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By Jonathan Constantine | 05/18/08 | 12:24 PM EDT | 0 Comments

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Jonathan: Amir Abdel Malik-Ali's speeches are becoming mundanely redundant. After rambling on an incoherent diatribe about Zionism and imperialism Thursday, he made his characteristically hazy distinctions between anti-zionism and anti-semitism. He especially targeted Jews in America as traitors "masquerading as right-wingers;" and again praised terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah as freedom fighters:

Our non-Muslim friends they got you all thinking that this Islamic revival is something that you should fear. That's propaganda!

Ali also made some inane and apocalyptic assertions about the fate of America and Israel:

In order for people to live like human beings America must fall as an empire and America is coming down. When you put the Israeli flag up next to the American flag, what it means for many of us, you will fall just like that empire is going to fall.

While covering Amir Abdel-Malik Ali's lecture at the flag polls, school administrators (Dean Sally Peterson pictured below) were busy making sure student journalists were in compliance with the fundamental tenets of Sharia law, essentially enforcing the MSU's own personal jihad against the 1^st Amendment.

If you don't remember in May 2007, I (along with my brother) was harassed out of an auditorium for simply recording a lecture by Amir Abdel Malik-Ali. This came to no surprise as the University has a history of allowing MSU members to police their own events. Fortunately, California Assemblyman Chuck Devore was able to convince UCI Chancellor Michael Drake to reverse the campus taping policy.

However, equally unfortunate is the administration's unwillingness to fully enforce this rule. UCI Police will either stand idly while intimidation occurs, and administrators continue efforts to censor.

Accordingly, when MSU member Jow Haider (pictured above) noticed our gender neutral policy in our coverage of keffiyeh wearing activists from the Muslim Student Union, he became visibly angered and demanded that Dean Sally Peterson stop us from practicing our press freedoms. Aware of these rights, we plainly refused this order and continued:

What followed Ali's speech is particular striking. Surrounded by students, the Oakland Imam left the flag polls and ascended up the stairs to ring road. A woman, who later identified herself as a Palestinian, then began to argue with Ali in her native Arabic.

Yet, for all his grandstanding as a moral authority on Islam, he couldn't understand the original script of the "Holy Book." So continuing the conversation in his native English, she admonished him for polluting young minds on campus. Nodding and without a cogent and decipherable answer, he walked away.

After Ali broke through the crowd, President Omar Zarka and the "brothers and sisters MSU" formed two-lines and began exclaiming variations of familiar battle cries for the destruction of the Israeli state:

Hey Hey, Ho Ho, the State of Israel Has got to go!/ the occupation has got to go!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Judaism yes, Zionism no!

As we continued filming and capturing stills, the level of hostility escalated among MSU members. Below is Reut Cohen's eyewitness account of the MSU's willingness to threaten violence against my brother Emanuel, due in large part because they continually get passes from the administration.

Reut: I witnessed MSU thuggish actions firsthand when a male individual who was filming the hateful procession had at least three Muslim males charge at him for daring to film as the females from the group walked past.

One of the males, a student named Yasser Ahmed (pictured above) who purportedly threw a cinderblock at an FBI vehicle during May 2007, said to him: "You wanna get jacked! We can go get jacked right now! C'mon Emanuel, we've learned a lot about you lets go! Lets go get jacked, Lets go get jacked!"

These hotheaded males from the Muslim Student Union claimed it was disrespectful to film them or put a camera too close to them. I was at the scene and could say for certain that Emanuel maintained a respectful distance and was merely filming as these students marched down ring road shouting "Judaism, yes. Zionism, no" at the top of their lungs.

In fact, considering that last year I had a camera shoved in my face by a female MSU student, I find the MSU"s objection to being filmed extremely laughable. Their reaction, moreover, was disgusting. A group cannot use a public university as a platform for hateful rhetoric calling for genocidal actions against Israel and expect not to be filmed! I could also say for certain that I had my picture taken at least ten times on Thursday by various individuals from the Muslim Student Union, both male and female.

Considering that the confrontation that occurred was blatant intimidation and, perhaps, assault, it needed to be reported to campus police who were present.

Yet UCIPD treated this incident unprofessionally and took no action. Emanuel gave his statement to a UCI police officer and explained how he was assaulted. The officer then went to take statements from the males with the MSU, particularly one student named Ilgiz Khisamov who put his hands on Emanuel's camera and charged at him.

The police officer came back and told him one of the males who charged at him had apologized and that nothing more could be done.

I asked the officer how such behavior could be tolerated on a campus. I also stated that the MSU has the right to freedom of speech, which includes hosting hate mongers like Amir Abdel Malik Ali. They do not, however, have the right to assault individuals who choose to film or protest at their events. The officer asked me if I witnessed the incident and I said that I did. He didn't want to take a statement from me and told Emanuel that he now had statements from both him and the male from the MSU.

Case closed.

Interestingly enough a Christian preacher on campus, Michael Venyah, also had his rights violated and the cops on campus chose to do nothing. This preacher, who believes that all people must accept Jesus in order to get into heaven, began preaching about the prophet Mohammad and his crimes. Evidently MSU members didn't like hearing what he had to say and opted for charging up to him and running into him. This was obviously assault. The cops present did nothing and Edgar Dormitorio, the Dean of Judicial Affairs, suggested that Michael should leave.

That sounds fair, doesn't it? Amir Abdel Malik Ali spewed his genocidal thoughts for an hour on campus and was allowed the freedom of speech to do so. But a preacher who offended Muslims wasn't granted the same rights and the campus police wouldn't stop the males with the MSU from running into him deliberately.

Freedom of speech and expression has been monopolized by one group at UC Irvine. MSU organizers have taken it upon themselves to restrict the freedoms of others on the university campus and have managed to avoid significant criticism from the administration.

Jonathan: In what is evidently a violation of administrative code, the MSU finally gathered into a crowd in the middle of ring road to hear once last breath of motivation from Ali.

UC Irvine has become a base of Palestinian support....that means that whatever they try to do will backfire on them.....in spite of the odds, that we are outnumbered.....we are still winning.