Nonie Darwish at Berkeley
during Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week
Berkeley, October 22, 2007

Note: This report is an experiment in collaborative online journalism. The photos on this page were taken by seven different photographers, each working independently and unknown to one another, who submitted their pictures, videos and observations to a central editor, where they were compiled into a single report. The online nicknames of the seven "citizen journalists" are: bbuck, Chicken Kiev, Dan K., Luvpotion v.9.0, Marwan's Daughter, neocon hippie, and Temmy. The central editor who created this report -- and who did not actually attend the event itself -- is the proprietor of this site. I edited the images and videos, and wrote the captions and introduction; the citizen journalists took the photos and videos, and provided first-hand observations and notes, which are the basis of this report.

"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" is a nationwide series of lectures and presentations organized by conservative writer David Horowitz and his various organizations. On the evening of October 22, dozens of famous speakers gave lectures at universities around the country, mostly on the subject of Islamic extremism. The presenter at U.C. Berkeley that evening was Nonie Darwish, an Arab-American author and feminist who has become a Muslim apostate and vociferous critic of radical Islam.

Her appearance at Cal was sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans, and strongly opposed by several left-wing groups and Muslim organizations, including World Can't Wait, the Muslim Students Association, and Students for Justice in Palestine. Her speech was even condemned by the ASUC, the official student governing body at Berkeley.

The stage seemed to be set for a tumultuous ideological confrontation, but as things turned out, attendance at the Darwish lecture was surprisingly light, considering the amount of pre-publicity the event had generated. There were conflicts and disruptions, but perhaps fewer than many people had feared.

(Photo by Marwan's Daughter)
The arguments began hours before the lecture was even scheduled to start. On the other side of campus from the lecture site, a lone protester appeared earlier in the day sporting a huge sign critical of Islam. He was quickly surrounded by left-wing and Muslim students, with whom he engaged in an all-afternoon standoff.

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
Later, in front of the lecture site in Evans Hall, a member of "Students Against Racism" -- one of the impromptu student groups put together to oppose the event -- held a rather peculiar sign, derisively accusing Nonie Darwish of being "on crack."

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
The guy with the sign showed up at Evans Hall as well, and got into a shouting match with a radical protester (wearing a dull-green shirt and holding an open book in the center-left portion of the photo) who yelled misogynistic passages from the Bible at the sign-holder, as a way of (in his mind) proving some kind of point: that the sign-holder's criticism of Islam must be invalid, because somewhat comparable passages can be found in the Christian Bible. Although this was a perfect example of the juvenile "I know you are but what am I?" logical fallacy, the guy with the sign took great offense at the Biblical readings, and a screaming fight ensued.

(Photo by Dan K.)
The back side of his sign had even more criticisms of Islam. Eventually, this lone counter-protester found himself facing a long line of hostile opponents, who whiled away the time waiting to get into the lecture by hurling insults at him.

(Photo by bbuck)
Inside the lecture hall, totally unaware of the ruckus going on outside, Nonie Darwish sat down for an interview with Al-Jazeera, the only television network that bothered to send a camera crew to the event. Darwish's bodyguard can be seen in the background.

(Photo by neocon hippie)
Approximately half the crowd was there to support Darwish, but for the most part they seemed to remain quiet -- while her opponents loudly denounced her, Horowitz and "racists" (their term for conservatives) to whomever would listen (mostly each other).

(Photo by Dan K.)
Attacks on the sign-holder became more and more personal, as he stood there taking verbal abuse from all and sundry. A policewoman studiously videotaped the whole thing, mostly as a way to insure the antipathy did not turn physical.

(Photo by Dan K.)
Needless to say, some "Truthers" showed up as well. They've now become ubiquitous at just about all political events, no matter what the topic.

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
Finally people were allowed into the lecture hall. The Berkeley College Republicans projected a sarcastic slide on the overhead screen to greet the arrivals.

(Photo by neocon hippie)
Nonie Darwish came out to give her speech. But before she could say even a single word...


..she was interrupted by abrasive protesters who screamed "Fascist! Fascist! Fascist!" at her and "You are nothing but a tool for the imperialism of the United States! You are here to spread racist filth on our Arab brothers and sisters!" The moment was captured in this outstanding video of the event put out by Incorrect University, starting at exactly six minutes into the 11-minute video. (And do watch the whole thing -- it's an excellent video report covering some of the same material in this photo essay.)

(Photo by neocon hippie)
As the video above showed, the interruptions were constant. Even though the lecture hall was partly empty, enough of the attendees were determined to make sure her speech did not go off smoothly. Not only did they specifically shout out disruptive slogans, they also did every sort of childish gimmick to have an excuse to make noise: bickering with someone seated nearby, grumbling, dropping things on purpose, leaving the room and letting the door slam behind them, and so on.

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
These were among the flyers handed out to audience members by the protesters -- including bizarre accusations against Nonie Darwish that made very little sense.

(Photo by neocon hippie)
The majority of the disrupters were not Muslims but rather left-wing radicals. In fact, possibly because national Muslim organizations discouraged American Muslims from getting goaded into conflicts by Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week (as seen in this pdf file put out nationwide by MPAC, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which advised, "DO NOT RESPOND. Refrain from drawing attention to events that are part of IFAW to prevent controversy, backlash, an escalation of tensions from occurring. IFAW organizers are seeking an angry protest from Muslim students -- we should avoid this at any and all costs, both in events and statements."), not many Muslims seemed to show up at all. These two students were the only ones wearing conservative Muslim garb in the entire audience, and they did not seem to be part of the protesters.

