Columbia Faces New Challenges By GOP Group
The Columbia College Republicans are at it again. On the heels of an event they hosted Wednesday, during which the founder of a group that patrols America's borders was attacked and forced offstage by angry protesters, the group is slated to host an even larger event next week, this one featuring two ex-terrorists and a former Nazi.
On Wednesday evening, the gathering came to an untimely demise when, a minute into the remarks by the founder of the Minuteman Project, Jim Gilchrist, students stormed the stage, overturning tables and chairs and attacking Mr. Gilchrist and fellow Minutemen Marvin Stewart and Jerome Corsi. Having taken control of the stage, the students, led by the student chapter of the International Socialist Organization, unfurled a banner that read, in both Arabic and English, "Nobody is Illegal."
Although the hired security did little to prevent the students from shouting down or physically intimidating the invited guests, they escorted the Minutemen out, unharmed, through a back door.The protesters savored their victory before security ushered the audience out of the auditorium. Students jumped from the stage, chanting in Spanish and pumping their fists triumphantly. "These are racist individuals heading a project that terrorizes immigrants on the U.S.-Mexican border," a Columbia junior who took part in the protest, Ryan Fukumori, said. "They have no right to be able to speak here."
Next week's event, scheduled for October 11, is expected to draw an even larger crowd, according to a university spokesman, Robert Hornsby. It will feature a former Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist, Walid Shoebat, a former Lebanese terrorist, Zachariah Anani, and a former member of the Hitler youth and Nazi soldier, Hilmar von Campe.
Messrs. Shoebat and Anani, who both committed terrorist attacks against Israel, now say they are ardent supporters of the Jewish state.
Mr. Shoebat runs an eponymous organization, the Walid Shoebat Foundation, which "cries out for the justice of Israel and the Jewish people," according to the group's Web site. Messrs. Shoebat and Anani oppose the creation of a Palestinian state. The foundation's Web site displays gory pictures of Palestinian Arab atrocities and asks, "Is this the justice the Western supporters of a Palestinian State wish for?"
Messrs. Shoebat, Anani, and von Campe plan to criticize members of the Columbia faculty who "teach America hatred and pro-extremist messages," Maria Silwa, the trio's public relations representative, told The New York Sun. Ms. Silwa said Messrs. Shoebat, Anani, and von Campe favor free speech but "worry about the problem of indoctrination."
"When people from right leaning views go onto a campus they often get shut out," Ms. Silwa said.
Messrs. Shoebat and Anani have spoken at universities throughout the country, regularly arousing protest. Asked whether, in light of the chaos that erupted at Columbia last night, the speakers were worried for their safety, the executive director of the Walid Shoebat Foundation, Keith Davies, said they expect protests but "always take security precautions."
"Martin Luther King faced protest and intimidation too when he tried to speak out," Mr. Davies said.
Columbia's office of communications and the Columbia College Republicans confirmed yesterday that Wednesday's melee had not derailed the upcoming event. Mr. Hornsby said there are "security concerns" about the event and that a final, routine security review would take place at the beginning of next week. He could not say whether next week's security protocol would differ from Wednesday's.
The university said in a statement yesterday that it "deplores" the actions of the protesters who disrupted the gathering, that it would "continue to review the events" to determine how Columbia's safe environment was violated, and that it would "take appropriate measures to ensure it does not happen again."
Mr. Shoebat spoke at Columbia two years ago at the invitation of Columbia Chabad, a Jewish student group. No protests took place.
