Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Shoebat speaks uninterrupted, Muslim students act like imbeciles

I just returned from Walid Shoebat's speech, which he gave at Freeborn Hall on the campus of UC Davis in Davis, California, which is located about 20 miles west of Sacramento. Security was very tight, and there was no way that I was going to be able to get my digital camera past their phalanx. My MP3 player is another story. That one got by unmolested, so I was able to capture the entire speech/Q & A on the MP3 player's voice recorder. Mr. Shoebat played to a packed house; so packed, that his speech was about 30 minutes late getting under way because it took so long to seat everyone. I have always been horrible at guessing crowd numbers, but it had to be somewhere between 500 and 1,000 people in attendance. A good number of those spectators were members of the UC Davis Muslim Students Association. As you can guess, they are not big fans of Mr. Shoebat. In fact, they were handing out flyers to the crowd lined up outside Freeborn Hall. The flyer talked about what a fraud Mr. Shoebat is and how he should be deported from the United States for being a terrorist. Wow! I think this is the first time they have ever wanted anyone deported for terrorist activity connected to militant Islam.

Freeborn Hall had a bunch of chairs on the floor in front of the stage and podium. Behind those floor chairs was a sort of pull-out stadium-style seating. I sat a few rows up that so I could see over all the people sitting on the floor level below. In these floor seats - front and center behind the reserved seating - sat the Muslim students. They were all wearing white t-shirts and a strip of red duct tape on their arm in some sort of show of solidarity. Some wore a strip of the tape over their mouths with the word "silenced" written on the tape with a black marker. This is where college student protesters can just get silly. How in the hell were they being "silenced"? As these students sat or stood around talking before the speech got underway, several of the students were scurrying about, making sure everyone was in the proper uniform, pointing this way and that, coordinating whatever it was that they were planning on doing. While I watched them do that, I looked around and took in the fact that this was the first time that I had ever attended something like this on a college campus. I have always heard and read about these events, but I had never had the chance to attend one. I felt creeped out by this air of Orwellian doom that hung over the place where I got the chilling feeling that if these students and some of the other attendees were not deterred from acting on their true feelings, then you would want to be anywhere but there. I find it hard to put into words the feeling that I had.

Once the presenter came out to introduce Walid Shoebat, I hit record on my MP3 player. The presenter made it clear to the audience that disruptive monkey business would not be tolerated, that any disrupters would be arrested, and that video cameras were on hand to record any disrupters for use in legal proceedings against them. Nevertheless, the Muslim students made their presence known. As soon as Mr. Shoebat began to speak, the students, in silent unison, stood up and remained standing for about 5 to 10 seconds, then they sat down again. It was bizarre. The first thing Mr. Shoebat did was take issue with some of the errors and mistruths that had been attributed to him on the flyer the MSA students had been handing out outside Freeborn Hall. The funniest one was where the students said Mr. Shoebat was lying about his friendship with another terrorist because nothing could be found linking the two. This was supposed to be a blow against his bonafide credentials as a former terrorist. Mr. Shoebat made the students out for the immature fools they are when he pointed out that they had spelled his friend's name wrong. He spelled the name for them and then told them to Google it and they would find all the corroborating information they needed. He really punked them on that one, making them look like incomptent fools - like that was hard to do. He also shot them down on their insistence that he be deported from the United States for being a former terrorist. He told the students that if they had done their homework, they would know that he can't be deported because his mother was an American, and so was he.

Mr. Shoebat then launched into his life story, his birth to an American mother and a Jordanian father, his mother becoming trapped in the male-dominated world of Islam, and his childhood of indoctrination into the world of hating the infidel, his career as a terrorist, his moment of clarity when he had a civil conversation with a Jewish woman while on an airline flight and found that maybe Jews and Christians weren't dogs and monkeys after all. Throughout the rest of his speech, there were several more times when the Muslim students in the audience would creepily stand in silent unison, keep standing for about 5-10 seconds and then sit down again. I specifically remember them doing this when Shoebat, while talking about his conversion to Christianity, questioned whether or not Muhammad was really a prophet. I could tell the Muslim students didn't like this one bit. Shoebat engaged them by pointing out that in this country, he could say that he didn't believe that Joseph Smith of Mormon fame was a prophet, or that Jews can say they don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and that is OK. But question Muhammad's status as a prophet, and the Muslims will give quite the reaction that you don't seem to get from any other religion. Mr. Shoebat did an excellent job of insulting these Muslim students in a very tactful and fact-filled way. The Muslim students later stood up a third time when Mr. Shoebat criticized the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a poop-stirring organization which decries the slightest negative comment regarding Islam. This is the organization that has gone after the Fox show 24 when the season's terrorists are Muslim. Several members of CAIR have been arrested and convicted of supporting terrorism, and higher-ups in the organization have stated that they would like to see the United States be governed by Sharia law.

