who is their enemy and who isn’t.

I’m pretty sure I was labeled an enemy.

All toll I was on the mailing list for about eight months before I was discovered. I don’t know who recognized my name or how it happened. No one ever said anything to me, but I was quietly removed from the list. I wrote to inquire why I was not receiving their messages anymore and they never answered. I guess “the jig was up.”

Groups like the MSA, CAIR, The American Muslim Council, The Muslim Public Affairs Council, and others give the outward appearance that they are community based organizations working toward the betterment of the Muslim community.

Well, if you consider the completion of Jihad, the establishment of Sharia law through Dar el-Harb (the world war) as betterment of the community then that would be an accurate statement.

In reality these are mostly front groups who advocate sometimes openly, sometimes clandestinely to further the cause of Jihad in the United States. Of course, not all Muslims are suicide bombers. But, many, more than you would think an acceptable number are sympathetic toward the suicide bomber’s goals.

They all really need to be watched more closely than they are currently.

The Muslim Students Association in particular might be the most subversive and influential politicized group on campus since the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) almost succeeded in radically changing a generation of young people in the 1960s.

It is extremely important that those of us in the west who want to protect our freedoms that we be aware of these groups, their intentions and believe what they are saying and then act accordingly.

And, especially impress this on your children who are attending university.