After the hubbub in Atlanta, David Horowitz got a relatively relaxing reception at his alma mater. 

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Perhaps the most remarkable thing about David Horowitz’ visit this afternoon was the lack of remarkable happenings: he came, gave a predictable speech, took questions from a well-behaved audience, and left. The room was about half full–most of those who care were at the Anti-Bigotry panel going on concurrently one floor up. A good number of those present were administrators, press, and security guards. Maybe a little disappointing to Horowitz and the College Republicans, who now have no excuse to send out a tragic press release (yes that’s a picture of Chris Kulawik; Bwog was shooed away from taking pictures as the presentation began).

Speaking in front of a screen showing the hunched, shrouded figure of a woman being shot, Horowitz began defensively, decrying the reception he’s received here and at other universities, and the atmosphere that oppresses conservatives on college campuses nationwide. “Nooses have been put figuratively on the doors of the Republicans, and over my head,” he said (a remark lambasted by Leftist blogger Josh Marshall himself).

He then embarked on an explication of the term Islamo-fascism, which he says was coined by Algerian Muslims, and that he originally heard from the prolific contrarian Christopher Hitchens (read Hitchens’ own defense of the term here). He sees Islamo-fascism in the deeds of the Saudi government (an “evil state”), the goose-stepping gait of the Iranian National Guard (an “homage to Hitlerism”), the philosophy of Hassan Al-Banna (“a follower of Hitler”), and a litany of offenses by rulers of Islamic regimes.

Throughout the lecture, he wondered incredulously at the idea that anyone (like the authors of this petition) could oppose the idea of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, much less call him the names—racist, bigot, fascist—being thrown out on the Sundial only an hour before. “Calling someone a racist is the verbal equivalent of a bullet,” he charged.

This led to a discussion of Horowitz’ true bread and butter—the alarming ideological uniformity of university faculty. He said he was never challenged in his beliefs when he attended Columbia in the 50s, while he was still a Marxist. Now, he intoned, Columbia’s faculty is so rigidly liberal that questions of Islamic oppression of women would never be discussed in the classroom.

“If you’re liberal, you are never challenged in your beliefs. It’s a bad education,” he said. “There is no professor on this campus who is willing to take the risk of being called those names. You can’t discuss this question at Columbia, and that should horrify you.”

audienceThe speech then ranged into other topics, from where the responsibility for the Iraq war lies (Jimmy Carter, the Democrats, and the “world-saving environmental crew” who oppose nuclear power in the US) to the “left-leaning Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee” and Al Gore (who “made a movie about himself”) to the “treasonous” New York Times, which “destroyed national security information in the middle of a war.”  You could see Horowitz valiantly curtailing his pre-written diatribes about every subject that came up, as the hour and a half ticked to a close.

Takeaway points: If they have a chance, the Islamo-Fascists will “kill you all.” The Left is in league with the Islamo-Fascists. Your professors are too cowardly to talk about it. And while there may be good muslims out there, they don’t seem to be supporting his crusade.

Horowitz said that he met a few “nice” members of the Muslim Students Association at other schools. He told one girl that, if she denounced Hamas, that they could be friends.

She didn’t.

– LBD