Last night, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake met with Jewish students to discuss the recent unrest on campus. Here’s what The OC Register has to say about it:

UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake told several hundred concerned Jewish community members Wednesday night to join in on discussions and work together against what he calls isolated incidents of anti-Jewish speech by outsiders on campus.

Drake answered questions during a 90-minute town hall meeting at Shir Ha-Ma’alot in Irvine addressing concerns about what the Jewish community calls ongoing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity on UCI’s campus.

“We promote dialogue, understanding, growth and tolerance at UCI,” Drake said. “I’d like to enlist all of you in working with me to make Jewish life on campus as strong as possible.”

So what’s happening on campus? Is there an anti-Jewish problem on campus? Is there an anti-Muslim problem on campus? Why is UCI becoming such a hotbed of controversy? Follow me after the flip for more…

So what exactly is happening at UCI? Jewish groups on campus have been complaining about anti-Semitic incidents for quite some times now. Pajamas Media likes to call what’s happening an “intifada” against Jews on campus. The Jewish Journal asks if UCI is a hotbed of anti-Semitic harassment. So is there an anti-Semitic problem at UCI?

But wait, is this all that’s happening? After all, the very same Muslim Student Union that is being accused of being behind all this harassment is itself claiming harassment. In fact, police are still investigating the charge that an FBI agent threatened a Muslim student who was just taking down a protest wall on campus. And most recently, the folks at Red County/OC Blog accused the Muslim Student Union of “preaching terror on campus”, even though The Daily Pilot found no anti-Semitism and no incitement to “terrorism” at the previous speech in the week-long series on the Israeli-Palestinean crisis. If anything, it seemed like it was the commenters on the OC Blog story preaching hate.

So what’s the problem? Why do both sides feel so victimized? Perhaps there are incidents of radical extremists targeting Jews on campus. Perhaps there are right-wing extremists who seek to stir trouble with the Muslims on campus. Perhaps the controversy at UCI is getting way out of control. What can be done to quell the controversy? What can be done to reconcile the differences between the Jewish groups and the Muslim groups on campus? Why is the conflict at UCI almost reaching Israeli-Palestinean levels of intensity?

Hopefully, UCI Chancellor Drake and the administration can come up with a solution here. Something has to be done to address this bubbling cauldron. Something has to be done to stop this from bubbling past the boiling point.

(Our own gjones is quoted in the article. Go give it a read. – promoted by juls)

There’s
an article in the Orange County edition of the Los Angeles Times today about how some newly-elected trustees of the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) are showing an interest in changing the name of our winter break to “Christmas break.”

I’m quoted in the story, but that’s not why I bring it up. My concern is that this is a trial balloon and that they will probably soon move on to issues of more substantive concern to the religious extremists. Discrimination against sexual minorities is possible next step, as is the teaching of creationism.

(I didn’t attend the meeting in which the discussion took place and am loathe to give too much second hand information, but I’m told the new trustees also challenged one or more books that were being proposed for use in the curriculum.)

I’m not a Christian myself but I am a person of faith, and as such it bothers me greatly when members of one religion show intolerance toward those of a different faith. I’d like to believe our society is more “advanced” than those where people of different faiths make war on each other, but over and over I see evidence we’re really not.

We’re just a bit more subtle about it.

Yup, Mel owns Malibu.  Sorry all you SoCal residents.  Now that Mel owns it, he’s going to put it on Apocalypto watch until the End Times.  It’s true.  He said it (well at least the owning Malibu part), and it appeared in the New York Daily News, so it has to be true.

The actor … told the cop he “owns Malibu” and would spend all his money “to get even with me,” Mee said in his report. (New York Daily News 7/29/06)

And that’s not all.  It seems Mayor Gibson was driving drunk in Malibu, exceeding the speed limit by about 30 mph when he got busted by the L.A. County Sherriff’s Department.  It also seems that the Passion director isn’t a big fan of us Jews either.  (The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…his father is a well known Holocaust-denier.) 

See the extended…

He goes on to blame the Jews for all the wars and throws in a nice touch of misogyny for good measure:

According to the incident report obtained by TMZ.com, the Road Warrior embarked on a belligerent, anti-Semitic outburst when he realized he had been busted.
“F—–g Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” Mee’s report quotes him as saying. “Are you a Jew?” Gibson asked the deputy, according to the report.
***
TMZ quoted a law enforcement source as saying Gibson noticed a female sergeant on the scene and yelled at her, “What do you think you’re looking at, sugar t–s?”

He better be careful, the Christian Right might have lost its favorite movie star.  You just don’t go dissing on the Jews who start wars.  Are you trying to get in the way of the Rapture Mr. Mayor Gibson?  Sheesh.

Andrew Sullivan also writes about TMZ.com’s revelations of deleted portions of Mel Gibson’s police report.  (h/t Democratic Daily).  Sully thinks he threw away his career:

Either this is an extremely elaborate hoax or it’s the end of Gibson’s career. It contains every anti-Semitic trope imaginable – from the darling of the Christianist right.

Well, I’m not sure if Gibson can be reformed, but maybe he should start with some drunken rages about how the End Times are near to get back in their good graces.