Yes, I Will Answer Your Questions

Today I got the following email:

Dear Caleb,

I am writing to you because I am a friend of [name redacted] and [name redacted], and they told me that you had organized the protest that occurred a few weeks ago outside of an event sponsored by the Middle Eastern Cultural Association.

As part of a requirement for one of my classes that focuses on women in developing countries, I am writing an article about the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and I wanted to ask you a few questions about your views on this organization.

I assure you that, although this article is meant for Al-Sahafa (Ohio’s Arab newspaper), I have no personal bias, and my intention is to present the facts of this situation so that readers may come to their own conclusions.

Again, if you could answer any of the questions below, your time and help will be much appreciated. Also, if you do answer, please let me know if you would be alright with me quoting you in my article.

Thanks again,

Mary Manning

• How did you make the decision to organize a protest outside of the Middle Eastern Cultural Association’s Fall Party?
• In your opinion, why should MECA not have donated their proceeds to the PCRF?
• I noticed that you and your supporters were handing out pamphlets–did these come from an outside organization?

And within a few hours of her sending it, as soon as I got a chance to read the email and write out a reply, I sent her the following answer:

Dear Mary, I would be happy to answer your questions. And, you should feel entirely free to quote me within the article, so long as you do so in context. In other words, so long as my words aren’t manipulated maliciously, I will grant you the freedom to quote me as you see fit.

As per your questions:

1)I decided that protesting outside of the MECA fundraising celebration was something I had to do, because once I realized what they were raising funds for, I knew somebody had to voice opposition. Realizing that others would likely be too apathetic to take on such activity, I willingly stepped in to fill the void. When there is silence in the face of injustice, those involved get a free pass, and are led to believe that they are not in the wrong. I couldn’t sit idly by and witness that.

2)PCRF was a poor choice as far as organizations to support because of both their willing and open association with groups of well deserved ill repute. Their website previously stated, though has been updated in light of legal verdicts that would leave them suspect, that they considered the Holy Land Foundation, the Global Relief Foundation, and the International Islamic Relief Organization to be assisting organizations. The Holy Land Foundation was recently on trial for connections to terrorist groups, but the case ended in a mistrial when jurors felt their personal safety was threatened. The Global Relief Foundation has a similar trial, and was closed down as a consequence of it. And the IIRO, which the FBI has shown helped launder money to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Al Qaeda, as well as played a crucial role in the 1993 and 1998 bombings.

3)We did not hand out any material, other than fact sheets, which were composed internally based upon research publicly available. Some of our source material included back-ups of web pages that had already been taken down, which I obtained through Joe Kaufman, with whom I previously worked at Americans Against Hate. The only other information we had in hand to show to those interested in hearing our case was official PCRF material, which is already available to the general public. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask me.

And, you should feel free to mention that because of the Liber18 event this upcoming weekend, which is also raising funds for the PCRF, a counter event is being put together by those who feel that donating to such a group, and inviting such hateful speakers to campus is wrong.

Thanks,

Caleb Posner

PS. Please send me a copy of the article once it has been published.

So you see, I am perfectly willing to respond to any serious media inquiry regarding my writing, my political activism, or where I stand on matters of policy. I try and act as an advocate for the positions I support, and as such try to address them through both my actions and words. And really, until I have reason to do otherwise, I tend to extend people the benefit of the doubt, and will thus trust that my words will not be twisted inappropriately.

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