Muslim graduation garb nets backlash

Marisa O’Neil

A pro-Israeli organization has denounced plans by Muslim UC Irvine

students to wear clothing as a demonstration of their faith at their

commencement ceremony this weekend, citing the displays as support

for terrorism.

A group of about a dozen Muslim students plan to wear green

stoles, which they said symbolize their faith, university spokesman

Jim Cohen said. A national Jewish organization, the Zionist

Organization of America, contends that the displays are a support of

terrorist activities, and they have called for the university to ban

the stoles from the ceremony.

UCI officials said Thursday they will not prohibit the stoles out

of respect for the students’ rights to free speech.

“UCI is a public university with people from diverse backgrounds

who enjoy the rights and protection of the 1st Amendment,” Chancellor

Ralph Cicerone wrote in a letter to faculty, students and staff. “Our

history includes the free and peaceful expression of political and

nonpolitical ideas, no matter how controversial.”

Much of the controversy is swirling around the word “shahada,”

which is reportedly illustrated on the stoles the students plan to

wear.

The word can be interpreted two ways, said UCI political science

professor Lina Haddad Kreidie, who speaks Arabic and specializes in

ethnic conflict in the Middle East.

“Someone could use it to say he is a Muslim: ‘I believe in only

one God, Muhammad the Prophet,’” she said. “The other is when you use

it as a verb; it means to die in the name of Islam.”

The Zionist Organization of America, a pro-Israeli organization

based in New York, on Tuesday sent a letter to Cicerone demanding he

reconsider his decision to allow the stoles into the ceremonies. The

“propagandist symbol,” according to the letter, would not reflect the

purpose of “a peaceful celebration of achievement.”

“Especially in a time when this country is fighting against

Islamic terrorism, they should be more sensitive and not give any

credence to Islamic extremists,” said Morton Klein, national

president of the Zionist Organization of America. “The university is

giving legitimacy to the term [‘shahada’].”

Klein equated the stoles to arm bands containing racial slurs,

which, he said, a university would never allow.

Concern arose among Arab UCI students last month after a wall

built in the campus Free Speech Zone by the Society of Arab Students

was torched and destroyed. The wall was meant to represent Israel’s

controversial security barrier.

Campus police are investigating the incident but have not made any

arrests.

The following week, the Society of Arab Students organized a

rally, calling for students, faculty and administration to denounce

all acts of hate.

Muslim students planning to wear the stoles this weekend are not

necessarily connected with the Society of Arab Students, said Nader

Abuljebain, former president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination

Committee. Abuljebain, who spoke at the rally and whose son was

president of the society at the time, said it is made up of Arab

students of all faiths.

The stoles, he said, would be an affirmation of Muslim students’

faith, not a call to arms. He said it was no different than students

decorating their caps and gowns with flags, flowers or other items.

Kreidie said that people could take the word and the stoles in the

wrong way.

“Some signs are better not worn because they might make others

feel saddened,” she said. “But this is what the Muslim students

wear.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].