When he finished his 45 minute speech, Mr. Shoebat began his Q & A session. This was the cue for the Muslim students to silently leave en masse. As they filed out of Freeborn Hall, they all had their hands raised while making the "peace" sign. At one point, an audience member said something to the effect of, "If you want to live in peace with us, then why are you leaving?" One of the male MSA students turned around and gave a hateful glare that sent a chill down my spine. One of his more sensible colleagues put his hand on the hater's back and gave him a nudge toward the door. Mr. Shoebat made a comment that he was sorry to see them go and not get to field any questions from them. He has a very sarcastic and playful confrontational style that diffuses any chance of physical hostility, yet does a masterful job of pointing out the foolish positions of his opponents. The man was an electrifying speaker.

The Q & A was very informative, but of course you always get the chatty hotheads who want to give their own lecture rather than ask a question. One questioner tried to tell Mr. Shoebat that the Muslims in the middle east didn't oppress anyone, and gave the Christians in Egypt as an example. Mr. Shoebat shut him down right there, and gave a masterful history of the treatment of the Coptic Christians in Egypt, the treatment of the Armenians at the hands of the Turks, the Black Christians in southern Sudan, and a few other examples. These dummies got up there thinking they could blow smoke up this Shoebat's caboose, somehow forgetting who they were talking to: an ex-PLO terrorist who lived, breathed, and ate the Quran, hating the infidel, nursing historical grievances.

When the Q & A came to an end and everyone filed out of the Hall, the Muslim students were all outside holding signs, the biggest of which said Islam is Peace. Yes, that cliched statement was apparently the best they could muster. The last time I checked, Islam meant Submission.

I would love to post any or all of my audio of the speech, but I confess ignorance as to how or whether or not I can do it. At least you got this much of the lowdown from me in this post. Attending this event was a significant investment of money and especially time, but it was a priceless experience, both from listening to the speaker, and watching the antics of some of the audience members.

Good Day to You, Sir

*Update - This afternoon, I found a story (horribly biased against Shoebat by the way) from the Sacramento Bee that gave the audience count as 1,800. I told you I am bad at guessing the size of crowds!

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

"One of the male MSA students turned around and gave a hateful glare that sent a chill down my spine."

Oh, yeah, and none of the hateful things Walid Shoebat said sent chills down your spine, did they?

CentFla said...

So the Muslim Students were silent throughout and the speaker made fun of their spelling.

Then the Muslim students left silently as a protest and held up "peace signs" and the speaker's fans call them out.

They stand in silence twice during a 45 minute speech without interuppting the speaker and you call them imbeciles.

I believe that a speaker such as this or Ms Gabriel have seen terrible things and understand that there is a terrible enemy out there trying to kill us. They have insight to such things that is to be valued and considered. But they demonize everyone in that religion. They use terror themselves to frighten us into attacking all Muslims.

How long before these users of fear convice you contribute to another Kristallnacht? When do we build the new Internment camps in California?

Mr Shoebat was convinced that we Christian's and other nonMuslims were not dogs or monkeys through a peaceful conversation with a sharp lady, so why fan flames of hatred with what you called sarcasm and confrontation? Very sad that we allow ourselves to be manipulated to hate an entire race once again.

W.R. Chandler said...

To Anonymous: Yes, how dare Walid Shoebat decry the use of the Islamic faith as a justification to kill, terrorize, and dominate people. So, why don't you enlighten me with what Shoebat said that was hateful?

To centfla: Yes, imbeciles... i-m-b-e-c-i-l-e-s. I managed to make through the entire presentation without putting duct tape over my mouth or standing up in unison several times during Shoebat's speech. I just sat there and listened.

