UCI Suspends Muslim Student Union

Irvine - The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine will be suspended for the fall quarter -- about three months -- because some of the organization's members disrupted a speech by Israel's ambassador to the United States, the school announced on Friday.

Initially, UCI officials recommended a one-year suspension, but the student organization appealed in June.

The suspension stems from the disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's Feb. 8 speech. Eleven students, including the then-president of the Muslim Student Union, were arrested on suspicion of disrupting the speech.

The suspension starts Sept. 20 and will run through the end of the year, according to UCI spokesman Tom Vasich.

To be reinstated, MSU members must do a collective 100 hours of community service, Vasich said. The organization has about 20 members, so they would have to do five hours apiece, he said.

After the suspension is lifted, the organization will remain under probation from Jan. 3, 2011, to Dec. 9, 2012. The group's leaders will have to meet with UCI officials once a month during the probation.

During the suspension, MSU members cannot meet, raise money or even hold religious services on the campus, said attorney Reem Salahi, who represents the organization.

"My gut reaction was shock," Salahi said when she received the letter announcing the suspension. "The university is sanctioning this organization and collectively punishing hundreds of Muslim students because of the appearance they sanctioned the protest. That is a classic case of guilt by association."

The suspension "jeopardizes the right to practice religion at UCI," Salahi said. "That's very disconcerting and has a massive chilling effect."

Salahi noted the suspension will happen during the one of the most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, Nov. 16-19. The "Festival of Sacrifice" annually celebrates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to show obedience to God.

The MSU is considering all of its legal options to challenge the suspension, Salahi said.

"Whatever takes place now, we want to make sure it's in the best interests of the organization and the students," Salahi said.

Manuel N. Gomez, UCI's vice chancellor of student affairs, sent the MSU the letter on Tuesday.

"Ambassador Oren's appearance was protected by the First Amendment," Gomez said in the letter. "By making it impossible for Ambassador Oren to exercise his speech rights during his presentation, you effectively deprived him of his rights, demeaning rather than upholding the tenets of free peech.

Further, your actions exceeded the protections of both the First Amendment and campus policies, which provide for appropriate time, place and manner restrictions on speech."

Muslim Student Union leaders have said the organization did not support the protest and that the students who did participate did so on their own. But Gomez said it did not matter.

"Although as a student organization the MSU enjoys a great deal of autonomy, the fact is that every campus organization reflects the actions of its membership, which in turn reflects the campus on which it is registered," Gomez wrote.

Some Jewish organizations have been complaining for years about anti-Zionist activities by Muslim students on the campus, and alleged lax oversight by campus administrators.

Muslim students have said they were unfairly targeted by the organizations, and that they were exercising their right to free speech.