Horowitz Haters and Their Selective Moral Outrage

On Monday night, May 12, David Horowitz spoke to a packed house at Embarcadero Hall at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It would be a bit of an understatement to say the event got fiery. No doubt, many people came out of the event feeling offended and angry. As the president of the club that hosted the event, there are a few points that I would like to make.

First and foremost, there was little, if anything, Mr. Horowitz said that was factually incorrect. He definitely has strong opinions and presents world events his own way, but that does not mean they are wrong. However, I probably would have presented the same information in a slightly different way.

That being said, I was honestly a little astonished at just how much outrage there was at the views presented. Horowitz may have said things people didn’t like, but so do many members of the faculty at our campus. I must note we have many amazing professors at our campus, but there are also those who treat the classroom as a place to indoctrinate students by trying to force their opinions on us. I have heard countless stories of professors making vicious attacks on America, capitalism, the military, Christianity, Republicans, Jews, white people and on and on. When this happens, professors are rarely challenged. They definitely do not have students shouting out and disrupting class, which happened countless times during Monday’s event. The big difference here is David Horowitz has no control over your academic career. The radical leftist professors on our campus who spew anti-Americanism daily do have this power, and they all too often abuse it. They get away with slandering all that I believe in, and no one cares. Horowitz takes on radical Islam, and all hell breaks loose.

This is what is called “selective moral outrage” and the left has been guilty of this for a long time. They pick and choose what they are going to be outraged about, and then turn around and do the exact thing against someone else. What Horowitz said in his speech is no more inflammatory than what goes on daily in our classrooms and lecture halls. This struck me as more and more students shouted out, and in other ways tried to rudely disrupt the event. This level of outrage is absolutely void against radical professors.

The final thing that struck me is how the members of the Muslim Student Association refused to denounce the terrorist organizations Hezbollah and Hamas. This really surprised me, and I was quite frankly disappointed by that organization. Check this out: I am a white, Christian, Republican of mixed European decent. I strongly denounce the fundamentalist Christians who have bombed abortion clinics. I strongly denounce the fundamentalist Christians who hold signs saying “God Hates Fags” – he loves them, actually, read the Bible. These fanatics do not represent what I believe in and I denounce and condemn them. It is the obligation of members of a religion to strongly denounce those factions of their faith who do horrible things in the name of said faith. I would expect the moderate Muslims on our campus and the world to do just this. A refusal to take a moral stance against terrorism is a silent acceptance of it. All of us – Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, Buddhists – should be able to agree on this point.

There is a huge problem in the Middle East with Islamic extremism. This problem will not be solved by Western politicians or Western bombs. This problem will be solved when the moderate Muslims stand up and declare with one voice the radicalism that has infected parts of their peaceful religion do not represent them. Muslims can solve this problem in the long run by condemning all terrorism including Hamas and Hezbollah. I am disappointed this did not happen on Monday night.

The Horowitz event was very enlightening. If you came and you were offended, you should think about that the next time you have a professor call the president or the military evil, call Republicans inherently warlike or say Jews and whites are the root of all the world’s problems.

Ross Nolan is a third-year political science major at the University of California, Santa Barbara.