And you bet he made fun of his spelling, because if you had paid attention to my post, you would see that the misspelling of the name of the person in question was rather central in the efforts of the MSA students to discredit Mr. Shoebat. In this case, spelling was rather important, and Mr. Shoebat pointed this out to the Muslim students who were handing out the error-ridden flyer. He pointed out other mistakes, but I just highlighted the first one, which was the misspelling. By the way, they didn't stand twice, they stood four times.

Your assertion that Shoebat demonizes all Muslims is a dirty lie. I was there last night, and I listened to Shoebat reach out to what he called liberal Muslims who are willing to take a stand against the extremist Islam that is the driving force behind most world terrorism.

You are right about that Kristallnacht scenario. Why, recently in France, there have already been riots where a woman was nearly burned to death when a bus was hit with Molotov Cocktails, and thousands of cars were torched... oh wait... Muslims did that.

Darren said...

Extremely well-written. You should send an email to Charles at LittleGreenFootballs--I'm sure he'd love to link to your post.

Again, bravo.

I heard on the radio this morning--one of the hosts was there as well--that when the host mentioned that no disruptions would be tolerated, that the place broke into applause. Blatantly true? Exaggeration? Blatantly false?

M. Ram said...

Hey Chanman,

Could I possibly have the audio to Mr. Shoebat's speech. my email is mram@mills.edu

W.R. Chandler said...

Hey Darren,
Thanks for the kind critique. I can officially confirm that immediately following the warning about disrupting Shoebat's speech, the audience indeed applauded - thunderously and enthusiastically... except of course for the Muslim students who sat there motionless with their arms crossed. So the answer is "blatantly true".

I emailed Charles at LGF last night with a report and my offer of my audio recording, but he dogged me and went with a report from another Lizardoid who was also at the event. Better luck next time I guess.

W.R. Chandler said...

Hello m.ram,
Thank you for visiting my blog. To be quite honest with you, I don't know if it is possible to send a 205MB attachment. Is it possible? Any suggestions?

Walt Lucas said...

Sorry, I didn't see this post earlier, I commented on a previous post regarding Mr. Shoebat's speech last night at Freeborn Hall.

I attended as well and Mr. Shoebat did not paint all Muslims with the same brush. He really went after the radical terrorists and those who support them. He did point out the hypocrisy of those moderate Muslims who will not take a stand against these radicals. If that is demonizing everyone in that religion, well so be it. He also criticized some Christians and the toppling of a secular ruler in Iraq.

I though the way he picked apart the MSA's propaganda flier was brilliant.

Great post.

I will be buying his new book when it comes out.

CentFla said...

So you continue to want to fight hate with hate. Terrific.

I guess my Christian upbringing prevents me from believing that will solve anything. That and history.

Thank goodness the Jewsih lady on the plane Mr Shoebat credits with changing his thinking didn't shower him with hate to try and change his mind. I am with that lady.

W.R. Chandler said...

centfla, I will ask you the same thing that I asked anonymous: what has Shoebat said that is hateful? If before World War II, someone gave a speech about the dangers of the Nazis, would you be complaining about it being hate speech?

In the interests of time and length, I only gave one example of what turned Walid Shoebat to the other side. His conversation with the Jewish lady was one of them. The other was when he attempted to get his Christian wife to convert to Islam. The wife refused and asked him why she should. Shoebat told her it was because the Quran was right and the Bible was wrong. His wife told him to read the Bible and then tell her what it got wrong in comparison to the Quran. Shoebat read the Bible cover to cover. After he was done, he converted to Christianity.

He said something during the speech that your remarks caused me to remember. I will paraphrase:

When I was with the PLO, I made no secret of the fact that I hated Jews, I hated Christians, and I hated apostate Muslims. For this, people would call me a freedom fighter. When I left the world of terrorism, became a Christian, and professed my love for everybody - yes, even Muslims, then the same people who called me a freedom fighter started calling me a hateful racist.

