Muslim and LGBTQ Campus Groups: An Uncanny Alliance

Before I pick at the uncloseted romance I observed between Muslim and LGBTQ student groups at my recent alma mater UCLA, I should introduce a fundamental concept to this conversation: the idea of intersectionality.

For those still unfamiliar with social-justice campus terminology, intersectionality is the idea that many different campus groups with completely different missions can interconnect and create an alliance simply because they all represent “victims.”

For example, Bruin Feminists represents women who are victims of a Patriarchal Society that has yet to nominate a female president on account of her genitalia. Pan-Asian Queers represents queer students whose Asian parents stubbornly insist on knowing why they spent the last twenty years of their lives preparing their brainchild for… sex reassignment. And of course, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) represents people who consider themselves victims solely because Israel exists.

All of these groups have nothing in common but their core mission, which is to destroy anything and everything they allege is responsible for their victimhood. For illegal immigrants the culprit is “xenophobia.” For Muslims it’s “Islamophobia.” For gays it’s “homophobia.”

I found the strong relationship between Muslim and LGBTQ student groups at UCLA mind-boggling. What business do Muslim and LGBTQ campus groups have fighting on the same side? Is homosexuality not punishable by death in many Islamic countries and, without swift repentance, unatonable by sharia law?

Forget the mass of Afghani homosexuals who were stoned alive then bulldozed to death by a cement wall using a steel tank by the Taliban, or the Syrian homosexual who was blindfolded and thrown off a tower block and then stoned to death by an awaiting crowd at the bottom of his fall, or that such practices are considered normal to those countries. Forget that since the 1979 instatement of an Islamic regime in Iran, between 4,000 and 6,000 Iranian homosexuals were executed for gay tendencies. Forget that imprisonment is considered a rather gentle sentence for sodomy in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Yet despite the Palestinian Authority’s hate crimes, constant blackmail tactics and threats against Palestinian homosexuals and their families who are dependent on none other than Israel for refuge and protection, LGBTQ groups at UCLA continue to proudly endorse anti-Israel student groups such as the Muslim Student Association (MSA), Al-Talib Newsmagazine, and the SJP simply because they share the politically-left narrative of victimhood. Feminist groups likewise ignore the hate crimes committed against women by the countries promoted by their Muslim student allies, for the same reason.

I noticed that by endorsing a cause contradictory to their respective core missions for the sake of a greater alliance with other student groups, the LGBTQ community at UCLA prioritizes a mission larger than gay rights, one of victimhood shared by Muslim groups as well. This brings us to our next question:

Who is responsible for the victimhood of Muslim student groups? The SJP has declared its prime oppressor Israel, but what makes victims of a strong, Muslim Brotherhood-founded MSA or Al-Talib, a long-standing paper so defiant it jokingly referred to itself as Al-Taliban?

The main theme among these groups which the left so smoothly incorporates into its “intersectional” victim-narrative is none other than good ol’ anti-Americanism. America — the Great Satan, sovereign nation of colonialist oppressors, haven of liberated women, modern capitalist evil that inspires other modern ideologies in Israel and the West — is surely a big enough threat to the core mission of radical Muslim student groups, so big they are eager to take on the mantle of victimhood.

It’s anti-American hatred that unites these groups together despite having zero real intersectional missions. Between the hundreds of college campuses voting to divest from Israel and resolutions passed at state colleges to include divestment from the U.S. itself, the list of endorsements for these programs falls nothing short of queer social justice clubs and Muslim student alliances. The hatred of America, fueled by the left’s perception of victimhood as the ultimate virtue of mankind, is enough to provoke flag-stomping in the middle of Bruin Plaza and “Death to America!” chants over American Sniper film screenings.

The American flag represents a nation of vigilance, perseverance, and justice under G-d. To many including women and homosexuals, it represents ultimate liberation and endless opportunities.

But by the sharia interpretation of virtue, America’s progressive ideology inspires the cancer that is called the West. The liberation of women, the tolerance for gays, the all-encompassing rights to religious freedom — those are the U.S.-perpetrated evils according to sharia standards. And by the left’s victim-based interpretation of virtue, our success also signifies our evil and the evil of those who have succeeded alongside us.

The Anti-American Muslim student groups have tapped into that leftist narrative by framing America as the oppressor, enabling them to boast their own victim card in an attempt to seduce LGBTQ groups as part of their mission. And finally after the cold-blooded attack of over 100 attendees of an Orlando gay nightclub this week, homosexuals around the country are understanding the toxicity of this ideology, and realizing perhaps such groups are not their friends.

This morning in light of the recent massacre at an Orlando gay nightclub, UCLA Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Janina Montero addressed the entire UCLA community in an email emphasizing the shooter as “an American citizen,” claiming his murder intentions were little known, and touching on the fact that the ISIS-pledged Omar Mateen “may have had ties to Muslim extremists”:

Current reports indicate that the perpetrator of this heinous act, although an American citizen, may have had ties to Muslim extremists. While we know little still of what actually motivated his rampage of hatred, it is critical for us to remember that his actions bore no relationship or connection to the beliefs and wishes of the Muslim community.

This is one example of the UCLA administration’s constant mimicry of President Obama’s language denying radical Islam as a threat to homosexuals and continuing to foster the strong alliance between anti-Western Muslim groups and LGBTQ groups for the sake of a greater leftist political agenda.

It is about time LGBTQ students at UCLA find courage to finally stand up to this idiocy and quit ignoring their purported gay rights mission for the sake of pandering to an anti-American political narrative, one which seeks to annihilate them in the long-run.

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