Well, it seems I got the easy job this week. My visit to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo was all in all very pleasant. I was hosted by the Cal Poly College Republicans, and we shared a lively dinner before the showing of the movie, Islam: What the West Needs to Know, during which I was able to steal furtive glances at the big-screen of the Red Sox’s game one slaughter of the Rockies (yes!).
At the hall, there was a collection of protesters with the predictable signs excoriating David Horowitz and the evil Freedom Center, but for the most part they seemed pretty mellow (must have been the heat). So, with plain-clothes security guards mingling in the crowd and naval and air support standing by, we began. I wonder if we’d need all that for What the West Needs to Know about Unitarianism?
I spoke to the 150 or so crowd for a few minutes by way of introduction. My point — as it has been for some time — is that we must be willing to speak plainly about the thing itself, namely, Islam. Mumbling on about “extremism,” “radicalism,” “Islamism,” etc. only serves to obscure what is really going on. I even had to dissent from the term “Islamo-Fascism,” which, while it helpfully indicates the repressive political agenda of the Islamic supremacists, nonetheless gives the impression that we are dealing with a sort of bastard love-child of Sayyid Qutb and Benito Mussolini. The jihadis aren’t cutting people’s heads off because they are fascists but because they are faithful Muslims acting in accordance with the injunctions of the Quran and the example of Muhammad. Or so I have argued. (For pics and details go here.)
With that, I ducked out while the movie played (I know how it ends — it was the butler), during which the 180-capacity hall filled to overflowing.
Following the applause — and there was applause, really — I took questions. There were only a few really noisome people in the audience, who turned out to be College Democrats. They sent up the usual smokescreen, going on about Christian wackos bombing abortion clinics, etc. Fortunately, we were able to get into the nitty-gritty of the movie’s claims, and I think for the most part the questions (tinged with hostility as they were) contributed to a clearer understanding.
After the questions, several audience members came up to thank me, and I had an extensive discussion with a Muslim undergrad about Muhammad’s massacre of the Quraiza tribe in the Islamic year five. He pointed out some of the nuances of the situation that he felt changed the meaning of the massacre from what we had made it out to be. I, as you might imagine, disagreed. But everything stayed civil. And I don’t think there is any easy answer to the fact that Muhammad hacked off anywhere from 600 to 900 heads in a single day and took the surviving women and children as slaves, which he did not dispute.
So I retired to my room in the pink-themed Madonna Inn in San Luis with the pinot noir thoughtfully provided by my hosts. Counter-jihad has its perks!