Does the University of California at Irvine Fund Student Groups Equally?

"Kasra's victory for Free Speech on Islamists issues to be discussed openly on UCI campus is critical. After UCI's chief counsel reviewed The Legal Project's demand letter, UCI quickly reversed its unconstitutional attack on Kasra's First Amendment rights. It is clear that the Student Board initially denied Kasra funding for his events because the Board wanted to quash any criticism of Islam on campus. By denying Kasra funding, the Board was also seeking to silence any future speech on the Islamist threat. Now that Kasra has bravely sought this matter through, UCI will be unable to stop the free discussion of Islam to the UCI student body. The Legal Project is confident that many future student events discussing the Islamist threat will be held on the UCI campus. The First Amendment applies to all views." - Sam Nunberg, Director, The Legal Project, an activity of the Middle East Forum.

Kasra Shahhoseini is a Muslim apostate from Iran who was enrolled in the University of California at Irvine (UCI) during the 2011-13 school years and headed a campus organization called Ex-Muslims and Critics of Islam (ECI). In his capacity as head of this organization, Shahhoseini organized two campus events in November 2012 and May of 2013 respectively which were held on campus. Below is a description of the events:1 Freedom of Speech vs. Blasphemy in Islam (11-26-12). The speakers were: Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-born writer and apostate from Islam, writer and speaker Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, writer and researcher Raymond Ibrahim and Jamie Glazov of the David Horowitz Freedom Institute.2 Religious Roots of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (May 8, 2013). The speakers were: Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum, Israeli professor Mordechai Kedar, Steve Goldberg, director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Zionist Organization of America, and Jamie Glazov.In organizing the above events, Mr Shahhoseini applied for funding from the Associated Students of UCI (ASUCI) and the Dean's Fund. In both cases, the ASUCI rejected his requests on the grounds that the events were religious in nature. Though Shahhoseini received some funding from the Dean's Fund, he was forced to go out of pocket to hold the events (total $665).The UCI application for funds for the two events can be viewed here and here.Subsequently, Shahhoseini turned to the Legal Project of the Middle East Forum for assistance. As a result, Sam Nunberg, director of the Legal Project, wrote a letter to the Student Program Funding Board at UCI requesting reimbursement on the grounds that Shahhoseini did not receive equal First Amendment treatment. The letter argued that religious expression by students had the same rights as that of non-religious groups. The board agreed to partially reimburse Shahhoseini for his out-of pocket expenses, a total of $581.00As you can see from Mr. Nunberg’s letter (which he provided to me), it appears that funding was denied because the ASUCI did not like the message they anticipated would be conveyed at the event given the speakers and given what they knew about Shahhoseini's activities on campus. (He had a campus-authorized table set out on a main campus walkway on certain days with visual displays which some Muslim students found offensive.) In other words, it is fair to assume that the ASUCI anticipated that the events would be critical of Islam. (They were.)This creates a dilemma not just for UCI, but other schools as well. In the case of UCI, the

Muslim Student Union (MSU) is a campus-recognized organization. They hold many events, both religious and political. (Those political, which almost always deal with Israel, routinely open with a prayer and reading from the Koran.) I don't know the particulars of how MSU's events are funded by the campus, but if their events get any campus funding at all, then it seems problematical for any other group to be denied for events deemed religious. The Student Programming Funding Board policy on funding events can be viewed here. (It appears that funding is not allowed for religious services.)Interestingly, here is an ASUCI report from November 2010 when a UCI student complained about student fees being used to fund the MSU's anti-Israel week of events to the tune of $5,000.Finally, below is an e-mail which I received from Mr Shahhoseini containing his version of the controversy. (I have deleted the name of a student mentioned in the letter for privacy reasons.)"Dear Gary. Thanks for your patience. Here is some background about the case: As the Founder and Chairman of Ex-Muslims and Critics of Islam which was a student organization at UC Irvine, I applied to ASUCI Student Programming Funding Board for the events hosted by my organizations on 11/26/2012 and 05/08/2013. However, both of my separate applications for funding have been denied by Student Programming Funding Board, and ECI did not get any funding from SPFB for any of its events. During the meeting on 05/01/13 with SPFB to review my application for the second event, I was told by a SPFB member who I believe was (name deleted) that my first event was not funded "because it was about religion." Even though such a reason cannot be a valid ground for not allocating funds based on Undergraduate Student Programming Funding Policy, the event was an academic panel discussion about Freedom of Speech vs. Blasphemy in Islam focusing on political complications of applying religious laws in a secular society. The second event held on 05/08/13 (Religious Roots of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict) was also an academic panel discussion which even was assigned as an extra credit opportunity of students of some International Studies classes. Besides SPFB ASUCI, there were two other on-campus funding boards which give funding to student events at UCI, namely Multicultural Program Funding Committee and Dean's Fund. ECI could only get some funding from Dean's Fund for its second event. But I decided to follow the case against ASUCI, as their guidelines are not subject to interpretation, and I could easily prove my case. Although I - as the Chairman of ECI - experienced many other incidents of discrimination, intimidation and harassment at UCI, this financial burden prevented me from hosting any other event. So, I strongly believed that my student organization - Ex-Muslims and Critics of Islam - was targeted by SPFB ASUCI for religious beliefs to discourage me from expressing my freedom of speech on campus. As a result, I filed my case for discrimination to UCI Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity in Summer 2013. The findings stated that ECI was denied funding because "its events were anti-religion, and ASUCI would not fund events that are about a religion or anti-religion." Although that accusation was completely false considering the nature of ECI, other students organizations such as MSU never had any problem in getting funds from SPFB ASUCI for their events about religion. Anyway, the investigator at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at UCI did not help me to protect my basic constitutional

rights as I expected, and concluded that not enough evidence to prove a discrimination was found! Therefore, I decided to pursue this case legally. Fortunately, Prof. Daniel Pipes who was one of my guest speakers at the second event accepted to refer to my case to his Middle East Forum's Legal Project, whose director is Sam Nunberg. Sam as my lawyer in this case found this incident a clear violation of the First Amendment, and submitted a demand for the reimbursement of unfunded expenses before taking my case to the court of law. As UCI legal advisers suggested to ASUCI to reimburse ECI, I was scheduled to meet with SPFB ASUCI for a re-interview, and finally most of my expenses was reimbursed. The amount of funding demanded for both events was $661.00, and $581.00 of this was finally reimbursed to ECI in late February 2014 thanks to Middle East Forum's Legal Project. I really believe it was worth the fight, since the outcomes are far beyond its monetary value. UCI has never been so lenient to reconsider its biased decisions. Not only it proved ASUCI's discriminatory behavior against some in favor of certain groups, but also, winning this case will definitely ease the path for future UCI student activists to express their voices without fear or much suffering. I am sure the UCI administration has learned its lesson, and by now, they have come to an understanding that they cannot get away easily with suppressing free speech on campus. So, I really believe that it was a great victory, and I'm very happy that I could defend my constitutional rights. Gary, I hope these details are useful for you, and please let me know if you have further questions. Thanks for your support.

Regards,

Kasra"

It will be interesting to see how future events are handled on campus involving all religious groups especially in these contentious times in our universities, some of which involve religion. It goes without saying the rules have to be applied equally for all.