The Pro-Palestinian Movement isbecoming increasingly appealing to WesternChristian communities. At various eventsheld here, and elsewhere, they have made itappear as though Christianity itself was thetarget of Zionist racism. Therefore,Christians in North America should sidewith Palestine. Pandering to uninformedChristians shows a tacit admonition thatmost pro-Palestinians are Muslim. Thepopulation of the Gaza Strip, to cite anexample, is barely onepercent Christian, witha 2005 survey noting9,600 confessorsamongst a 1.3 millionpopulation. So, maybethe approach ofportraying thePalestine cause asChristian is a bit outthere, yet when onethinks about it as such,it is considering itIslamic. Palestine isfundamentallyincompatible with theIslamic religion.

Like manyreligions, Islam holds astrong disdain fornationalism. Islamicscholar Dr. MohammadOmar Farooq once wrote, “Islam alsorepudiates vulgar forms of nationalism thatartificially aggrandize one's own peopleover others on no moral basis.” In theirwork The Roots of Nationalism in theMuslim World, Shabir Ahmed and AbidKarim contrasted the two entities:“Nationalism is a concept alien to Islambecause it calls for unity based on familyand tribal ties, whereas Islam binds peopletogether on the Aqeedah, that is belief inAllah (swt) and His Messenger (saaw).”According to the experts themselves,Palestinian nationalism should fall under

the same condemnation. There is only one acceptable breed of

nationalism according to the Qur’an:Zionism. Ironically, the most hated ofnationalisms is the one justified by Qur’anicverses: “Children of Israel! Call to mind the(special) favour which I bestowed upon you,and that I preferred you to all other nations(for My Message)” and “We said unto theChildren of Israel after him: Dwell in theland; but when the promise of the Hereafter

(wa3’dul akhirati) cometh topass We shall bring you as acrowd gathered out of variousnations.”

Islamic principle, and toa lesser extent practice, havea noted toleration for othermonotheistic religions,specifically Christianity andJudaism. Identified as“People of the Book,” they aresupposed to receive bettertreatment in Islamic societythan other sects. Thistoleration of othermonotheisms has beensoundly rejected by thevarious Palestinian politicalfronts. Both Hamas and thePalestinian Authority havebeen known to intimidatePalestinian converts to

Christianity, desecrate Christian holy sitesin their territory and broadcast hatefulsermons, including one by Dr. Ahmad AbuHalabiya who declared “Allah the almightyhas called upon us not to ally with the Jewsor the Christians, not to like them, not tobecome their partners, not to support themand not to sign agreements with them.”

Those of the Islamic faith who willconcede these things will state it is not fornationalism, which is anathema or the poortreatment of minorities, that they side withPalestine. Many will make it a humanrights issue, believing that seeing Muslims

and Arabs imprisoned and even tortured bythe Israeli military is inexcusable; also ofcourse, the occupation itself is a product ofhuman rights outrage. But if this wing ofpro-Palestinian Islam is so outraged byhuman rights violations, then why havethey been silent on the numerous atrocitiescommitted by groups like Fatah andHamas, which have included politicaldissent crushing, honor killings, religiousrepression and many other activities thatare seldom or never committed by theIsraeli army?

This can be taken further; not far fromIsrael is Syria. Syria has 38 officiallysanctioned methods of torture, includingfingernail-pulling and enclosing dissentersin windowless rooms for months on end. In1982, former Syrian president Hafez Assadkilled over 30,000 Arab Muslim civilians.To compare, in the first five years of theIntifada, Israel killed 3,000 Arab Muslims,most of who were combatants. For the lastseveral decades, the Assad dynasty of Syriahas systematically violated and occupiedLebanon, committing massacres andassassinating politicians. But how manyrallies at the Capitol involved even oneprotester carrying a sign demanding “Syria:end the occupation”?

Efforts will undoubtedly be continuedby the pro-Palestine movement toharmonize their endeavors withChristianity and Islam. They will talkabout the Christian communities in peril inthe occupied territories, and the Muslimswho suffer under occupation. Yet, as seenwith matters of human rights, nationalismas anathema and treatment of fellowmonotheistic religions Palestine has shownitself to be largely, if not fully, incompatiblewith Islam, having perverted it like al-Qaeda, the Wahhabis and the al-BashirGovernment of Sudan. Since Christians andtrue Muslims would not give these partiesthe time of day, maybe we shouldn’t givethe time of day to Palestine either.

