EDITORIAL – Awareness week preaches intolerance

Yesterday marked the first day of “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” an event sponsored by… Yesterday marked the first day of “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” an event sponsored by conservative pundit David Horowitz’s Freedom Center. The event is aimed at protesting the “academic left,” which, according to the organizers’ website, “has mobilized to create sympathy for the enemy and to fight anyone who rallies Americans to defend themselves.”

Horowitz and his team of speakers, which includes former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and conservative writer Ann Coulter will promote their cause with talks, panel discussions and sit-ins on more than 100 college campuses across the country, including several campuses in Pennsylvania, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Currently, no demonstrations have been planned at Pitt.

While the event intends to raise awareness within the college community, it will likely do no more than spread intolerance toward a group that has already had to endure a significant amount of discrimination in the United States.

Rather than assembling a group of scholars to discuss the causes and effects of Islamic terrorism in the United States and around the world, Horowitz has called on a team of conservative pundits who are known for their often severe and hate-filled rhetoric.

And it’s a shame, too. We should be discussing the threats of Islamic terrorism – it’s the reason that we are currently embroiled in a deadly and costly war. And there are groups of people – including radical terrorist group al-Qaeda –