UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union turned out in force to scream insults at last night’s panel discussion on the Danish Mohammed cartoons: Showing of cartoons of Muhammad riles UC Irvine campus.

IRVINE – A student panel discussion on Islamic extremism that included the “unveiling” of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, including one of him wearing a bomb-laden turban, repeatedly descended into name-calling chaos Tuesday night.

The panel, which included one Muslim speaker, was repeatedly interrupted by hecklers from the audience who challenged assertions by panelist Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson that Islam was an “evil religion” and that all Muslims hate America. Outside, hundreds of Muslims and their supporters noisily protested the event amid a heavy police presence.

At one point, University of California, Irvine, police removed two men, one of them a Muslim, from the audience after they nearly came to blows. Although there were numerous heated exchanges, there were no immediate reports of violence.

The former president of the MSU compared the cartoons to the Nazi campaign of genocide against the Jews:

Osman Umarji, former president of the Muslim Student Union, equated the decision to display the prophet drawings to the debasement of Jews in Germany before the Holocaust. He said none of the Muslims who protested outside the event would attend if the drawings were displayed.

“The agenda is to spread Islamophobia and create hysteria against Muslims similar to what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany,” said Umarji, an electrical engineer who graduated from Irvine last spring. “Freedom of speech has its limits.”

To understand how repulsive and morally depraved this comparison really is, see for yourself.

Exhibit A: The Mohammed cartoons from Jyllands-Posten.

Exhibit B: Caricatures from Julius Streicher’s Der Stuermer, published between 1923 and 1945.

UPDATE at 3/1/06 2:01:25 pm:

And then have a look at this video, featuring speaker Amir Abdel Malik Ali at an event organized by the Muslim Student Union in February 2005: