Excerpt:
On Sept. 28 — during one of the last days of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Muslim calendar — two white men sprayed a chemical irritant into a crowd of Muslim women and children at a local mosque in Dayton, Ohio. For Usama Qadri '10, president of Yale's Muslim Student Association, and other Yale students, these attacks were personal.
"A couple of us, myself included, have friends and family who go to that mosque," Qadri said.
But rather than respond with hatred, Muslims at Yale organized a panel to discuss and hopefully dispel common misunderstandings about Islam. The panel, "ISLAMophobia! And the U.S. Presidential Elections," drew a crowd of about 70 students on Tuesday night.
This particular series of events started on Sept. 1, when 28 million anti-Muslim DVDs entitled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" were distributed in states considered up for grabs in the upcoming presidential election — including Ohio — by the right-wing group the Clarion Fund.
At the panel, Omer Bajwa, coordinator for Muslim life at Yale, argued that the gas attacks in Dayton were partially incited by the accusations against Muslims contained in the DVD.