The United American Committee will hold a panel discussion and unveiling of the Danish Mohammed cartoons tonight at the University of California Irvine, at 6:30 pm in the Crystal Cove Auditorium.

UC Irvine is a hotbed of radical Islam, and the Muslim Student Union is, of course, seething and trying to get the event shut down: ‘Unveiling’ of Danish cartoons fuels dispute on Calif. campus. (Hat tip: Terp Mole and zombie.)

“To have a negative portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad is a slap in the face and we have an obligation to defend our prophet against slurs on his reputation,” said Marya Bangee, a sophomore at UC Irvine and a member of the Muslim Student Union. “They’re trying to draw a link between Islam and terrorism and that’s what we’ve been trying all along to stop.”

Organizers insist the panel is aimed at promoting dialogue about the cartoons, which have gone largely unpublished in the American media for fear of offending Muslims.

The panel will also discuss Islamic extremism and provide examples of anti-Western, anti-Christian and anti-Semitic drawings that have appeared in some Middle Eastern newspapers, said Jesse Petrilla, founder of The United American Committee, an event organizer.

“How can you confront an issue when people don’t even see what’s going on and what the bottom line is? We really need to get it out on the table,” he said. “This is the freest nation in the world and if we can’t discuss things openly without being afraid, then we’re losing sight of something important.”

Bangee said the Muslim Student Union has asked The College Republicans, which joined with The United American Committee to sponsor the event, to pull its affiliation. Without the student Republicans, the committee couldn’t go forward because it’s not a registered student group at UC-Irvine, which has about 2,000 to 3,000 Muslim-American students.

The Muslim Student Union has already received hate mail related to the prophet drawings and has contacted campus police for additional security should the panel go forward, she said.

UPDATE at 2/28/06 9:40:26 am:

Here’s an LGF search page with much more information on the radical Islamic presence in Irvine.