Post 7

First, here's an article by Christopher Hitchens, referring to 2010 talk shown in this post, and discussing the term *Islamofascism*. Hitchens is supported by historian Victor Davis Hanson, a writer for The National Review, stating "the general idea of 'fascism'—the creation of a centralized authoritarian state to enforce blanket obedience to a reactionary, all-encompassing ideology—fits well the aims of contemporary Islamism that openly demands implementation of sharia law and the return to a Pan-Islamic and theocratic caliphate." Hanson follows up by drawing a link between similar fascist regimes' adherence to the the blood curse and continual anti-Semitic stance.

Second, the claim made by Horowitz that MSAs are a network establish by the Muslim Brotherhood is true. The first MSA came into being in 1963 at the University of Illinois. This... uhhh... interesting video, while feeling like it was made by a major Fox News fan, does have facts correct around MSA actions. Again, we see the anti-Semitic nature of MSAs. (Side note: blind support for Israel is a common position of fundamentalist Christians, as they believe the complete re-establishment of the Jewish state and the reconstruction of Solomon's Temple will bring about the beginning of the end times--an eschatological wish that Christianity is in love with.) With that said, more can been read in this article from the right-wing discoverthenetworks.org's stub for MSAs. While infowars-level-crazy, this stub is accurate, well cited, and decently thorough.

This is important to bring up with the recent outcry from Yale's MSA over the invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. MSA board member Abrar Omeish did the usual "Islamophobe!" dance around the invitation, also claiming that Ayaan Hirsi Ali "lacked credentials" to speak about Islam. As we recall, Hirsi Ali has a PhD in Islamic studies, but views Islam as a "nihilistic death cult"--a common view among the atheist community, as well. Notable was the degree which group think exists on campus when a total of 35 groups signed the MSA's letter condemning the invitation. Group think triggers include: *it's not free speech, it's hate speech!*, the confusion between "hateful" and "critical" (which is so often lost on those the statement is critical of), and feigning victimhood as a way of drawing attention away from justified criticism.

This is an unedited rant. @nrokchi