Controversy simmers at Towson University in Maryland after the school's Muslim Students Association chapter hosted radical Imam Abdul Alim Musa for a lecture called "The Long Wars." It was supposed to focus on U.S. wars on drugs and terrorism.
But many, including Muslim students, walked away offended by Musa's views on 9/11, on President-Elect Barack Obama and Martin Luther King.
As freshman Molly Groo wrote in the independent student paper, the Tower Light, Musa strayed far from the advertised issues:
"Instead, with virtually no evidence to back up his points, Imam Musa claimed that the United States and the Israelis were responsible for the attacks on 9/11; that President-elect Barack Obama is an "idiot" because "no black man should believe in America"; that Martin Luther King Jr. was a coward who should have rebelled against the system more actively and violently; that al-Qaeda doesn't exist; and that by 2050, the Imam aims to change the United States into an Islamic state run by Sharia law."
Her disappointment in the lecture and in MSA's judgment was shared by "Miraaj," a self-described African-American Muslim who commented on Groo's article. Musa's insulting invective "was enough to turn my stomach," Miraaj wrote. "Imam Musa spoke as a black nationalist stuck in the 60's. In the end I thought that he was a disgrace to black people and Muslims."
This drew a series of responses from the MSA chapter president. The unnamed president said he wasn't defending Musa's 9/11 conspiracy theory, but he didn't take issue with it, either:
"Basically the Imam said "you have to find out who had a motive, who had the ability to do it, who would gain from this, and who has a history of doing this". He cited events like the Battle of Tonkin and the USS Maine (incidents that allowed for the Vietnam and Spanish-American Wars). He stated that these incidents are, as well as 9-11, fabricated to fulfill the same interests of those in power."
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"As a Muslim, and an Arab, I know that a vast majority of people in the Islamic East do not accept the theory of 9-11 by "Al-Qaeda", or not independently at the least."
Last month, we noted an MSA chapter bulletin at Mesa College in San Diego, in which the chapter treasurer urged his brethren to abstain from voting in the presidential election:
"Whether you vote for the white kafir or the half-black kafir, they will kill our brothers and sisters. They will subjugate our brothers and sisters."
The Towson chapter president described himself as "the chief architect of the event, and a student of social science," seemed familiar with Musa's life story, and therefore, with his positions. Musa is "not racist or illogical," he wrote
The student Miraaj disagreed, casting Musa as "a wanna-be Malcolm X" who should have been vetted in advance of the lecture. As you can see, Musa advocates the most extreme views of politics and terror, including his praise of suicide bombers in 2000, 2002 and 2003. Congratulations to the Towson students who are calling out him and his MSA hosts.