OPINIONEDITORIAL BOARD: Letters to the editor are welcome and

are printed on the basis of space,quality and timeliness. All submis-sions are the property of Broadsideand may be edited for brevity, clarityand grammar. Material containinglibel, racial slurs, personal attacks orobscenities may be edited or rejected.The author’s name, class year (and/ortitle where appropriate), major anddaytime phone number must beincluded for verification of authentic-ity. The deadline for submission isThursday by 10 p.m.

Board MembersJANICE LEARY, Editor in ChiefARAM ZUCKER-SCHARFF, Managing EditorARTHUR GAILES, Opinion EditorAll unsigned staff editorials are written to represent the viewof the Broadsidestaff, a diverse set of opinions determined bythe members of the editorial board. Letters to the editor,columns, artwork and other commentaries strictly representthe opinions of the authors and do not represent the officialopinion of the newspaper.

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MONDAY | MARCH 31, 2008 | A6

BBRROOAADDSSIIDDEEGeorge Mason University’s Student Newspaper

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CORRECTIONS

In the March 3rd edition, Broadside incorrectly cited Alpha Lambda Delta as the organizer of the March24 and 26 Holocaust Remembrance Events. Alpha Lambda Delta played a volunteer role. However, theprimary sponsors were the University Scholars, Mason Community Outreach and the SocialProgramming Fund

In the previous issue a quote was misattributed to Maria Dakake, people giving the quote identifiedthemselves as David Dakake.

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Letters to the editor and commentary from our readers are welcome and are printed on the basis of space,quality and timeliness. All submissions are the property of Broadside and may be edited for brevity, clar-ity and grammar. Material containing libel, racial slurs, personal attacks or obscenities may be edited orrejected. The author’s name, class year (and/or title where appropriate), major and daytime phone num-ber must be included for verification of authenticity. Submissions will only be accepted via e-mail toopinion@broadsideonline.com (no attachment files will be accepted). The deadline for submission isThursday by 10 p.m. Letters to the editor and commentaries strictly represent the opinions of the authors.

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© 2007 by Broadside. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the editor in chief.

Should Palestine be Given the Time of Day?The Islamic Case Against Palestine

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America has officially lost its mind. Tomost of us, this probably isn’t news. If ourobsession with celebrities’ babies hadn’tgiven it away, then reality TV should haveat least given us a clue. But this isridiculous.

By “this,” I’m referring to the recentscandal involving the now-former governorof New York, Eliot Spitzer. If you’re notaware of the situation, Spitzer allegedlyspent over $80,000 on prostitutes. In thewake of this, Spitzer resigned two weeksago. The news made for headlines, frontpages and a general feeling of shock anddisgust among Democrats.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand whythis is a bad thing. Regardless of yourstance on prostitution, it is illegal. Spitzer’sposition as an elected official, hard stanceon crime and his image as “Mr. Clean”makes his own crime fairly hypocritical andmorally reprehensible. Further, the $80,000are tax dollars he’s being paid, in part, toprevent the exact type of thing that he isparticipating in. His resignation wasundoubtedly the right move and helped tostop the issue from escalating even further.

But this issue should be the last thingon our minds in light of the other politicalscandal we have been witnessing for thelast five years.

If you’re not aware of the situation,this politician has been promoting andjustifying his illegal activity in front of ourfaces since 2003. He has repeatedly ignoredthe rules that we as a nation havesubmitted to, while also ignoring thepopular opinions of the American public.While Spitzer is accused of wasting around$80,000, this politician’s illegal activity isestimated to cost us over $200,000 perminute this year alone. Spitzer’s mistakehurt himself, but this mistake has killedanywhere from 100,000 to 1,000,000 people.

According to a study by the Center forPublic Integrity, Pres. Bush and his aideshave told at least 935 lies to us since Sept.11, 2001 about the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan. The president alone has toldat least 231 lies about weapons of massdestruction in Iraq and 28 about its links toal-Qaeda, a total of 259.

