The radical Islamic front group calling itself the Muslim Student Association at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has come up with a new way to shut down critics like ex-PLO member Walid Shoebat: they whine that letting him speak on campus is a “safety concern” for them, so the school will charge an extra “security fee” that the organizers can’t afford. Charlie Sykes at WTMJ has the MSA emails.

November 20, 2007
To the UWM Administration:

Firstly we’d like to begin by expressing our appreciation for the UWM Administration’s constant support for diversity, cultural awareness, and tolerance. The Muslim Student Association amongst many others enjoyed such privileges in its 30 plus years of existence at UWM.

However, it has been brought to our attention that an event entitled “Why I Left Jihad” is scheduled to take place at UWM on December 4th at 7:30PM in the Union Wisconsin Room. The speaker of the event is Walid Shoebat, a well known addict of hate-speech. His writing and speeches have deliberately rotated around inciting Americans with fear of Muslims and Arabs, associating them with terrorism. The ramifications of allowing such hate-mongers to spread hate has been clearly driven in the physical attacks on Muslims, Arabs, or anyone with Middle-Eastern appearance following the events of September 11 th.

The Muslims at UWM feel that their safety will be in danger if the above mentioned event takes place on the UWM campus. We ask the UWM Administration to cancel the event due to these circumstances for the safety and comfort of the students. We take such an event as a direct attack on us and will hope the university will ask the sponsoring organizations to discontinue the program. You can reach us at our office at xxxxx if you have any further questions or to schedule a meeting to discuss this further.

We appreciate any efforts in this case.

Sincerely,
Mohamed ElSayed
President
Muslim Student Association

Lina Abdulkarim
President
Palestinian Student Organization

But the MSA’s sneaky censorship tactic doesn’t seem to have worked this time.

A controversial speaker invited by a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student group drew national attention this week after the group was initially charged an extra security fee to hold the event. UWM’s Conservative Union invited former Palestinian Liberation Organization member Walid Shoebat to speak in a lecture titled “Why I Left Jihad” Dec. 4.

The group was charged the $1,700 security fee when the usual cost for an event like this is $800 for basic services, like equipment and chair set-up, said Conservative Union president and UWM senior Josh Dirkse. Before being notified the fee would be dropped Thursday, the university set the cost for the room reservation at $2,500 for the lecture — which includes a security fee.

The Conservative Union paid the university on Monday, forcing them to displace Shoebat’s speaking honorarium by $1,000. “We didn’t want them to give them any reason to cancel the event,” Dirkse said. Dirkse said he received an e-mail from university officials Thursday evening saying the university will be dropping the $1,700 security fee, allowing the group to cover Mr. Shoebat’s honorarium and helping the Conservative Union’s finances, Dirkse said.

“You’re going to get people who don’t like his ideas or feel threatened, but this is the first time I’ve ever had to pay for security and I’ve helped plan over 10 events,” Dirkse said.

In a letter to UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago sent Wednesday by Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, he asked for “immediate action in preventing administrators at UW-Milwaukee from using an excessive security fee as a tool in discouraging the scheduled speech of Walid Shoebat.” Nass called the security fee “a backdoor attempt at canceling the speech.”

(Hat tip: Terp Mole.)