Today's Eagle features disturbingly anti-Semitic translations from a book that was published and distributed by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. Fadel Soliman, AU's Muslim chaplain, is the director of WAMY International. His involvement with this book is unclear, however.
While he first said that he used the book as a teaching tool to students in the past, he later denied any involvement with it. In a piece on today's opinion page, he says that he counts Rotarians and Jews among his friends and family and is a Rotarian himself. In an interview, he dodged a question about why Judaism and Freemasonry were written about in the same chapter of a WAMY book known for its anti-Semitic content.
We are not the only ones who suspect that WAMY is involved in dubious activity. An analyst with the Investigative Project has studied the group for two years, and the group is under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee and has been discussed by the 9-11 Commission.
As a chaplain, Soliman is not a full AU employee, and that means AU cannot take action against him. We call on the Muslim Student Association to take a good, hard look at their chaplain and the organization of which he is a director. Especially in an environment where relations between different faiths can be touchy, it is important for a chaplain to encourage inclusion, not intolerance. It is unclear to The Eagle how some of the WAMY literature that we have seen is anything but viciously intolerant.
A simple Google search will yield many negative results about WAMY and the group's alleged connections with terrorism and literature that is anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-Shi'a Muslim. If Soliman does not agree with these beliefs, perhaps he should apologize for his connection to it or separate himself from WAMY altogether.
For the good of this University, we hope that this information is taken with patience and a keen eye as the Senate investigation unfolds.
