College Republicans United just hosted Carl Goldberg tonight, a controversial public speaker, bringing Islamophobic rhetoric to the Memorial Union—at the center of ASU's Tempe campus.
Islamophobia is nothing short of a white supremacist belief. By inviting a speaker onto campus who expressed a blatant hatred of the Muslim community, CRU provides this white supremacist with a platform that he should not have.
CRU's event, held on Wednesday, comes after Goldberg had consistently demonized Muslims in previous speeches. In 2018, he went as far as to claim that Muslims represent an "existential threat" and that “(Muslims) want to overtake our country and make this an Islamic country.”
Goldberg is also Arizona's chapter leader of ACT for America, an extremist hate group that was established following the anti-Islamic post 9/11 movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Goldberg did not respond to request for comment by the time of publication despite multiple attempts to contact him through his personal Facebook account, the ACT for America Facebook account and the CRU Facebook account.
The Council of American-Islamic Relations included Goldberg in their list of Islamophobic individuals, and expressed concerns about his misrepresentation of Islam.
Aamirah Chisti, a senior studying mathematics and the president of the ASU Muslim Students Assocation, said Goldberg is the worst person to bring onto a debate about Islam.
Giving a platform and a voice to Goldberg is promoting this hateful rhetoric, and it reveals the racist, Islamophobic character of CRU.
“I think Carl Goldberg is very desperate for a platform, and CRU is very willing to give him one.” said Chisti. “(CRU) is making a fool out of themselves, honestly.”
Featuring an Islamophobe versus an actual Muslim speaker makes CRU guilty of equating the extreme right-wing idea of Islamophobia with Islam itself. The balance is not equal.
“(Goldberg) very obviously doesn’t want to educate,” Chisti said. “He wants to spew this hate.”
CRU diverts attention away from their own racist ideas by framing them as part of a conversation, instead of having them be addressed and appropriately scrutinized. Hiding behind the concept of supporting free speech is a way to justify their racism.
"I think its ridiculous how ASU has let this continue on," said Chisti. "CRU’s reputation on campus is already bad, but I don’t know why they would bring someone in to make their reputation even worse."
It is through instances such as the Goldberg event that the ASU community can clearly see the type of hatred, racism and Islamaphobia perpetuated by CRU. This behavior is simply unacceptable and proves that CRU promotes the racist concept of Islamophobia.
Reach the columnist at amisais@asu.edu or follow @comradealexia on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
Clarification: This column was updated to reflect the various attempts in which Goldberg was asked for comment.
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