Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week prompts debate

On Thursday, Oct. 25, the College Republicans (GTCR) once again hosted the screening of the film Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West by David Horowitz, a civil rights activist who promotes "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week."

"Last year's Obsession event was a tremendous success on campus, so I definitely wanted to participate again this year," said William Bowden, the GTCR Treasurer.

"I hope that students will take the time to care about this important issue and learn how they can best combat radical Islam and its message of hate and division," said Connor Carolan-Tolbert, chairman of GTCR.

The film began with the quote "this is a film about radical Islam Terror, a dangerous ideology fueled by religious hatred." However, it then recognizes that "it is important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror," and the film is about "a radical worldview and the threat it poses to us all, Muslim and non-Muslim alike."

Using a number of interviews and footage from the Arab television, the film explored issues such as religion as an incentive for terrorism, the single threat from radical Islam and the usage of propaganda.

One interviewee John Loftus, a former Justice Department prosecutor, commented that "the world, despite the number of attacks, is still in denial. They don't want to believe that someone has declared war on them."

However, the College Democrats feel that although Al-Qaeda does pose a threat, the biggest threat to America's life comes from its own invasions.

"American's tolerance of Bush's invasion of Iraq and domestic rollbacks of civil rights has caused more damage to America's affluence and global influence than any al-Qaeda attack could ever dream of accomplishing," said Griffin Wasdin, the President of GT College Democrats (GTCD).

During the film, repeated footage was shown of radical Muslims committing acts of terror in corners of the world, propaganda in the Middle East portraying America as the face of Satan and of Arab textbooks teaching that "this religion [Islam] will destroy all other religions through the Islamic Jihad fighters."

Another interviewee Nonie Darwish, daughter of a Shahid Martyr, went as far as saying "[America] has been infiltrated with people who wanted the Qur'an to replace our Constitution," and that the radical groups are no longer confined to the Middle East but have spread to all over the world.

In response, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) feels that the film does little to help students understand the reality of the Muslim community. "We have heard enough from the media to warn us about these radicals and extremists-so much so that 'Radical Islam' is increasingly the only image of Islam that the general public perceives," said Ahmed Salim, the president of MSA.

"We have said it and will continue to say it: that's not Islam. If you look at the terrorists around the world, their common denominator is not Islam; it's politics," Salim said.

GTCD also agrees that religion is being exploited by radicals to control populations to advance their own agendas, comparing that to how German nationalism was exploited by Hitler.

After the screening of the movie, Dr. Ahmet Erbil, a professor in the physics department was invited to share his insights on the matter. Dr. Erbil not only gave a thorough history of Christianity and Islam, but he also recanted some of his personal experiences with the extremists and shared his view about religion as an incentive for terror.

"When I was growing up in Turkey, as a Muslim boy, I was taught to love other people and work hard, because working hard is being close to God," Erbil said. "When I came to America to do my graduate studies at MIT, I never felt like an outsider. This is to say that Christianity, Islam and Judaism don't really have that many differences because in essence, we have similar types of value, systems and formations of conducts."

"Islam, as a religion, has nothing to do with this group talked about in the film. There's nothing Islamic about these groups," Erbil said.

In addition, Erbil proposed possible routes for people to identify the issue in hand. "I firmly believe what is described [in the film] is going on. I have seen some of those scenes first hand. It worries me deeply because it is violent and [the radicals] will not stop easily until they change," Erbil said.

"I'm very worried that we're losing despite we spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the Middle East just because we don't fully comprehend how things work in the Middle East. It is very important that people understand the issues and address them in a systematic manner without deviating from the common goal," Erbil said.

The GTCD shares the same view that blindly going into war and spending billions are no longer good options. "Look inward at our response to the attacks of 9-11: approximately 3,000 Americans were killed, and in response, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have generated casualties estimated at more than 600,000 by at least two major studies," Wasdin said.

"The world cannot sustain that kind of escalation, and the global economy is dragged down by the massive governmental overspending necessary to support such rampant destruction," Wasdin said.

However, despite efforts of advertisements, only about ten people attended the screening event and joined Dr. Erbil in the discussion afterwards. "While we were disappointed with the low turnout, especially compared to last year when we had at least fifty people attend, we were nevertheless happy to have a few concerned students and faculty and members of the community come out and view the film and stay for the discussion afterwards," Bowden said.

However, students have another opportunity to discuss the points presented in the film in the annual Islamic Awareness Week hosted by MSA in the spring. "We hope that through our proactive and sustained efforts on this campus, we will be helping to keep Georgia Tech an environment where all people can feel safe to come together to learn and grow as individuals, as well as members of a larger society," Salim said.