The Chronicle

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: News
Last update: 4/18/08 at 7:01 AM EST

Media Credit: Chase Olivieri David Horowitz, a conservative writer and activist, discussed Islamofascism and the Duke lacrosse case in a speech to approximately 50 people Thursday night.

Media Credit: Chase Olivieri In a speech Thursday, David Horowitz criticized the liberal influence within universities like Duke.

Two years since his last visit to Duke, conservative activist David Horowitz was met with little fanfare Thursday night.

With approximately 50 people attending his speech, Horowitz's appearance contrasted his March 2006 visit during which protesting audience members in the front row heckled at several of his statements.

Horowitz came to speak as part of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, an event sponsored by the Duke Conservative Union.

"The issue is, there is a global movement within Islam-not representing all or even a majority of Muslims-but there is a fundamentalist movement that wants to take the entire world back to the seventh century," he said.

Much of his discussion of Islamo-Fascism focused on the oppression of women, which he later used to criticize liberals.

"People on the left think that they're changing the world and bringing about a new millennium where there will be no racism or sexism," he said. "People who are described as liberals are generally leftists. Inside every leftist is a totalitarian."

Horowitz said prominent liberals and leaders of Muslim extremists share the same views about America.

"They both believe America is evil," he said.

The liberals' lack of action against Muslim leaders such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is comparable to the lack of action against Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, Horowitz said.

"Their agenda is to establish one world under an Islamic caliphate and under Islamic law," he added.

He estimated that about 10 percent of Muslims, or 150 million people, hold these beliefs.

Horowitz also advanced a strong pro-Israel perspective.

"[Palestinian culture] is an evil culture," he said. He added that Palestinians attacked Israel because they wanted to eliminate the Jews, not because they wanted self determination or their own state.

Ahmed Abdel-Wahab, a first-year economics graduate student, said he disagreed with Horowitz's portrayal of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"He's telling the history of the Middle East and Muslims as if Palestine was an empty country prior to 1948," he said.

Horowitz also inveighed against the Duke faculty who opposed Israel's policy in the Middle East.

"Your anti-Semitic professors call it an occupation," Horowitz said.

Horowitz, who authored "Indoctrinate U: The Left's War Against Academic Freedom" and "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America," also criticized Duke professors for their reaction to the lacrosse case.

"If the three lacrosse players were black and the drug addicted, criminal prostitute was white, do you think for one second the lacrosse season would have ended?" he asked.

President Richard Brodhead is "spineless" and his administration exists to protect him, Horowitz said. He added that Duke students were deprived of their right to hear multiple perspectives on controversial issues.

"You're being indoctrinated," he said. "You're not being taught."

Student reactions to the speech varied.

President of DCU David Bitner, a sophomore, said he appreciated Horowitz's speech.

"To be able to engage with someone is truly precious from the intellectual perspective," Bitner said.

Horowitz's speech, however, left some students frustrated.

"It's never black and white," said Marie Bouthors, an art history graduate student.

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