A major justification for our war wasdeposing of Saddam Hussein, an evildictator who killed thousands of Iraqicitizens, who used force to control the Iraqipeople and government, who brazenlyignored the rules of the United Nations,who illegally sentenced thousands of hisown people to death, who could havepossessed weapons of mass destruction andis a threat to world peace. He wasresponsible for the economic struggle of hiscountry. And due to his violent tendencies,he was executed.

Meanwhile, Pres. Bush has killedhundreds of Iraqi citizens, used force tocontrol the Iraqi people and government,brazenly ignored the rules of the UnitedNations and in the process, sentenced

thousands of his own people to death in awar made illegal by the institution that theUnited States champions. His countrypossesses thousands of nuclear weapons,and he declared war on two countrieswithin the last two years. In large partbecause of these wars, the United Stateswent from its largest surplus in history toits largest deficit in its history.

By his own criteria, Pres. Bush shouldhave been stripped of office and executedBy his own logic, we should be beggingforeign superpowers for liberation. TheAmerican people are suffering from one ofthe most incompetent and corruptadministrations of our history, and it’s onethat is destroying our economy, our imageand any illusion of the moral high groundwe have prided ourselves on. Pres. Bushinherited a very hard situation, and he hasproceeded to make it categorically worse.

How dare the media focus on any othercorrupt politician? We are being ruled by anadministration that has completely andutterly failed us, and yet both the peopleand the media are content to wait it outuntil the next president comes along. Why?All we are accomplishing here is putting aneven greater burden on the next president’sshoulders as they inherit this mishandledmess.

America is rotting under an eviladministration that is spreading itsmessage of terror, hate and prejudicearound the world. And as long as we allowourselves to sit on our hands, to wait it outfor the next president to fix things for us,we send the message to the rest of theworld that we as a people are too uncaringto deal with the most dangerous terroristthat the world knows today.

So forgive me if I could care less aboutEliot Spitzer.

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Are You Kidding Me?Looking for the Real Enemy

Americans like the familiar.We like our Pirates of theCaribbean sequels. We like thebrand new remixes of a songthat was released only twoweeks ago. We like getting ontoI-66 during rush hour and beingstuck in gridlock every day. Thefamiliar is comfortable and thatis why Hillary Clinton is thebest candidate for thepresidency.

By electing Sen. Clinton aspresident, not only will we havethe self gratifying feeling of abygone Bill Clinton era, but wewill also beable tocontinue tomistrust anddespise theExecutiveBranch. A firstterm aspresident forClinton is athird term forthe politics ofGeorge W.Bush Jr., but better. Clinton is aone-woman show who does notneed a Dick Cheney to help herpropagate her lies, apologize forher deceit, take credit for otherpeoples’ accomplishments orpretend that the Americanpopulace is a great multitude ofmorons who are incapable ofdoing a simple Google search forthe truth.

Clinton’s most recent lie (asof writing this column), asreported by CBS, was of herarrival in Bosnia as the FirstLady. Clinton remembered hervisit to Bosnia in 1996: “Therewas supposed to be some kind ofa greeting ceremony at theairport, but instead we just ranwith our heads down to get tothe vehicles, to get to our base.”Clinton continues by statingthat “I remember landing undersniper fire, there was nogreeting ceremony and webasically were told to run to ourcars.” Obviously, Clinton hasnot been acquainted with the

information age and the easewith which reporters canresearch old footage and newsreports, because if she had been,she would not have told such ablatant lie.

CBS’ news report presentedfootage not only showing FirstLady Clinton greeting soldierson the tarmac, after landing,but also hugging a Bosnian girlas well. During CBS’ report, theCBS reporter, who hadaccompanied Clinton on hervisit to Bosnia, explains thatFirst Lady Clinton neitherencountered any type of fire onthe tarmac of the airport norwhen she went to any of themilitary outposts and basesaround Bosnia. Clinton evenwrote about there being “snipersin the hills (around the tarmac)”in her 2003 autobiography.Either recorded history is lying,or she is.