(Photo by neocon hippie)
Nonetheless, the hecklers did seem to shake Nonie Darwish's confidence, and her speaking voice was quiet and at times shaky. The Berkeley College Republicans were also partly to blame for the inaudibility of her speech, as the sound system was not loud enough for her voice, and they did not muffle the auditorium doors in any way, leading to incessant clamor as each departing protester allowed the door to slam closed behind them.

(Photo by bbuck)
Several members of the World Can't Wait political cult wore their trademark "Guantanamo Orange" jumpsuits and black hoods, and did their best to throw a monkey wrench into the proceedings at various points.

(Photo by neocon hippie)
This nutcase (and I don't use the term flippantly -- from all accounts he seemed unbalanced) in the green T-shirt of the main anti-Darwish group "Peace Not Prejudice" was ejected by police at one point for his repeated verbal interjections.

(Photo by Chicken Kiev.)
A scuffle broke out halfway through the lecture (also partly recorded on the Incorrect U. video above), that started when an abusive protester who had been previously ejected managed to talk his way back into the auditorium; when one of the pro-Darwish members ignored him and refused to move his legs to allow the protester back into his seat, people started grabbing each other and things momentarily got ugly. The orginal grabbers were themselves ejected, but the grabbing continued for a short time afterward, leading to more ejections.

(Photo by neocon hippie)
In fact, if one knew where to look for the clues, it became obvious that the vast majority of the most serious disrupters were followers of the various offshoots of the Revolutionary Communist Party, including this follower of RCP leader Bob Avakian (see his T-shirt), World Can't Wait (another RCP project), Revolution Books (which organized anti-Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week planning sessions), and other RCP front groups.

(Photo by Dan K.)
The ejected protesters, such as this WCW member giving a sarcastic Nazi salute, milled about in the hallway during the remainder of the lecture, making as much of a ruckus as possible. When one of the protesters got into a brief scuffle with the police, several of the most vociferous activists went berserk in the hallway, yelling and screaming, and pounding on the auditorium wall. Their outrage was mostly just an excuse to find new ways to disrupt Darwish's presentation.

(Photo by Dan K.)
These were two of the main disruption culprits, one wearing a kaffiyeh, and the other wearing the T-shirt of the "Peace Not Prejudice" protest group.

(Photo by Temmy)
A radio reporter interviewed Mr. Guantanamo. Since he wasn't being videotaped, there was no real need for the hood.

(Photo by Temmy)
The police had insured that no signs and banners were let into the room, so they all were left outside during the lecture.

The lecture went on longer than scheduled, but eventually ended. Darwish's speech reflected all the themes she usually presents in her standard speech, which also can be found in her book Now They Call Me Infidel.

(Photo by Temmy)
Afterward, one of our photographers photographed another of our photographers being interviewed by yet another of our photographers -- and yet none of them knew it at the time!

(Photo by Temmy)
The Al-Jazeera camera crew was waiting by the exit to interview people about Darwish's lecture. The reporter was having a nicotine fit and was puffing on an unlit cigarette (since smoking in campus buildings is prohibited).

(Photo by Temmy)
He spotted his prey and moved in to score an interview.

(Photo by Temmy)
But amazingly, no one at first wanted to be interviewed by him. Several people brushed past and refused his invitation to appear on Al-Jazeera. "Don't you want to be interviewed?" he called out to someone who rebuffed him.

(Photo by Temmy)
He finally convinced the man on the left with the striped shirt to consent to an interview. He turned out to be a very eloquent Darwish supporter. But one of the main organizers of the anti-Darwish protest (in the green shirt) butted into the interview.

(Photo by Temmy)
Before long it was no longer an interview, but a heated discussion being played out for the cameras.



(Video by Temmy)
One of our photographers captured the whole interchange on video, which you can watch here. Highly recommended! The argument continued even after Al-Jazeera turned off the camera, and our photographer followed the verbal combatants outside to continue their sparring in the dark.

(Photo by Temmy)
They continued arguing for no less than two hours after the lecture was over, and then apparently retired to a nearby cafe to keep fighting after some refreshments.

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
Passersby read the sign-boards put up by World Can't Want, condemning the event.

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
One of them advertised a follow-up counter-presentation that continued the "tu quoque" logical fallacy even further, somehow thinking that hosting a discussion called "What About U.S. Fascism?" constitutes a valid rebuttal of the premise of "Islamo-fascism."

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
These posters were not only placed at the entrance to the lecture hall...

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
...but were posted on nearly every bulletin board in the entire building (and several other campus buildings as well).

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
Elsewhere on the same bulletin board were advertisements for other events (see upper right portion of the photo)...

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
...including an appearance by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt promoting their anti-Israel book The Israel Lobby, the Arab Film Festival, and a documentary glorifying Palestinian communist hijacker and notorious terrorist Leila Khaled, being held in the exact same room as the Nonie Darwish event, on the following day. You can rest assured that not a single protester showed up at any of these events. Free speech on campus is allowed to every imaginable viewpoint, no matter how extreme -- except pro-American and anti-terrorism viewpoints.

(Photo by Luvpotion v.9.0)
This flyer was put up on many of the same bulletin boards as the anti-IFAW flyers. The small print at the bottom shows that it is a flyer made by by "MIM," the Maoist Internationalist Movement, a extremist Maoist communist revolutionary group that was once closely connected to the RCP. Notice also how this flyer has a similar design to the anti-IFAW posters. Just who is behind all this?


Here are some sites with additional coverage of this Nonie Darwish event:

The Daily Californian

Live-blog of the event, at the Incorrect U. Web site

neocon hippie's Kodak gallery



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