An advertisement attacking the Muslim Student Association ran on the fifth page of the Daily Nexus yesterday, prompting the organization to call upon the UCSB administration and others for support.The half-page ad, purchased by the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Terrorism Awareness Project, alleges the student organization serves as a campus front group for Muslim holy struggle, or “jihad.” “In its nearly 600 chapters at colleges across the country, the Muslim Student Association postures as just another campus religious and cultural organization,” read the advertisement. “In fact, the MSA is a radical political group that was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of Al Qaeda and Hamas, to bring the jihad into the heart of American higher education.”
In reaction to the allegations, the MSA took several immediate steps to repudiate the claims. President Faheem Ahmad, a fourth-year history and biology major, said the charges were entirely inaccurate. “We are obviously not a jihad organization,” Ahmad said. “We are not funded by the Muslim Brotherhood, we receive all of our funding transparently through Finance Board and we are against violence in any form.”
MSA leadership and concerned students also met with Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Young yesterday evening to discuss drafting a statement denying the claims printed in the ad. Additionally the group called an emergency meeting last night in the Student Resource Building to inform members of possible repercussions and to plan educational events clarifying the position of the organization. “We called a meeting to let people know MSA is clearing their name and brainstorming ways to respond to the attack,” Ahmad said.
David Horowitz, an occasional Fox News analyst and conservative writer responsible for publishing the advertisement, claims the Muslim Brotherhood created MSA and the group is therefore guilty of sponsoring terrorist activities. “It’s a soft jihad,” Horowitz said. “MSA does not throw bombs but it invites speakers to come to campus who support terrorists. UCSB MSA is not a cultural organization but a religious and political organization and an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood. … People have averted their eyes from the reality that they have a genocidal agenda.”
MSA is currently in the process of issuing an official statement endorsed by several other campus organizations denying the allegations and seeking funding for a Muslim Islamic Awareness week, designed to reestablish MSAÂ’s reputation on campus. Further actions will be discussed at an open meeting Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Middle Eastern Student Resource Center in the SRB.