According to Michael Dobbsin a recent Washington Postarticle, Clinton responded tothe allegations that she hadembellished her Bosnia tripstory by stating “I made amistake. That happens. Itproves I'm human, which, youknow, for some people is arevelation." As a man who has

had theunfortunateexperience ofbeing shot atby a sniper onmore than oneoccasion, theexperienceneeds noembellishing.Because herhusband, Pres.Clinton, evaded

the Vietnam draft, he has neverknown the warm feeling thatone gets from knowing that yourlife is important enough forsomeone to take. It is hard toimagine that the most powerfulman in the world wouldwillingly send his wife and onlydaughter to a dangerous countrywhere they might be killed.

Fortunately, we are not yetbeing asked to choose between aRepublican candidate forpresident and a Democraticcandidate for president. Ibelieve that if the Democratschoose Clinton as their nomineefor president that we, asAmericans, must remember thather completely forgetting whathappened after landing inBosnia, and throughout her tripin Bosnia, means that Clinton iseither delusional, experiencingAlzheimer’s or knows that shelied. None of these areattributes that Americansshould want in a president.

J o s h u a L a w ton

Belous

Senator ClintonA Third Term for Pres. Bush?

S e n a t o rC l i n t o ni s e i t h e r

d e l u s i o n a l ,e x p e r i e n c i n gA l z h e i m e r ’ so r k n o w s t h a ts h e l i e d . ”“

The other day I was watch-ing Sen. Barack Obama give hisspeech on race, now known asthe “More Perfect Union”speech. The speech made merealize that it has truly been along time since the young votersin this country, including us,have been excited over a politi-cal campaign. We know thatthese politicians are always

after us. We know that as cur-rent 18 to 24-year-old collegestudents, we have yet to rallyaround a candidate likeObama. Overall, today’s voterapathy, lack of political efficacy,combined with a severe distrustin government, has severelyaltered the American politicalarena.

This condition has workedits way throughout culture, tothe point where a good Bushjoke is funnier than ever, andpeople once thought that MartinSheen was president. Yet, thetrend may be for politicians tono longer recruit party mem-bers, but compete for the infa-mous “swing-vote” (those whoare moderate, independent,apathetic and the uneducated)to win elections. However, thesenator from Illinois is changingall of this.

I personally agree with lit-tle of what the senator wants toaccomplish and make his presi-dential policy. I am a Florida

resident and registeredRepublican with strong libertar-ian leanings. After studyingwith economists like Dr. VernonSmith and Dr. Bart Wilson hereon George Mason University’scampus, I also see governmentdesigned healthcare as some-thing that is doomed to fail; Imay not agree with the proposi-tions of Obama, but I still likehim. He speaks with such a cap-tivating presence that I feel thatnothing that he will say canalter my opinion about him. Hehas sold me his vision of changefor America.

I am not the only person orstudent who feels this way. Hispromise for change is so strongand motivating that many of ushave now jumped on board theObama fan base. College cam-puses are now assumed to votefor him. That is because changestretches across political align-ments, and all of the candidatesare advertising some kind ofchange. But Obama is the one

who has really capitalized on it. He has taken an apathetic

youth culture that, before now,simply did not care about poli-tics, and brought at least sometype of involvement to theyoung people of this country.Why has it taken so long? Themovie V for Vendetta comes tomy mind. The movie advocatesfor a strong libertarian stylegovernment, and allies itsdepiction of the dictatorialdystopian Britain with the mod-ern United States. All, ofcourse, under the leadership ofPres. Bush and the power hehas gained for the office of thepresidency. Though there hasbeen no freedom fighting terror-ist dressed like Guy Fawkes,appearing here in the UnitedStates, there has been a desirefor change from the policiesestablished by the president, asthe faults of this presidency arenow evident to everyone in

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A More Perfect Union Through ChangeObama is the Change We Need

See CHANGE, Page A8

MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2008 | PAGE A7BROADSIDE OPINION

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George Mason University Administrators sayhe's got to go, and students say no.

I'm sure you're wondering why we should keepthe green furry blob that is Gunston. It may comeas a surprise to many of you that there has actuallybeen a committee formed to evaluate whether ornot Gunston should continue to be our mascot, andapparently, they’ve made their decision. Althoughthe final decision ofwhat to do withMason’s mascot isup to thePresident’s Council,it concerns me thatit seems like thestudents are theonly voices in favorof keeping ourfaithful mascot. I'lladmit that when Icame to Mason Ididn't “get” Gunstoneither. As I am nota native Virginian, Imissed all the “Billof Rights” and“Gunston Hall”history lessons. Ijust thought thatGunston was aname that they gave the green blob; much likeyou'd name a pet bunny “Thumper” or a pet dog“Rover.” Let’s spend a minute contemplatingexactly what a “Gunston” is.

