“Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria” — why not? As everyone knows, poverty causes terrorism, so sending them money will stop it, right? This is an appalling video, but even more appalling is the the fact that the Project Veritas people pitched this pro-Islamic State club in terms that coincided perfectly with prevailing dogmas that everyone at Barry no doubt takes for granted as axiomatically true — particularly the myth that poverty causes terrorism.
Note the weaselly language from the administrator about how “technically we’re at war with the Islamic State,” as constituting a possible obstacle the club might encounter in trying to aid the Islamic State.
“Catholic university officials caught on secret video approving student club devoted to raising money for ISIS, saying: ‘We’re here to get that done,'” by David Martosko, Daily Mail, March 30, 2015 (thanks to Anne Crockett):
Administrators at a Catholic university in Florida agreed to help an honors student start a campus club that would send money and supplies to the ISIS terror army.
Hidden camera footage released Monday morning shows officials and faculty at Barry University advising a senior – identified only as ‘Laura’ – about the best way to secure funding for a club she called ‘Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.’
‘I want to start fundraising efforts on campus, and what I want to do is raise funds to send overseas,’ she told Derek Bley, the school’s Coordinator for Leadership Development and Student Organizations.
Bley offered to help her create the organization and agreed with her request to ‘pass out Islamic State flags and educate people’ at an annual student ‘Festival of Nations’ fair.
The video is from Project Veritas, a conservative ‘guerilla film-making group’ that last week captured a Cornell University dean agreeing that ISIS and Hamas would be welcome at the Ivy League school.
The Barry professor in charge of the undergraduate honors program agreed to serve as the pro-ISIS group’s faculty advisor after hearing that its mission would include ‘raising money and sending it to the Islamic State’
Barry University, based in Miami Shores, has received more than $112 million in federal grants and contracts, and another $109 million from Florida taxpayers since 2000, Project Veritas said Monday, citing figures from OpenTheBooks.com.
It also once received tuition money from retired NBA great Shaquille O’Neal, who graduated in 2012 with a doctorate in Education. His final ‘capstone project’ – a load-lightened version of a doctoral dissertation – focused on ‘humor and seriousness in leadership styles,’ according to the Miami New Times.
The school’s mission statement says ‘all members of our community’ must ‘accept social responsibility to foster peace and nonviolence.’
Yet Bley was enthusiastic about Laura’s terror-funding venture. ‘We’re not here to limit people and their clubs, he said. ‘If there a demand or a need, or an interest that students have to do this, we’re here to support that.’
‘If you’ve got … people who are interested, and this is something you want take and run with,’ he added. ‘we’re here to help you get that done.’…