Glass Ceiling of the MSA

Feminists at Montclair State University may want to petition the school for a portion of the income from student activity fees that the Muslim Student Association (MSA) receives on the New Jersey campus.

Indeed the writings of the “activist” posted on the Montclair MSA website show that virulent anti-Americanism and what the women’s movement might call “extreme male chauvinism” can work seamlessly together. “Both, logic and Islamic texts dictates that woman’s rights have no place in Islam[sic],” Yamin Zakaria writes on the Montclair MSA web site, adding that “those who speak in its name has the worst track record in violating the rights of womankind.”

“It is a political tool like the UN resolutions, employed selectively against opponents,” Zakaria explains. “Otherwise we would have seen it deployed in a consistent manner.”

Zakaria’s articles and columns are also carried by Media Monitors (no relation to the Accuracy in Media publications) and Al-Jazeera. Media Monitors identifies Zakaria as a “technical director” although the web site does not indicate what he directs. Zakaria majored in chemistry in college and lives in London.

I received one of Zakaria’s columns from the Party for Islamic Renewal (PIR). In that number, Zakaria calls for the establishment of Islamic states and claims that even Saudi Arabia does not merit such a designation.

“Likewise, we hear so much about avoiding innovation, but the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not only a major innovation but upholding it constitutes an act of apostasy,” Mr. Zakaria writes in the PIR e-mail I was sent. “Because ruling by Islam is a clear obligation that is explicitly mentioned in the Quran.”

Another Londoner, Nadia Mahmoud, spoke at an Montclair MSA event in March. An Iraqi exile, she remains an implacable foe of American policy towards her homeland. “The Americans will destroy our infrastructure, control our oil and sell it,” Mahmoud predicted in February 2003. Mahmoud is the director of the London-based Middle East Centre for Women’s Studies.

“On my campus we have flag raising ceremonies to honor many different groups,” political science professor George Zilbergeld told the crowd at Accuracy in Academia’s summer conference last year. “We gather by the flag on campus and a variety of administrators, professors and students talk about the good done by a particular group and why we should be celebrating them.”

” They then raise the flag,” Zilbergeld, who chairs the political science department at Montclair, said. “We honor groups by race, we honor groups by gender, we honor groups by ethnicity, and we honor groups by their sexual orientation.”

“But there’s one group we never, ever honor on our campus, and that is the American military.”

Meanwhile, the National Muslim Student Association remains under investigation by the U. S. Senate Finance Committee. Last year, the Senate Finance Committee asked the Internal Revenue Service to probe the group to ascertain whether the MSA was in any way tied to terrorist activities.

Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.