University of Arizona professor calls U.S. troops Anti-Muslim rapists

University of Arizona instructor, Musa al-Gharbi made comments in a column penned for the online forum “TruthOut,” stating American soldiers are anti-Muslim rapists who pose “a greater threat” to world peace than ISIS.  He stated he leveled the charge to make the U.S. “stronger and better.”

According to FOX News, al-Gharbi called Americans “hypocritical” for expressing moral outrage at the Islamic State, which has raped, murdered and beheaded thousands of Muslims and Christians in its attempts to overrun Syria and Iraq.

“It would not be a stretch to say that the United States is actually a greater threat to peace and stability in the region than ISIS.  Not least because U.S. policies in Iraq, Libya and Syria have largely paved the way for ISIS’ emergence as a major regional actor,” al-Gharbi wrote in his article titled “How Much Moral Ground Does the U.S. Have Over ISIS?”

Al-Gharbi also contended that the U.S. military has been permeated by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the University of Arizona’s Southwest Initiative for the Study of Middle East Conflicts distanced itself from al-Gharbi’s comments.  In an email to the publication, it stated, “SISMEC is a consortium of researchers, instructors and intellectuals who work both collaboratively and independently on critical issues related to the MENA region.  We stand behind all work published on the SISMEC website, to include research of al-Gharbi.  However, those works published externally represent the views of the author and do not represent the initiative.”

Critics of al-Gharbi’s comments demanded that the University of Arizona condemn his views.

“It is a crime that my tax money in Arizona is going to fund radical ideas,” said M. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.  “The University of Arizona must answer to Arizonans as to how that fits within the American mission of the state-funded university.”

He added, “Is the university proud of having a professor who is helping disseminate ideas which radicalize American Muslims against our own troops?”

However, Robert Spencer, author of “Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs,” said al-Gharbi’s views are shared by many other campuses throughout the U.S.

“Musa al-Gharbi is not singular,” he wrote on the site JihadWatch.org.  “There are professors all over the country who say essentially the same things.”

The goal, al-Gharbi explained, “was not to draw a 1-1 comparison, but to ask where our priorities should be.  When America is facing tens of thousands of rapes which go largely unprosecuted, when in fact the victims often face various forms of retaliation for complaining, why is this not covered in the media?”

He said he is trying to address tough questions in provocative ways.  His goal is to make U.S. policy more effective.  He wants his work to challenge America to grow better and stronger.

UPDATE — 06NOV2014

The University of Arizona has issued this statement “He [Musa al-Garbi] is a limited-term instructor who teaches one class (and not on our main campus in Tucson).  Mr. Al-Gharbi is a member of the Southwest Institute for the Study of Middle Eastern Conflict, a volunteer research collective that receives no funding from the University of Arizona or the state of Arizona. Mr. Al-Gharbi was expressing only his personal opinion in his writing and was not representing the University of Arizona.