One shouldn’t judge Tufts’ Hillel too harshly. After all, when Edina Lekovic and I were on the O’Reilly Factor with Laura Ingraham guest-hosting, Ingraham spent a great deal of time praising Lekovic for her moderation — right before Lekovic began lying about what I stand for. And that, of course, was before Steven Emerson caught Lekovic lying more boldly, about her association with the Muslim publication that printed the praise of Osama bin Laden noted below. Details here. Yet even after being thus thoroughly exposed, Lekovic continues to enjoy uncritical acceptance as a “moderate” from careless non-Muslim individuals and groups. So something like this was bound to happen.
“Department of Homeland Security’s funds bring Islamist sympathizers to Tufts,” by Daniel Halper for the Tufts Daily (thanks to all who sent this in):
Regardless of how noble the ends might be, government-funded programs often fail to achieve their stated objective. One such example has resulted in federally funded support of jihadists at Tufts University.
In 2006, Tufts’ Hillel received part of a $1.6-million Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to promote “inter-faith and intercultural dialogue.” The program’s intentions are noble and its goals laudable, since it is best to resolve conflict through dialogue.
But this past fall, Tufts’ Interfaith Initiative, “Pathways,” used its federal money to sponsor a dinner and dialogue by Edina Lekovic on “Women, Faith, and Women.”
The problem is that Lekovic is a radical Islamist sympathizer who has gone so far as to defend Osama bin Laden.
A former managing editor of “Al-Talib, a Muslim publication at UCLA, Lekovic was on the masthead when it published an editorial – signed by the Al-Talib staff – praising and defending Osama bin Laden.
The editorial stated, “When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid, Osama bin Laden, as a ‘terrorist,’ we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter; someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah’s cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah.”
When confronted on national television about it, Lekovic initially denied any participation in the publication. Yet recently, she has admitted her involvement – claiming, however, that her position was insignificant, though it was listed as second highest on the masthead. She furthermore remained on the publication for the next three years and attributed the editorial to a printing mistake….