Named after the Gunston Hall plantation,which was the home of our namesake GeorgeMason, Gunston the mascot is a familiar name

among Mason students. The Mason history ofmascots is one of rough times and former failures.The mascot of Mason has ranged from the old manin colonial garb as a Patriot to the crazy man with a‘fro called the Mason Maniac. By far my favorite ofall was the year long stint of having a gorilla as amascot to emulate the basketball teams’ concept ofbeing fast and strong. Why no one thought of

perhaps a cougar or a lion as a fast and stronganimal I’m not sure, but the gorilla wasdefinitely not a hit.

I personally fail to see how changing themascot from Gunston, who is roughly 12 yearsold and one of the longest standing of theMason mascots, to another white male colonialman represents our university. The kicker of itall for me is that it seems people think thatputting face paint on a white man will make usthink he’s diverse. He isn’t diverse. He is awhite man who killed other white men forfreedom. I for one am not embarrassed thatAmerica fought for the rights to life, liberty andthe pursuit of happiness. While society oftenforgets the contributions of non-Europeanimmigrants; I cannot see why we are so afraidof having a white mascot.

The problem is that we are too afraid ofthe marketing consequences of being politicallycorrect, and we’re too afraid of acknowledgingthe good qualities of a patriot and going

against the PC standards. If we were to fully ownwhat having a patriot mascot entailed, we probablywouldn’t have any real problems. Granted, we’dhave to get a new guy to put on colonial garb, as ourcurrent man in the costume is diverse. We wouldhave to get rid of the freakishly large scary headsthat people love to put on their “Colonial” mascots,

but we might be ok. The problem with accepting thereal patriot concept is that it isn’t PC and wetherefore won’t do it. We’re too afraid of being whitesupremacists by having a patriot mascot, so insteadwe’re going to paint his face. Seriously, painting hisface is supposed to fool me? If we think the studentbody and the general Mason community is so easilymanipulated that they wouldn’t see that it was justa white man in face paint, then perhaps ouruniversity should spend less time worrying aboutmarketing and more time worrying about thequality of education they are providing.

I guess marketing brings me to my secondconcern about what is happening with the Masonmascot. Why is it that we are deciding our mascotbased on what is marketable? The best and mostloved mascots are not marketable. How is a Quakeror a turtle or a turkey marketable? Stanford’smascot is a tree – seriously a tree – but theStanford kids love the growth of knowledge orwhatever a tree is meant to represent. The truth isthat many schools have unmarketable mascots, andmany students love the unmarketable mascotsmore than the marketable ones. I mean, Masoncould have a fierce puma for a mascot, but whowould love a puma? What puma is going to get youall riled up for a game? I guess I’m also concernedthat we’re so afraid that Gunston, our lovelyasexual komodo dragon (who is fire safe!), isunmarketable that we’re trying to reach out tostudents by changing our mascot. If a studentdoesn’t come to Mason because they hate themascot, I’d personally just assume they don’t wantto come. If people won’t go to a game because of themascot, they obviously aren’t real Mason fans.

I fail to see why student opinion is hardlyconsidered in this critical decision making process.

Who cares if alumni don’t like Gunston? Theyprobably weren’t here when he was the mascot, orthey were just such big fans of the fast and stronggorilla that they will never be happy with a whiteface painted man anyway. About five years ago,Student Government put out a survey regardingthe mascot. The number who loved and the numberwho hated Gunston was close to split, but there wasa majority of students who preferred that Gunstononly be trained better or stay the same than thosethat wished to substitute Gunston with a patriot.The numbers don’t lie. Patriot: 25 percent,Gunston in its current state: 26 percent. Gunston’scurrent state plus those who wanted Gunstontrained better: 37 percent. There is no denying thatstudents preferred to keep Gunston five years ago,and it is likely that of the students who actuallyattend Mason athletics, the number differential iseven higher in Gunston’s favor.

