RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
In Southern California, 11 Muslim college students are heading to court tomorrow. They're facing criminal charges for disrupting a speech by Israel's ambassador to the U.S. The incident happened late last year on the campus of the University of California at Irvine. The local prosecutor says the students had no right to disrupt the event. Supporters say the students are being targeted for being vocal critics of Israel. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
CARRIE KAHN: Unidentified Woman: Help support breast cancer awareness.
KAHN: Hamza Siddiqui says it has been hard to live down the stigma of being a suspended organization.
HAMZA SIDDIQUI: People are afraid to wear their Muslim Student Union shirts. You know, they were afraid to like associate themselves with us, you know. And so that's the first thing that really affected us.
KAHN: Siddiqui says the group was just regaining its footing when the local district attorney announced he was pressing criminal charges against the students, who've been dubbed the Irvine 11.
TONY RACKAUCKAS: It's a misdemeanor to interrupt and disrupt a lawful meeting.
KAHN: Orange County D.A. Tony Rackauckas says the students unlawfully conspired to shut down the ambassador's speech.
RACKAUCKAS: You have a First Amendment right to express yourself. They certainly had every right to demonstrate and to express themselves and to get their ideas across. But this went well beyond that.
KAHN: In a video of the speech posted on YouTube, the ambassador, speaking to a packed auditorium, is repeatedly shouted down by Muslim students.
MICHAEL OREN: Unidentified Man: You, sir, are an accomplice to genocide.
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JACQUELINE GOODMAN: What happened was there are 10 distinct momentary disruptions.
KAHN: As she looks over the video of the ambassador's speech, she says it's obvious that the demonstration was peaceful. After making their statements, she says each protestor promptly surrendered to police waiting in the aisles.
GOODMAN: It's difficult for me to believe that this prosecutor could see fit to expend tens of thousands of dollars and a year's worth of resources on prosecuting a disturbance of the peace in an instance where nobody was hurt, nobody was threatened.
KAHN: Goodman says the prosecution's motivation is clearly political, a charge D.A. Rackauckas adamantly denies. For their part, Jewish groups on the U.C. Irvine campus don't want to be drawn into the controversy. But Rabbi Aron Hier, campus outreach director for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, says the Muslim students have yet to apologize and must be punished.
ARON HIER: If people are allowed to shut down and conspire to shut down free speech, then we're not going to be able to exchange ideas in a free fashion.
KAHN: Many faculty at U.C. Irvine disagree. One hundred of them signed a petition asking the D.A. to drop the charges. They say the university suspension of the Muslim Student Union was punishment enough. Student Hamza Siddiqui says the D.A.'s prosecution sets a dangerous precedent. He asks what's to stop him from prosecuting all groups he doesn't agree with.
SIDDIQUI: It leaves barely any room for dissent. And what is democracy without dissent?
KAHN: Carrie Kahn, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
