Following the San Bernardino terrorist attack, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) Board on the UCLA campus is warning Muslim students that “patterns of tragic ignorance or hatred” are causing “increased scapegoating of American Muslims” by supposed Islamophobics.
In an opinion column at UCLA’s Daily Bruin, the MSA reports a “very long list of attacks” against Muslim students, including “hate posters” accusing MSA of joining with al-Qaida in a nationwide campaign. The posters specifically charge the organization Students for Justice in Palestine with terrorist and anti-Semitic activities.
MSA also charges that on November 16, the Islamic Center of Pflugerville in Texas was splattered with feces and “with torn pages of the Holy Quran.”
MSA continues with its charges:
On Nov. 18, David Horowitz claimed responsibility for the production of the hate posters at UCLA in a letter that the Daily Bruin published, and falsely reported to the Daily Bruin readership that the MSA’s “campus political campaigns adhere chapter and verse to the genocidal propaganda campaigns of Hamas.” Furthermore, on Nov. 19, a Muslim student on the San Diego State University campus was pulled by her hijab, pushed and verbally assaulted. Finally, on Dec. 1, the Al-Farah Islamic Clothing store in Anaheim had an English translation of the Holy Quran with bullet holes in it hanging on its front door. In August, the same store had a window broken in a case of suspected vandalism.
MSA states that these events have caused American Muslim students “increased risk of physical harm by those who hold Islamophobic ideas.”
The group warns Muslim students against walking home alone at night and urges them to travel in groups. Muslims who say they are experiencing “harassment, threats, or examples of discrimination,” are urged to report these events to the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and to call the University of California’s Police Department anonymous reporting line. Counseling services are also provided for Muslim students who report these experiences at UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services, MSA says.