A campus forum featuring three controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad brings protesters to the University of California at Irvine.
Tuesday night's event was open to the public and brought-out roughly 300 "peaceful protesters" according to the Orange County Register.
The cartoon images on display were those originally published by a Danish newspaper. While a number of students from UCI's Muslim community and the Council of American-Islamic Relations boycotted the event the Register reports that at times, the forum, turned into "free-wheeling shouting matches" and police were forced to eject some members of audience. The article goes on to say no arrests were made.
The four panel members at the forum condemned the violent reaction to the cartoons and three called for “a stronger response against terrorism from mainstream American Muslims,” writes the Register.
One panelist even said, "I've told my Muslim friends to come out carrying the American flag and parade in the streets to denounce terrorism."
The event was co-sponsored by a Republican student group on campus and a conservative student group in Burbank. Those who protested the forum were members of various student organization including MEChA, the African Student Union, and community members "who stood in solidarity with UCI's Muslim students," the article reports.
