Muslim student group racially targeted on Internet

An event hosted by the Muslim Student Association at Portland State, intended to educate the public about Islam as part of the Islamic Awareness Week, April 4 to 8, turned into a confrontation between the group and an unidentified attendant over a video recorded without permission from the organizers.

The six minute and forty second video recorded and disseminated by a YouTube member who goes by the username “LaughingAtLiberals,” was also posted on several political blogs. It received a little over one thousand views and several racially insensitive comments from viewers.

The video begins with the speaker, Imam Mikal Shabazz from the Oregon Islamic Chapter, acknowledging an unidentified man who was videotaping his lecture with a Flip Camera.

“First of all, I see someone with a Flip Camera,” Shabazz said in the video. “When I’m using my Flip Camera, I have permission to use [it].”

When asked what he’s planning to do with the content of the video, the unidentified man said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with it until later on.”

Shabazz then proceeded to ask the man to turn off his video camera since he couldn’t give a reason for his intention with the video.

“I think it’s proper protocol and courtesy that these things be clear with the organizer before,” Shabazz told the observer. “You can’t tell me what you’re filming for, I would appreciate it if you don’t film me when I’m talking.”

The man began arguing with the MSA and the speaker, claiming that since the event was public he had a right to film it.

Several MSA members who were in attendance reminded him that he still needs permission from the group before taping the lecture, and at the pleading of Shabazz, the man responded, “Then perhaps the event shouldn’t be public then…are you guys trying to hide something?”

Around four minutes into the video, with the camera still on, the guest left the event and was followed by several MSA members. The man continued to argue with some of the members, asking them why they were following him, and continued to claim that he had the right to film a public event.

According to Dhari Al-Saqabi, president of the MSA and a senior studying computer engineering, an online video can be taken out of context and the public may misconstrue the message of the MSA. This is why the speaker did not allow him to videotape the event without having a clear reason for doing so.

Al-Saqabi said he later learned that the speaker was uncomfortable with being filmed.

“The guy was being very rude,” Al-Saqabi said. “If you come to a public event, you have to be respectful to the organizer.”

In the video, the unidentified man claimed that since the lecture was held in a public place, he has the right to videotape it. However, according to Scott Gallagher, communication director for PSU, this is not true.

Gallagher said when students are on PSU property—in this case, the lecture was in Smith Memorial Student Union—their privacy is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. In other words, in order to capture a student on film, he would need to first get their consent.

In the video, the man mistakenly identified SMSU as a public place.

“Public spaces include the street and the park blocks; PSU buildings are not considered public,” Gallagher said.

According to Rachel Samuelson, adviser for the MSA, the rule applies to events hosted by all student groups that receive funding from Student Activities and Leadership Programs, as well as to lectures and concerts held in Lincoln Performance Hall.

“You can’t just walk in and tape it, no way,” Samuelson said. “The students are within their rights to make that request.”

The video from the incident is now being disseminated on several conservative-oriented blogs, such as americanpowerblog.blogspot.com, with the tag line, “Citizen Journalist Gets Kicked Out of Islam Event.”

The content of the blog posts that go along with the video contain anti-Muslim rhetoric, with one blog comparing the MSA to “Nazis” and calling on viewers to “expose the truth on campus” by filming footage of “blatantly hurtful, anti-Semitic, anti-American, etc. things.”

As of press time, the man who posted the video did not respond to any of the Vanguard’s messages sent via his YouTube channel.

Al-Saqabi said, however, that he and his group are not worried about the kind of message that is being put out there about Islam and the MSA.

“He has his own agenda; why waste time addressing this?” Al-Saqabi said. “He’s not harming our image [because] people know us around campus, I don’t think our image in any way is affected.”

Gallagher said after watching the video, he was pleased to see how the MSA and its members responded to the incident. In the video, several members of the group invite the guest to return to the lecture, as long as he turns off his camera.

Samuelson said the MSA pays attention to how it deals with situations like this and that their main concern is to make sure everyone feels welcome at their event.

“The purpose is to share the [culture], and the intention was inherent in the video,” Samuelson said. ?