Letters to the Editor

The wrong message

To the Editor:

Penn's Islam Awareness Week wrapped up with a speech by Bill Baker, a former chairman of the neo-Nazi organization known as the Populist Party. The speech was co-sponsored and funded by the Muslim Students Association, the University Chaplain, the Vice Provost of University Life and a number of other Penn student groups which helped foot the $5,000 bill.

The intent of Islam Awareness Week is to educate the Penn Community and to "get a big non-Muslim audience to come out and hear what Islam is all about." If the purpose of the event is education, then what could possibly be the motivation behind inviting a former neo-Nazi party chairman and lifelong anti-Semite to deliver the closing address?

Baker was fired in 2002 by the Crystal Cathedral Ministries, following an investigation by the Orange County Weekly, for his ties to neo-Nazism and his anti-Semitic writings. The investigation revealed that among other things, Baker had served as the Populist Party's chairman in 1984 and organized its convention that year. The Populist Party was an initiative of Willis Carto, the well-known neo-Nazi figure also known for founding the Institute for Historical Review, a group devoted to Holocaust denial. Furthermore, Baker's self-published 1982 diatribe Theft of a Nation called for the dismantling of the "Zionist State." And in a 1983 speech to the racist Christian Patriot Defense League in Missouri, Baker referred to his disgust at traveling to New York City, and getting off the plane to meet, "pushy, belligerent American Jews." More recently, Stephen Schwartz, an expert on militant Islam, wrote that Baker's 1998 book, More in Common Than You Think, "Intended to bring together fringe Christians and extremist Muslims."

Islam Awareness Week should focus upon educating the Penn community and breaking down unfair and harmful stereotypes. Having Bill Baker as a key speaker, however, only acts to misrepresent both Islam and Christianity in an effort to build an anti-Semitic alliance. The MSA should either admit to their major mistake, or the University administration should withdraw all funding from the misguided MSA's future programs.

Christopher Strong McGill University '04

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.