Editor's note: After we posted our article yesterday, "Horowitz vs. Islamo-Billikenism," David Horowitz sent us the letter he sent to St. Louis University Dean of Students Scott Smith. His text is below.
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Scott Smith
Dean of Students & Assistant Vice President of Student Development
Dear Dean Smith,
I was invited by students at your university to speak to them this October 13. I have now been informed by them that you have told these students that the school will not permit them to host me on that date on the grounds that I “insinuate…that all people of the Islamic faith are fascists” and that your university cannot support a speech by someone whose views are in conflict with the schools’ mission.” This does not surprise me because I have been the target of a malicious campaign by political opponents who have not hesitated to misrepresent and lie about my views in order to discredit and silence me. I am sorry to see that they have apparently succeeded at St. Louis University.
I note that that your mission statement begins with a dedication to “the pursuit of truth for the greater glory of God and for the service of humanity.” I hope that this will cause you to take a closer look at the facts. The views attributed to me are not views that I hold. The claim that I insinuate that all people of Islamic faith are fascists is a malicious falsehood. I ask you to familiarize yourself with what I have actually said and done and to reconsider and then rescind your ban.
Here is a TV news report on my speech during Islamo-Fascism Week at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, in which I explain that “most Muslims in the world want peace” and why my campaign is not against Muslims:
I have, in fact, never attacked Muslims as such – nor would I since I am the member of persecuted religious minority myself. On the contrary, I have always pointed out in my speeches and articles that just as there are good Christians and bad Christians, good Jews and bad Jews, there are good Muslims and bad Muslims.
The first Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week was during the week of October 22-26, 2007. I specifically designated it a week to defend Muslim women who are terrorized and oppressed by fanatics who claim to speak in the name of Islam. Explaining our agendas in The Columbia Spectator (October 26, 2007) I wrote “the very term “Islamo-Fascism” was coined by moderate Muslims who were being slaughtered in Algeria during the 1990s. A group now calling itself ‘Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’ killed between 150,000 and 200,000 ‘unclean’ Muslims during that decade. In holding Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, students at Columbia will be standing up for the survivors and for all Muslims under the threat of fanatical terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas.” (A text of the full article can be read here: http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=28507).
The very first words of my speech earlier that week at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where I had been slandered in advance of my remarks were these: “I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint you. This evening is not about prejudice against Muslims. This evening is on behalf of all those Muslims who are oppressed by Islamo-Fascists…”
I have strong views about the fanatics who attacked America on 9/11 eight years ago, and this has caused those who either sympathize with them or who regard the United States as the cause of international terror to seek to distort my views and prevent me from speaking, particularly on college campuses. I hope Saint Louis University will not be a party to these anti-intellectual, anti-democratic efforts. A university should be a place of civil dialogue where different views can be expressed. I urge you to take a look at these materials and allow me to speak on October 22 as planned.
Sincerely,
David Horowitz
