Subhan'Allah this past week has been quite interesting, to say the least. At first, I was surprised and a little concerned. However, after some reflection that surprise and concern became a sense of honor.
How many people do you know that are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be smeared by the likes of Militant Islam Monitor? And to think that trashing of me was endorsed by Daniel Pipes? ON HIS FRONT PAGE?
However, as flattered as I am by all of the attention, and the hate email (yes, there was hate email) I am saddened to inform you - it's based predominantly in LIES.
My side of the story:
For starters, I was not at UC Irvine on January 31st. Feel free to ask any of the actual organizers - I was a few hundred miles away from Irvine the evening of the event.
And the nit picky details:
(Ref.: Muslim Student Union and MSA Call For Jihad & Disrupt Dr. Pipe's Talk At UC Irvine. Published 02/08/2007 at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/)
"The organizer of the disruption was Zahra Billoo, a 23 year old student at the California State University Long Beach (CSULB ) where she is advisor to the Muslim Student Association."
1. Alhamdulillah, I graduated from CSULB in May 2006. I am no longer a student there.
2. Alhamdulillah, my term as an advisor to the MSA at CSULB ended in January 2007.
"Billoo is a virulently antisemitic inciter with years of experience in radical Islamist activities, including helping fo the terror linked 'charity' Islamic Relief and membership in the Muslim Youth wing of the Muslim American Society (MAS) the United States arm of the Muslim Brotherhood."
3. Unfortunately this is one of those situations where anti-Zionism is being equated with anti-Semitism. They are not the same thing! (Check out: http://jewsnotzionists.org/ and/or http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com/. Thank you Rudy!)
4. Subhan'Allah, I have in the past been blessed with opportunities to volunteer with Islamic Relief. Feel free to check out their amazing work at http://www.irw.org/.
5. While I do respect them, I have never in the past nor am I currently affiliated with MAS Youth, or MAS for that matter.
"She recently returned from a three week Hajj trip to Saudi Arabia."
"MIM: On her webprofile Billoo describes herself as a "starving student" yet she took a three week trip to the Hajj where starting costs for shorter sojourns are close to $4,000."
"This raises the question as to who might have financed the trip, or if it might have been written off as a travel expense for the CSSA or one of her other organisations ?"
6. Alhamdulillah, I was blessed to perform Hajj in January 2006.
6a. Funding Hajj: I worked throughout my undergraduate career, sometimes holding down even two jobs. Furthermore, I have great parents who provide me with financial assistance, amongst other things.
"MIM: If an Israeli PR poster in a train could drive Billoo to contemplate suicide –the obvious question is what would she have been done if the train had been packed with live 'Zionists'?"
7. The excerpt from my blog about the BART - it was a figure of speech! I have since edited that posting so as to avoid people taking the words literally.
"She can be seen on this video dressed in black with a hijab . . ."
"Biloo can be seen apparently chatting amiably with a grey suited student advisor who is escorting the students out as she mounts the stairs next to him at approximately 55 seconds into. . . "
8. The individual in the videos is not me. Not all females wearing black hijabs are the same person!
8a. I repeat, I was a few hundred miles away from Irvine on the night of the event.
"CSULB "Multicultural Causus Speaker" and professional "anti Zionist" Zahra Billoo called for the denial of Dr. Pipes free speech rights with this message. . . "
9. I loved it while it lasted, but my term as the Speaker of the Multicultural Caucus of the California State Student Association (not CSULB) officially ended in the Summer of 2006.
9a. My picture was taken off the CSSA website sometime ago. They updated the website and my information came down as did that of the rest of the 2005-06 Executive Team.
9b. The report I made to CSSA that is quoted in the article was not submitted because I went to Hajj. Rather I was required to submit monthly reports as a requirement of my membership on the Executive Team. Why would it surprise anybody that a three week religious pilgrimage found its way into my monthly report?
"MIM:It may be just a coincidence – but Billoo seems to have balked at the amount of "awareness" she generated as a result of organizing the disruption of Dr.Pipes talk."
10. I did not organize the disruption of the UCI event. Sadly, my only contribution to the event was forwarding the email regarding the protest to three very large listservs.
10a. I respect the free speech rights of Islamaphobes and Zionists. Furthermore, I respect and support the choices of all students and other peoples of conscience who choose to exercise their free speech rights to protest hate mongerers of this nature.
"'This was my second year coming here with MAS Youth,' said 20-year-old Zahra Billoo , a student at California State University of Northridge."
11. The article quoted regarding Humanitarian Day 2006 is actually referring to my second cousin with whom I share my name. Please note our ages and universities don't match up. Furthermore, I was again a few hundred miles away from that event.
"Billoo protested the right of free speech of those who participated in a panel about the Danish cartoons at Irvine. The aspiring law student dismisses the website which does not conform with her views as 'biased and retarded.'"
12. I did protest the display of the Danish cartoons at UCI. Additionally, I was fortunate enough to be able to assist with day-of logistics.
12a. "Biased and retarded," was quoted on my blog to indicate the words represented another person's impression of the website.
12b. My right to protest does not infringe on an Islamaphobe's right to display the cartoons, and vice versa.
"MIM: Billoo epitomises the Islamist -leftist Alliance and works with a group at CSULB called the Campus Progressives."
"But Council on American Islamic Relations California director Hussam Ayloush comes close -as a speaker for CAIR - a Saudi funded front group for Hamas which is also a defendant in a 9/11 terrorism lawsuit and has several of their members jailed on terrorism charges."
13. The CSULB Campus Progressives Collective: This was actually one of the first organizations I had the opportunity to work with. I organized my first protest with these folks! I have met some amazing people through this organization! We organized walk-outs overnight, we brought folks like Hussam Ayloush and Preston Wood to CSULB. We fliered the campus for major anti-war demonstrations in LA. And yes in the beginning stages, I did "investigate chair setup" for one of our events. I miss those days!
13a. For more information on Hussam Ayloush, check out: http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/.
"MIM: Billoo is a frequent speaker at MSA events. At the 2007 conference on January 12th in she spoke on the topics of the importance of a university education for Muslims"
14. MSA West Conference: If you'd like to find out what the conference was actually about, feel free look up the 2006 lectures on their website. (http://msa-west.net/)
14a. I spoke of the importance of Muslims standing up against injustice, partaking in the struggle to ensure a quality higher education is available to all irrespective of their citizenship status, race, socioeconomic status, etc.
"Note that Basim Elkarra of CAIR was also a speaker at the conference. On the biographical information it says that he is the former head of the MSA Berkeley.
Last month Senator Barbara Boxer rescinded an award to Elkarra after she learned of CAIR's terrorism ties. BIlloo wrote about it and urged Muslims to write and demand that Boxer give Elkarra, CAIR and the entire Muslim community an apology!"
15. Yes, Basim Elkarra was there. We were honored to have the former MSA-Berkeley and former MSA West President with us that weekend.
15a. Ref. http://cwzymuslima.blogspot.com/2007/01/ for the MSA West Action Alert issued after his award was rescinded.
I believe Pipes called the piece something to the effect of an analysis of my activism? Subhan'Allah. Check it out for yourself. It looked to me like a high school student ran a few Google searches on my name and then CUT & PASTE.
*Jazak'Allah khair/thank you! I have been sincerely touched by the outpouring of concern and support I've seen from folks throughout this whole thing. You know who you are - if you called/IMed/emailed me, if you asked my brother or my friends about me, if you made dua for me, if you laughed at the Zionists - you know who you are. :-)
Posts
