Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, advertised by controversial posters depicting a terrorist holding a gun to a figure's head as the person cowers on the ground, has aroused emotional responses among students concerned about the connotations of the event's title.
The event, occurring at over 200 universities, is sponsored nationally by the Terrorism Awareness Project to "confront the two Big Lies of the political left: that George Bush created the war on terror and that Global Warming is a greater danger to Americans than the terrorist threat," according to the project's website.
The event began on Monday and will culminate on Friday with a speech by Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and the author of two New York Times bestsellers about Islamic jihad. Jihad Watch is a website that has generated controversy in the past because of its depiction of Islam.
Spencer said that the event at Dartmouth is aimed to raise awareness about the oppression of women and other minority groups by what he called Islamo-fascists.
The term "Islamo-fascism" was coined by a group of moderate Muslims in 1990 to describe Islamic radicals who were carrying out massacres in Algeria, according to Harrison Sonntag '08, one of the organizers of the event at Dartmouth. He is also working with Harrison Davies '09 and the Terrorism Awareness Project.
"This term, a term invented by Muslims to describe their oppressors, obviously does not equate all Muslims with the fascists," Sonntag said in an e-mail message. "Islamo-fascism is a term that describes the acts of the violent extremists who seek to do harm to others, such as terrorists groups like Al-Qaeda."
Both the Terrorism Awareness Project and the Jihad Watch are projects of the Daniel Horowitz Freedom Center, whose mission is to educate the public to preserve the constitutional values of individual freedom, the rule of law, private property and limited government by educating the public, according to the center's website. Horowitz's organization has been criticized by the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group, for its views.
Sonntag said that he volunteered to organize the event on campus because of his belief that Islamo-facism is the greatest threat the world currently faces, a subject which he said does not garner as much attention as it should.
"I feel that political correctness has prevented this topic from even being freely discussed in the classroom, and that students such as myself have the ability to bring this issue to the table, for Islamo-fascism is a threat to us all," Sonntag said. "I and the Horowitz Freedom Center sincerely believe that the great majority of Muslims around the world are wonderful people who desire peace as much as you and I. I want to help these Muslims by confronting the tenets of Islamo-fascism."
Despite Sonntag's statement that the concept of Islamo-fascism is used only to describe violent extremists, several people, including acting dean of religious and spiritual life Reverend Richard Crocker, expressed concern that the term could be applied by some to the entire Muslim community.
"I think the connotation [of the word Islamo-fascism] is to link two terms -- Islam and fascism -- and to hyphenate them, and to make people think they are related or identical," Crocker said.
Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Diederik Vandewalle said that he had only ever heard the term used to promote a political agenda and had never heard it in academic circles.
Kurt Nelson, the multi-faith intern at the Tucker Foundation, and Ibrahim Elshamy '09, president of the Muslim student group Al-Nur, said that the violent imagery on the posters advertising the event could be hurtful to both Muslim and non-Muslim students.
"It was obvious they chose that image to spark some emotions," Elshamy said. "Some international students, I was informed by the International Student Association President, broke down crying [when they saw the posters], and they're not Muslim. Personally, I thought it was in poor taste. Disgusting, actually."
Sonntag said that many of his posters have been torn down. One poster was surrounded by quotations that serve to protest the use of its violent images.
The Multifaith Council, together with Hillel and Al-Nur, is organizing a discussion on the Green to occur prior to Spencer's speech to give students an opportunity to ask any questions they might have, Nelson said.
Elshamy said that Al-Nur is not planning any event in response to Spencer's speech.
"We're just going to continue to do our usual events," Elshamy said. "The Dartmouth community is very smart and capable of making up its own mind [about Spencer]. A friend of mine told me he went to the website advertised and, within a few moments, 'knew this guy was a lunatic.' Those are his words, not mine, so I trust the Dartmouth students."
Sonntag said that while he had received many threats and disparaging e-mails, several students have expressed support for his efforts, although they may be leery to do so publicly.
"Many students have been hesitant to take part out of fear of those who are in opposition to the events," Sonntag said, again in the e-mail message. "Anyone who steps out of the confines of political correctness is subject to bigotry, hatred, and oppression -- the exact things which Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week seeks to overcome."
In addition to Spencer's speech on Friday, Sonntag had planned to screen the documentary Suicide Killers on Tuesday night, but had to change the event's date because of scheduling conflicts.
