| From YAF Watch A Press Release from the Council on Islamic American Relations was posted on this website.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) today welcomes the cancellation of an anti-Muslim speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich.
CAIR-MI said the Holocaust Memorial Center Black History Month speech was to be sponsored by a "hate group."
SEE: Holocaust Center Cancels Anti-Muslim Speaker (Michigan Messenger)
Michigan State University Professor Indrek Wichman, who was to speak at the center, was subject of a national controversy in 2006 when he sent an anti-Muslim e-mail to the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Michigan State University.
That e-mail read in part: "I counsul [sic] you dissatisfied, aggressive [sic], brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems [sic] to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' If you do not like the values of the West--see the 1st Ammendment [sic]--you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans."
SEE: MSU Professor Sends Islamophobic Email (Arab American News)
The sponsor of the cancelled speech, the Young Americans for Freedom - Michigan State University (YAF-MSU) has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a "hate group" and is known for inviting anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and xenophobic speakers to the university.
Some of YAF-MSU's past programs have included a "Koran Desecration" contest and "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day." More recently, YAF-MSU sponsored an anti-Muslim speech by British National Party (BNP) member Nick Griffin, a known Holocaust denier.
"We welcome the Holocaust Memorial Center's decision not to sponsor anti-Muslim bigotry at a location that symbolizes the grave consequences of hatred and intolerance," said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding. |
