Civil rights investigation clears UCI

The Orange County Register reports this morning on the federal investigation of civil rights complaints of anti-Semitism at UC Irvine found “insufficient evidence” that the university failed to respond appropriately to complaints by Jewish students, according to a report released this Tuesday afternoon.

As our readers may recall, there has been coverage of this issue on RedCounty/OCBlog and TheLiberalOC (Click Here for the stories). Red County/OCBlog has taken a clearly hate filled, anti-muslim, stance on the issue. So hate filled that Irvine Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has entered the fray on numerous occasions.

Not to be left out, “Media Whore DeVore” got in the last words of the Orange County Register story today…

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who has been critical of UCI in the past, said he wasn’t surprised that many of the older complaints were not substantiated. “This is a classic case of distant bureaucracy in action,” DeVore said.

Anyway, here are some of the highlights from Marla Fisher’s story:

Investigators with the department’s Office for Civil Rights visited the campus 11 times since 2006 to monitor demonstrations and interview students and staff. They failed to substantiate complaints that campus officials had ignored or downplayed anti-Semitic behavior, according to the Nov. 30 report released today.

UCI has earned a national reputation, spread largely by bloggers and pro-Zionist organizations, of being, in one organization’s words, “the most notoriously anti-Semitic campus” in America.

That appellation has been vehemently denied by campus officials, who say tensions between Jewish and Muslim students on their campus are about the same as at similar schools.

The Department of Education investigation was launched in 2004, after complaints filed on behalf of students by the Zionist Organization of America, a pro-Israeli organization with chapters in a dozen cities, including Los Angeles.

Some Jewish students complained about harassment, including reports of swastikas on campus and destruction of a Holocaust memorial display.

Muslim students have similarly complained about problems, including a fire that destroyed a mock depiction of the Palestine wall.

In its report, the civil rights office said that none of the 13 allegations could be substantiated. Some could not be acted upon because they were too old. The agency requires that complaints be filed within 180 days unless they show a pattern of discrimination.

“When OCR (Office of Civil Rights) investigated the timely allegations that suggested a possible hostile environment based on national origin, OCR found, in all instances, that the University took prompt and effective action to address the incidents,” according to the report.

While acknowledging that speeches, articles, marches, symbols and other events sponsored by the Muslim Student Union were “offensive to Jewish students,” they determined that they were not based on their national origin, but “rather based on opposition to the policies of Israel.”

In the case of inflammatory campus speakers, investigators found that most speakers “distinguished opposition to Zionism from opposition to Jews.”

The report also states there is “no evidence that the University implemented a systematic discriminatory policy.”

I’m certain of one thing, this report will not settle the issue and anti-muslim bloggers will continue to fan the flames of hatred and bigotry.