CentFla said...

read my blog and you will see many of the things he has said that accuses Islam of being evil and fomenting hatred, not islamic extremeists, but all muslims.
He is a thrice married showman who is a liar and makes a fortune pulling the wool over the eyes of a very accepting audience.
We must stop demonizing each other like the terrorists are doing with their children over there. Someone must start the process, and I don't think it will ever be the Muslims who generally feel disrespected by us anyway. We, as Americans, must offer the olive branch, turn the other cheek as it were. Shoebat was won over to the side of Christ and peace by a kindly old woman that he met on a plane. She spoke softly about forgiveness and reconciliation. It was this conversation that turned a terrorist into a man of understanding and compassion. Since then he has become a Christian, married three times and become very rich scaring Americans. I wonder what that little old lady would say about that.

CentFla said...

BTW - I appreciate your blog for its honesty and thoughtfulness. Thanks for allowing my opinion to be read.

Unknown said...

The exact size of audiance was aprox 1296 people.

The auditorium held 1316 and there about 20 no shows.

I am the director of Shoebat Foundation and was involved in organizing the event

Darren said...

The "exact" size was "approximately" 1296?

I'm sorry, that's just too fun not to point out!

W.R. Chandler said...

centfla,

I see you are really hung up on the fact that Shoebat was turned by talking to that Jewish lady and reading the Bible. Unfortunately, he is but one man out of hundreds of millions. You can always find individual examples of something, but what I am worried about is the masses. There are masses of Islamic fascists out there who want to kill me, who want to kill my family, who want to kill you too, and nothing, not "I love you all", not "Kumbaya", not "Peace be upon you", will suffice. The only thing that will keep them from killing us is if we convert to Islam. I for one will not submit!

We did not do away with the ideological menaces of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, or Communist Soviet Union by talking and making nice. Oh sure, we tried that, but in the end, it took the specter of violence or the threat of violence to put a stop to their reigns of terror.

If the year was currently 1938,just because a Nazi from Germany decided to renounce Nazism after talking to a Jewish lady, would you say, "Well, there it is, he switched sides through persuasion and conversation! War with Germany is now no longer necessary!"?

Sorry, but in the real world, violence is unfortunately sometimes the only option left. Not liking that fact does not make the fact go away.

CentFla said...

You are wrong again Chan, thee are indeed hundreds of millions of muslims, but not hundreds of millions that want to kill us.

You are ignorant of facts and great at hyperbole like most of the scaronazis out there.

Do you think that a great muslim army is going to invade? If you do then you are even more deluded than I thought. If not then stop bringing up the Nazi comparison! It does not exist for your side of the argument period end of story.

I am sorry that my aligory is too suttle for you so I will spell it out. No, I do not think that one lady on a plane talking to one guy will change the world. We must ALL be that one lady on the plane and everywhere else we go. We must all live up to the example of Christ when confronting an enemy that will not invade overtly and use our brains to understand the problem and then react with understanding.

Read Matthew 5 again dude, Jesus tells us three times in that one chapter about how to deal with enemies. If not for Christ's sake and example, we should do it because it is the only way that will work. The only other option is to murder as you say hundreds of millions of people. Is that really what you suggest?

W.R. Chandler said...

So... we should have sweet-talked the Japanese, the Nazis, and the Soviet Union, is what you are saying? And you are also saying that the same so-called sweet talk would work with radical Islam?

Careful about using Jesus to justify your pacifist ways. Wasn't it Jesus who laid the smacketh down upon the money changers in the Temple? Wasn't it Jesus who told his disciples to arm themselves in order to defend themselves, even if it meant selling the shirt off their back in order to get the money to buy a weapon?

Yes, Centfla, hundreds of millions of Muslims support Jihad. There aren't hundreds of millions of Muslims in the world, there are about 1.2 Billion (with a B). Of that number, somewhere around at least 10-15% of them support Jihad and suicide bombing. Fifteen percent of 1.2 billion is 180 million. That's a lot of Jihadis. See the numbers for yourself in a Pew Poll taken right here:

http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=253

Do I want to "murder" them, as you so delicately put it? Of course not; I don't want to murder anyone. Live and let live, I always say. However, these Jihadis don't have the same outlook on life that I do. They are not happy to let me live my life unless I become a Muslim or live as a dhimmi. They are not happy to let my children and wife live their lives unless they become Muslim or live as dhimmis. I will not submit!

When you kill someone in self-defense, that is not "murder", that is killing in self-defense; There is a difference. As long as the Jihad isn't in our country, I don't anyone "murdered". The problem is, the Jihad is here, and has been for a number of years.