As for the 22 percent that wished that Gunstoncould become more fierce, I’d like to quote thecurrent Student Body President in his comments onthe www.MasonMetro.com Web site, “Gunstonrepresents fun, and I think that is the GeorgeMason spirit…we’re not here to kill everyone else,or to take everyone else down. We’re here to havefun!” In case you thought for one minute thatGunston wasn’t fierce enough, I’d recommendwatching the video “Gunston Goes Off” or “Gunstonfrom the Streets” to help you see how amazing ourmascot really is (visit:http://www.masonmetro.com/gunstonfiles.cfm).Gunston is a representation of the love Masonstudents have for our school, for our team and forour student body. In no way can I support anadministration that is trying to stomp that out withgreen and gold face paint.

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Save Gunston!

"I remember landing under sniper fire.There was supposed to be some kindof a greeting ceremony at the airport,but instead we just ran with our headsdown to get into the vehicles to getto our base.."

--Hillary Clinton’s account of her 1996 visit to Bosnia

“So I made a mistake. That happens.It proves I'm human, which, you know,for some people, is a revelation."

--Hillary Clinton’s response to recent disputations of her description of her Bosnia trip.

PAGE A8 | MONDAY, MARCH 31, 2008 BROADSIDEOPINION

WHO’S STILL DRIVING TO WORK? #5

CAR BAD. TRAIN GOOD.www.vre.org

Late again. Second time this week. Another

briefing missed. Another morning playing

catch-up. People, no doubt, are starting to

notice. It’s really getting to be a problem.

But it’s not her, it’s the traffic. Every morn-

ing, sitting there on 95 going nowhere, the

time just ticking by. She could be sitting

onboard the VRE, whisking her way into

town, zipping into work. The Early Bird,

that’s what they’ll call her now.

theexasperatedhill stafferDear Editor,

I was disturbed to findlarge fliers on campuspromoting "Concealed Carry onCampus Week" March 31 - April5 supported by the CollegeRepublicans of GMU. I believein free speech. I believe in theright to gather together toprotest. I draw the line,however, at such a blatantattempt to encourage others tobring concealed weapons oncampus. I liken it to the nowstandard free speech argument–One does not have the right offree speech when one yells "fire"in a crowded theater. In thiscase, the encouragement tobring concealed weapons goeswell beyond the right of freespeech. My husband is aprofessor at George Mason. Iwould like to think that hewouldn't have to be concernedwith which student might be"packing" a weapon in class. Ihave heard the arguments asthey relate to school shootingsin the past. I do not believe thatsimply having a weapon to "fireback" will solve the broaderissues associated with schoolviolence. It is ignorant tobelieve that guns solve gunviolence. It is preposterous tothink that an untrained youngstudent could bring a weapon toclass under the pretense ofprotection from a rogue gunmanthat might stray onto theirpath. I am vehemently opposedto such a stance. I am equallyopposed to the encouragementor even mere implication thatconcealed weapons have a placeon campus for the week inquestion or any other date.

Sincerely,Jennifer Naurightspouse of Professor John

Nauright

On ConcealedCarry-onCampus Week

Letter to theEditor

America, and around the globe. We now realize there are some things

that are very wrong with the way this gov-ernment is run from the oval office. Our cellphone calls are monitored secretly and ourIP addresses watched.

The president can command our troopsinto war without having it declared byCongress, and dissenting opinions concern-ing the president have been drowned out for

a long time. Frankly, young America is tired.For our formative years we have seen noth-ing but presidents bogged by scandals andpolicies that infringe on our civil liberties.

Obama promises a different Americawith an open dialogue on race, among otherthings, and though I am no expert of hisplatform, I can say that the leadership of aparty other than the GOP is more than wel-come. The other candidates do promisechange but are they the change.

One is from the incumbent party, and

the other has already been in the WhiteHouse as first lady, so what form of changedo they serve?

The change needed is more that just inparty or name. The change needs someonefresh and different, because obviously theold solutions are not working for us.November with be the test for the Americanelectorate.

Will we pass, or are we still the samecountry that elected President Bush twice?

A New Voice in the White House is NeededCHANGE continued from page A6

Quotesofthe

Week