A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| anyone from/heard of Concordia uni (canada)? |
|---|
| jaihoon |
| 01/16/03 at 16:09:18 |
| [slm] Anyone here heard of samer eltrash, the palestinian rights activist in concordia uni and the blocking of Netanyahu's speech at the uni. I would appreciate if anyone here has any real life experience/interaction with this rights movement. jazakum Allah khair |
| Re: anyone from/heard of Concordia uni (canada)? |
|---|
| Moe_D |
| 01/17/03 at 14:22:25 |
| Ive hered of this uni but never been to it. here is a recnt article from a national news paper The Star School admits bungling speech security Melee silenced ex-Israeli leader Concordia report draws criticism BRIAN DALY CANADIAN PRESS MONTREAL—Concordia University officials assumed responsibility yesterday for a wild protest last September that forced the cancellation of a speech by former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Concordia rector Frederick Lowy said the university put students, faculty and staff in danger by failing to properly secure the downtown Hall building before the protests got out of hand. He also released a report that highlighted co-ordination problems between police and campus security before and during the skirmishes. "We were not adequately prepared for the events of that day," Lowy told reporters. "The level of violence that we saw was unprecedented on this issue in Montreal and contrary to all the advance intelligence." But Concordia's mea culpa wasn't enough to deflect criticism from all sides in the Middle East conflict. Jewish groups said the university didn't do enough to prevent the protesters from choking off free speech by disrupting the event. Pro-Palestinian advocates, meanwhile, said Concordia should never have allowed such a controversial figure to deliver an address on a campus with a large Arab population. Year-long tensions between Jewish and pro-Palestinian groups at Concordia exploded Sept. 9 when pro-Palestinian protesters got inside the Hall building prior to the start of Netanyahu's scheduled address. The demonstrators clashed with riot police, smashed furniture and broke several windows. Police responded by beating back the protesters with batons and pepper spray, prompting university officials to cancel the speech. A Concordia memo released yesterday suggested the speech should have been held at the university's suburban campus west of downtown, where it might have been easier to control the large crowds. It also said the Hall building should not have been left open to the public prior to the speech — a move that allowed protesters to gather inside and disrupt the event. The university also criticized Montreal police, saying "sufficient reinforcements to contain the escalating situation did not arrive until violence broke out." But Yves Charette, deputy director in charge of the riot squad, disputed the claim that officers in the building didn't have enough backup. "I had an operational reality where I had to protect the external perimeter and send help inside," Charette said in an interview. "I think we did that. When we were in a position to send reinforcements into the building, we did it." Charette said he didn't expect the protest to be as well organized and he didn't anticipate the presence of such large numbers of non-student activists. He said police will gather more detailed tactical information before similar events in future. The pro-Palestinian groups that organized the demonstration also came under fire in Concordia's report. Lowy said the groups had planned to shut down Netanyahu's speech from the very beginning. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, one of the protest organizers, fired back at Concordia, saying over-zealous riot police and the university's lax security measures were responsible for the violence. |
| Re: anyone from/heard of Concordia uni (canada)? |
|---|
| amatullah |
| 01/17/03 at 22:04:07 |
| concordia is a famous uni in Quebec. It is a very good one for humanities, political activism, fine arts masha'Allah. I was there for awhile around that time and it has a Huge Palestinian group masha'Allah with lots of awareness raising activities. I left Montreal the day before the demonstration and then that happened. One of the things they did which I liked was when they set up fake check points and they were hostile a little and they would stop the students and question them (where are you going, what room number, why, who is the prof,etc) they had students on the news saying how humiliating that was and they cannot possibly imagine living in these conditions and having to pass through that many times a day. |
| Re: anyone from/heard of Concordia uni (canada)? |
|---|
| saadia |
| 01/18/03 at 10:33:56 |
| [slm] I was staying at a hotel about 2 blocks away from Concordia and decided to go to the protest after seeing fliers plastered on the metro about Netanyahu speaking there. I was disgusted when I got there, at the behavior of ALL the students, the ones trying to block Netanyahu's speech and the Jewish Student Group. There was name calling, fighting, pepper spray, you name it. I hope I never see another protest like that one. We might have stopped him from speaking, but at what price? A girl that I work with went to school there, she said tensions between Muslims and Jews at the school have always been very high, the final straw was the Uni's support of Netanyahu coming there. On tv later that night they showed images of Muslim bro's fighting, screaming and cursing and Netanayhu saying something to the effect of 'the people out there protesting me are the same ones who laughed with joy on 9-11' and the press ate that up, of course. So sad. |
| Re: anyone from/heard of Concordia uni (canada)? |
|---|
| BroHanif |
| 01/18/03 at 19:38:17 |
| Salaams [quote]There was name calling, fighting, pepper spray, you name it. I hope I never see another protest like that one. We might have stopped him from speaking, but at what price? [/quote] Interesting...so what do you think the last action of Muslims should be when they see foes like Sharon, Netanyahu and the other mobsters...??? I mean we're good at protes and such but does that really achive anything ??? or is it ok for todays day and society ???. Salaams Hanif |
| NS |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |