*PLEASE FORWARD AND PLEASE CALL*

CONCORDIA STUDENT UNION ACCUSED OF LINKS WITH "TERRORISTS" AND BIN
LADEN.

WE NEED YOUR HELP.  Please read this entire message and call the
Concordia
Rector at the number listed below.  ACT NOW to fight racist scapegoating

and 'red-baiting' against Muslims, Arabs and leftists within the student

union at Concordia. (details below)

[note: a web page with more context and the pages in question of the CSU

handbook will be up at www.csu.tao.ca/handbook by 2pm October 2nd.
B'nai
Brith's press release included below...]

*****

The Concordia administration and B'nai Brith are cracking down on left
wing
pro-Palestinian campus activism at Concordia, and this time the
situation
is more serious than ever- with allegations that the CSU is linked to
"terrorism" and Osama Bin Laden, the notorious terrorist that the United

States government accuses of masterminding the attacks of Sept 11th..

Of late, the university administration- from the Board of Governors on
down- has been actively working to smash the pro-Palestinian student
left
on campus by interfering in student politics and by openly backing
reactionary elements of the student body (in the engineering and
commerce
departments) and supporting a petition to recall the left wing CSU
executives from office.

B'nai Brith has now upped the ante by issuing a press release today
charging that "individuals who may have links to extremist groups have
infiltrated Concordia and its student union, and are purposefully
stirring
up hostility and civil disorder."  To top it off, in a press conference
today, a B'nai Brith representative posed a rhetorical question linking
the
CSU to Bin Laden by asking 'could the Concordia Student Union be a
"training grounds" for supporters of Osama Bin Laden'?

This may seem funny, or ridiculous and absurd- but it is deadly serious,

and in the context of the racist and xenophobic backlash being whipped
up
in US war against "terrorism" it may well have severe consequences for
student activists at Concordia.  Given a situation in North America
where
people have recently been murdered and hundreds more have been
discriminated against, assaulted, and threatened for the "crime" of
looking
like "terrorists" (ie. being or "looking like" Muslims or Arabs), B'nai
Brith's irresponsible rhetoric places all Concordia activists and all
Muslims and Arabs (activist or not) at an increased risk from such a
violent backlash.

We need your help to let the university administration know that you do
not
support and will not tolerate B'nai Brith's McCarthyist witch-hunt
against
political dissent on campus.

The economical and political interests of multinational corporations,
the
university administration and Zionist outfits such as the B'nai Brith
are
threatened by the existence of a strong and active anti-imperialist,
pro-Palestinian student union at Concordia, and because students keep
electing far left representatives, groups like the B'nai Brith find
themselves limited to the use of these kinds of scaremongering tactics
to
try and turn public and student opinion against the CSU.

Please read B'nai Brith's press release below, and then call the
university
Rector Frederick Lowy at 514-848-4849 (or if he's not there or won't
take
your call, call Vice Rector Michael Digrappa on his cell phone at
514-928-4815) and tell him that you support academic freedom at
Concordia,
and that you condemn B'nai Brith's irresponsible and dangerous actions.
You
can also email the Rector at [log in to unmask] (but please
also
cc the Concordia Student Union at [log in to unmask])

(The press release below also claims that an article in the CSU handbook

"skirts dangerously close to infringing provincial hate speech codes
with a
potentially libelous diatribe against B'nai Brith, reference to
Concordia's
Rector Fred Lowy as the "Jewish Rector", and a claim that "Zionists
monopolize the North American media".  Once again this is another
ridiculous allegation, which will become quite clear if you read the
article in question which we have also included at the end of this email

for your information.

In addition the graphics and other parts of the handbook referred to in
the
B'nai Brith press release will be posted to the CSU website at
www.csu.tao.ca by 2pm on October 2nd for your viewing.)

Sincerely,

Tom Keefer (recently expelled student of Concordia University and CSU
representative. For more information about the expulsion please go to
www.csu.tao.ca/sdc)

CONCORDIA STUDENT UNION ADVOCATES VIOLENCE AND ANARCHY

Bnai Brith Canada denounces student agenda as propaganda that threatens
democracies October 1, 2001 For Immediate Release

Montreal, October 1, 2001 Bnai Brith Canada officials today called for
an
investigation of attempts by the Concordia Student Union (CSU) to
inculcate
a culture of violence, incitement to hatred and civil disobedience on
campus. As investigations continue into reports of possible links
between
foreign terrorist groups operating in the province and the tragic events
of
September 11th, calls to burn the Canadian flag on July 1st
("Anti-Canada
day")  as well as instructions on how to defy the police and a rationale

for stealing as a form of "empowerment"  have been distributed by the
CSU
to all students. In what is being termed a chilling and bizarre
coincidence, the agenda, printed before September 11th, also contains
drawings of planes crashing into a crowded boardroom full of
businessmen.

Apart from virulently anti-Israel propaganda pieces, with Israels
Independence Day solely referred to in the calendar as Al-Nabka (the
1948
Palestinian Catastrophe), the agenda ominously entitled "Uprising"
advocates violence, revolution and anarchy. It also skirts dangerously
close to infringing provincial hate speech codes with a potentially
libelous diatribe against Bnai Brith, reference to Concordias Rector
Fred
Lowy as the "Jewish Rector", and a claim that Zionists monopolize the
North
American media.

Rochelle Wilner, National President of Bnai Brith Canada, voiced
concerns
that such incitement has no place on our campuses, on our streets or
anywhere in our society. We continue to encourage all sections of
society,
and organizations of all religions, to work together to ensure that the
harmony of civil society not be undermined in such a dangerous fashion.
We
call on all parties to publicly condemn CSUs actions.

Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President, warned that this agenda
threatens
to be a blueprint for campuses not just in Canada, but throughout North
America. At a time when all democracies face the threat of terrorism,
this
attempt to indoctrinate our young people in the ways of violence and
confrontation is a dangerous move to destabilize society. Co-operation
with
law enforcement officials and security officers should be of paramount
priority and any attempt to advocate otherwise warrants full
investigation.

Patrick Essiminy, Quebec Regional Chair of the Institute for
International
Affairs, expressed concerns not only that that legislative protections
against hate speech and incitement to violence are being contravened by
the
CSU agenda, but that individuals who may have links to extremist groups
have infiltrated Concordia and its student union, and are purposefully
stirring up hostility and civil disorder.

-30-

For further comment call: Rochelle Wilner(416) 254-1010 Frank Dimant
(416)
802-1057 Robert Libman (514) 865-1940 Steve Slimovitch (514) 871-8971

Bnai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the communitys senior

human rights organization. In its 125 years of service, it has worked to

respond with practical aid to many disaster situations around the world.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

----

Entitled "Arabophobia" here is the article that B'nai Brith accused of
"skirts dangerously close to infringing provincial hate speech codes".
Read
it yourself and see...

Arabophobia

By Laith Marouf

Last year, the progressive elements at Concordia joined forces for the
CSU
elections. I was voted in as VP-Internal on the ACCESS slate. When
campaigning began, the neo-liberalish slates running against us mainly
criticized ACCESS for alleged support from the group Solidarity for
Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). Competitors claimed that "theres a
planned
Arab take-over" and warned students not to "let the Arabs rule you."
This
was shocking since I was the only Arabic person on a slate of six
members,
and the percentage of students of Arabic origin running for council was
representative of their population at Concordia.

It didn't stop there. After winning the election with almost 50% of the
vote (more than the first three runners-up combined), the Israeli lobby
in
Montreal started its hate mongering full-force. On April 5, The Jewish
Tribune (Bnai Briths official newspaper) published an article headlined
"Bnai Brith, Hillel concerned as Arab lobby wins Concordia student
vote."
In this article, Raphael Lallouz, director of advocacy for Bnai
Brith-Quebec, claims that "...now the Arab student leadership has
infiltrated the CSU." It didnt matter to Zionists like Lallouz that it
was
a democratic election or that the language that he used was akin to Nazi

propaganda. I still wonder what would have happened had someone
published
an article saying that "the Jewish leadership has infiltrated Concordias

administration," on the grounds that Rector Lowy and Provost Lightstone
happen to be of Jewish faith!

The hypocrisy didn't end there. The article attributed all of the
problems
faced by the pro-Israeli-apartheid lobby at Concordia to the large
number
of students of Arabic background at the university. Ironically, just a
short time prior to this, Bnai Brith mounted a campaign against Yves
Michaud, who was running as PQ candidate for the Mercier riding, for his

comments on the Cte St-Luc voting results of the 1995 referendum. The
Cte
St-Luc riding has a large percentage of Jewish-Canadians and Michaud was

angered that "no one" in that riding had voted for Quebec sovereignty.
He
was accused of blaming the referendum failure on the Jewish vote. Sound
familiar?

The article then proceeds to quote Prof. Scheinberg, chair of Concordias

History Department and leading "spokesman" for Bnai Brith Canada:
"Scheinberg points out that the upper echelon of Concordias
administration
remains in a predicament concerning this debate. Both Rector Lowy and
Provost Jack Lightstone are Jewish. It is very difficult for a
Jewish-led
administration to clamp down on freedom of speech." This sounds like the

writer and Scheinberg are saying that the Rector and Provost should, or
want to, clamp down on freedom of speech--and this within a university!
Then again, the University administration has probably tried to do every

thing it can to prevent SPHR, or anyone else, from speaking on the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This is highly likely considering that
Lightstone is an official representative of the Canadian Jewish
Congress,
which formed a special crisis committee, along with B'nai Brith Canada,
the
Canada-Israel Committee and Federation CJA, to help Hillel "counter"
SPHR.

Another article published soon after by Canadian Jewish News (April
12th),
is headlined "Anti-Israel resolution adopted by Concordia students." How

can the referendum question be called anti-Israel when all it asked for
was
human rights for Palestinians? You could call the resolution
anti-Israeli-state-terrorism-and-apartheid but not anti-Israel, which
implies that the resolution called for an end to the state of Israel.

Then it proceeds with "Lowy's hands are tied. Concordia has a large
number
of Jewish backers, but he has to uphold free speech, and Concordia sees
itself as a liberal university." This is as if to say that the "Jewish
Rector" knows how much money the university owes to Zionists, but there
is
a limit to what this money can buy before they break the law.

That being said, it is important to note that Arabophobia is not limited
to
Concordia. The majority of Canadian media is owned by two Zionists,
Conrad
Black CEO of the Southam-Hollinger group, and Israel Asper, CEO of
CanWest
Global. In 1993 Black wrote that he regards the Palestinians (not their
government) as "vile and primitive". His wife went even further and
compared Palestinians to animals. In a speech this June, Asper said that

"Israel is a lonely outpost of Western civilization and its values in a
sea
of terrorism, corruption, dictatorship and human enslavement". Add to
that
the fact they both co-own the Jerusalem Post; we can understand then why

there are more divergent views in the Israeli media than in Canada.

In the end a lie can't sustain itself forever, even if Zionists
monopolize
North American media. Now they scramble to stop groups like SPHR from
educating the Canadian public, and accuse anybody that dares to
criticize
Israeli-Fascism of anti-Semitism.