What if you had a terror fund-raiser and nobody showed up? Well, it appears that our own little operation chaos has succeeded. Here's how everything unfolded. After Starplex patriotically canceled the Sami Al-Arian screening/fundraiser this past Monday, CAIR frantically scrambled for a new venue. So they decided to sign a new contract with Edward's Cinemas. Once they secured the new and more expensive venue, they kept what was previously a well-publicized event very under wraps, releasing the new address only to those registered for the event.

In fact, I had to make calls to all of the movie theaters in Irvine to get an exact address. In addition, a portion of those who registered online never received a confirmation, despite emails from program director Marya Bangee encouraging guests to bring along friends and family to occupy the one hundred more open seats which Edwards provided. While CAIR was pushing (probably threatening Edwards) to keep the event alive, they couldn't issue a press release until two hours before the screening started, ostensibly begging people to make reservations.

And below is the result circa 7pm (when the film was supposed to start):

So I showed up to Edwards Theater, (above) across from the UCI campus around 7pm Thursday night. Accompanied by my brother, I was confronted by a few over-eager members of the Muslim Student Union, just salivating at the possibility of my appearance. A short stocky guy calls me over as I'm taking photos of the new digs, yelling my name. "Jon! Jon!" He introduces himself as Omar. I've seen him before. The last time I saw him in action he nearly came to blows with a Jewish student after defending an antisemitic speech by Mohammed Al-Asi. Thursday night he was restraining this visible rage, substituting it for a facade of arrogance. He starts to ask me about myself (where I'm from, what I do), and smugly invites me to their annual Anti-Israel hate week on Week 7 (Monday Starts Week 4). What's even more amusing is that the MSU prefers to keep this information sealed until the weekend before these events start in order to hedge against potential counter-protest.

Below is Omar Kurdi's bigheaded foolishness (center) on display:

 The girl wearing the pink hijab (above left) also gave me an earful, lecturing me on the 1st Amendment and telling me to respect dissenting voices. Apparently she doesn't remember the time I was thrown out of an antisemitic lecture along with my brother, Reut Cohen getting a camera shoved in her face during an interview with Ward Churchill, or the mass shout down of Daniel Pipes early last year. I told her that I was happy to assist as a speed bump to the fund-raiser. I finally left the scene after being condemned by one of the more lankier members:

How could you do this? Why do you have such a black heart?

I then walked up to one of the theater managers and asked him about the decision to proceed with the screening. He declined to comment, and referred me back to Regal's corporate office.

Regal Cinemas should be ashamed at their buckling to the destructive will of Islamo-Fascism. The company has forever lost a customer. What's even more alarming was my phone call with the local theater's manager. In response to my questions about the screening, she told me that groups can book events in their facilities for whatever reason they want, and that there is no vetting process.

 Conversely, I once again want to praise the patriotic decision of Kristen Wheaton and Starplex Cinemas. As a commenter on LGF points out, Starplex is no more bound to show this filth than they do pornography.

In any case CAIR is extremely peeved about our democratic efforts. In a libelous press-release they referred to concerned members of the community as anti-Muslim bigots, and seem to be threatening litigation against Starplex cinemas despite Marya Bangee's deliberate intention to deceive the theater of the fund-raiser and about the nature of the screening.

In any case, I was happy to participate in an effort that cut into a terror fund-raiser's bottom line. Sami Al-Arian is a convicted terrorist who was deeply and actively involved in (PIJ) Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group responsible for several successful suicide bombings. And despite CAIR's complaints about censorship, this was entirely a democratic effort grounded in the classical power of persuasion.

Update 4/20/2008, (8:45 am pst):