Arab Students at UCI Plan Protest

Arab students at UCI plan to hold a rally Thursday to promote free speech and protest the destruction of a campus display they say was intended to promote peace.

Members of the Society of Arab Students hope the demonstration will show that the group, as well as the campus community, will not tolerate hatred and intolerance.

Officials said an arson fire early Friday destroyed the display, -- which depicted what the students called the suffering of Palestinians. By the time the UCI Police Department and the Irvine Fire Department arrived, the display, a cardboard wall, was in flames.

The display, erected last week in the campus’ Free Speech Zone, was supposed to portray a controversial security barrier built to keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of Israel. SAS built the display with help from the Muslim Student Union.

“This incident was an attack on our identity and on who we are ethnically,” said Vanessa Zuabi, vice president of SAS. “We realize that in order to not be silenced we need to work together and keep a strong presence on this campus.”

Now SAS is urging others to join it for a free speech rally at noon Thursday near the administrative building. Speakers will include administrators, the vice chancellor of student affairs, SAS members and representatives from several human rights coalitions, Zuabi said.

UCI Police Chief Al Brown said officials are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime but added: “We do not have any solid leads at this time.”

Malalai Farooqi, 19, a member of the Muslim Student Union, was studying in the library when the fire began. She ran outside and saw that the cardboard wall was ablaze.

“It was so sad. Everyone worked so hard on it,” Farooqi said. She said it took about a day for 10 students to build the wall. “It broke my heart. The point of the display was to [provoke] thought and communication, both positive and negative.”

Hadi Ghazvini, a second-year international studies major, said the wall illustrated images of Israeli checkpoints and posters with quotes from Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X.

“We’re supposed to be able to express our opinions freely without having to worry about something like this happening,” said Ghazvini, 19, of Rowland Heights.

Randy Lewis, executive associate dean of students at UCI, said the university condemns the destruction.

“UCI is committed to an atmosphere of mutual respect, and to protecting and upholding the rights of others to express themselves, without fear of harm or retaliation,” he said in a statement released Monday.

Universities and colleges nationwide have among the lowest reported incidences of hate crimes, authorities say. But the number of reported hate crimes in Orange County against people of Middle Eastern descent and Muslims increased by nearly 50% in 2003 to 22 cases.

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, which recently released its annual report on hate crimes and bigotry, said there has been a steady increase in hate crimes and incidents against people of Middle Eastern descent since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“The burning of the Muslim students’ wall of protest at UCI is a troubling sign of this upward trend in intolerance toward Arabs/Muslims/Middle Easterners,” Kennedy said. “We must reach out to protect our Arab and Muslim American neighbors; they are not the enemy.”

Some students, including Ghazvini, said they felt targeted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and wanted to foster communication with the display.

“Everyone started to generalize after 9/11. Hate crimes are a result of ignorance,” Ghazvini said. “I’m just appalled this would happen in a place like Irvine.”