Walid Shoebat and Ahmed Rehab

It was point/counterpoint last night at UWM.

Accusations of hate speech came from both sides.

Former terrorist Walid Shoebat was accused by the Muslim Student Association of hate mongering.

For his part, Shoebat accused Muslim Student Associations of "supporting Hamas and promoting hatred toward Jews."

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's account of the event is found here.

Self-described former terrorist Walid Shoebat told an audience of about 750 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Tuesday night that Muslims in the Middle East are raised to believe in the destruction of Israel.

But after his speech, which got a standing ovation, the question-and-answer session became raucous and heated.

One questioner, Abd Elhamid Elsayed, a Muslim opposed to Shoebat's message, didn't get to his question quickly enough for some people, who shouted at him to finish. Security officers pulled him away from the microphone.

Another man yelled, "Hallelujah!"

Shoebat said he was born in Bethlehem to a Muslim father and an American Christian mother held in the Middle East against her will. As a young man, he said, he committed acts of terror against Israel, including throwing a bomb at a bank in Bethlehem that he said killed no one.

He later moved to Chicago, where he said he openly advocated for the Palestinian group Hamas. He converted to Christianity in 1993 and lives under an assumed name.

"The idea of destroying Israel never left our minds," Shoebat said. "We didn't have any of the critical thinking you enjoy here in the West. . . . We had the idea that Israel must be wiped out, and we must establish a state."

The event was sponsored by the UWM Conservative Union. After the event, the Muslim Student Association held a counter-forum. Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, described Shoebat's speech as historically inaccurate and one-sided.

"What's his qualifications? He's not a scholar or even a Muslim," Rehab said. "He's an ex-terrorist, and you can guess what that says about him."

John McAdams gives a more detailed account than what the JS provides.

McAdams concludes:

We see his views as an authentic response to the real, virulent extremism and real anti-Semitism that he has seen. He is extremely passionate – some would say fanatical. But passion is an appropriate response to what he has seen.

But that’s not to say that his outlook on Islam is fair and balanced. It’s a legitimate response to an unbalanced set of experiences he has had. It’s not all of Islam, and probably not even most of Islam. It is too much of Islam.

That's very well said. "It is too much of Islam."

I think it's important to get some perspective on Ahmed Rehab and the Council of American-Islamic Relations. CAIR has been given legitimacy by the mainstream media, propped up as a civil rights group. But the organization is far from squeaky clean.

Read more here. Speaking of hate peddlers....

Remember the MSA tried to keep Shoebat from speaking by arguing that his appearance would be a threat to student safety.

The MSA wrote to the UWM administration:

[Shoebat's] writing and speeches have deliberately rotated around inciting Americans with fear of Muslims and Arabs, associating them with terrorism. The ramifications of allowing such hate-mongers to spread hate has been clearly driven in the physical attacks on Muslims, Arabs, or anyone with Middle-Eastern appearance following the events of September 11 th.

The Muslims at UWM feel that their safety will be in danger if the above mentioned event takes place on the UWM campus. We ask the UWM Administration to cancel the event due to these circumstances for the safety and comfort of the students. We take such an event as a direct attack on us and will hope the university will ask the sponsoring organizations to discontinue the program.

Well, the event did take place.

Things may have been heated at times during the question and answer period, but I'm not aware that the safety of any students was compromised.

Shoebat said what he wanted to say. Ahmed Rehab said what he wanted to say.

Ideas were freely exchanged, free speech and more free speech.

No violence.

I guess the sky didn't fall after all.