JawsBlog

Via the Hoot: BMSA prayer suite closed due to threats

The Brandeis Muslim Student Association’s (BMSA) prayer suite in lower Usdan was closed on Wednesday and Thursday due to several “disturbing off-campus e-mails” that BMSA members received related to Asra Nomani’s appearance on campus. Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and Muslim women’s rights activist who created a national stir in 2003 by walking in the front door of her mosque and praying alongside men, had sought to use BMSA’s prayer suite to lead a prayer All of the threats against the BMSA came in the form of emails, none of which are believed to have originate from on-campus.

Why do I suspect that some of the Islamists may have been making threats?

From earlier this month at Little Green Footballs: Mideast Islamic Authorities Enraged, Seething

African-American professor of Islamic studies Amina Wadud led a mixed-gender prayer service in New York last Friday, and now a whole lot of Muslims want her dead.

Also from a Brandeis Press Release:

However, our efforts to keep the gathering secure and private were compromised when sources outside the university circulated details about the private service on the Internet and through a press release that Brandeis had no knowledge of and did not approve. This compromised the University’s planning process.

Perhaps those off campus emails came from the Mid East or others who hold these same views? The Islamists have been known to do such things, and Islamist communications through the internet are well known.

Fortunately the event came off okay, but the threats are disturbing none the less.

Related to this story: Muslim woman leads mixed-gender prayer service–Waltham News Tribune Change in schedule for campus visit by Muslim women’s rights activist Asra Nomani–Brandeis University Press Release (3/14)