About 10 ASU police officers checked the bags and pockets of more than 200 ASU students who attended the appearance of speaker Daniel Pipes Thursday night at Murdock Hall.
Pipes outlined his views against militant Islam, which he defined as a "hideous and ruthless ideology" responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and many other terrorist attacks against the United States.
He said it was important for college students to learn about these issues because they would be the dominant public issues of their day.
Some of the students expressed angry views toward Pipes, and one was removed from the meeting after speaking out of turn and causing a disturbance.
Before the meeting, police swept the building for bombs. Pro Em security guard Ryan Metivier, 25, said the security was heavy because Pipes was a very well-known and controversial figure.
Pipes is a recent appointee to the U.S. Institute of Peace, has taught at Harvard University and the U.S. Naval War College and said he speaks at about 25 colleges per year.
His comments were followed by a heated question-and-answer forum in which students expressed views both for and against Pipes' policies.
Political science senior and president of ASU Students for Democracy Oubai Shahbandar, 22, organized the event, which was sponsored by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that researches the war on terrorism.
Shahbandar called the event a success, though during the meeting when he had asked the crowd, "Who is the fascist?" many students answered, "You are!"
"Most people were civil, and we respected everyone's political views," Shahbandar said.
During the meeting, Shahbandar pointed at a student, told him to "shut up" and called him a "little Wahhabi fascist." The term Wahhabi can be used to refer to a radical form of Islam.
Shahbandar later described his actions as appropriate because the student was not respecting the civility of the event.
Ramsey Webber, a plant biology senior, said he was wearing a "No Hate" card from the Muslim Students Association around his neck because he did not support Pipes.
"He's a racist," Webber said of Pipes.
Also in attendance was the executive director of the Arizona branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, Deedra Abboud, who said she thought Pipes had some good things to say, but that he was misinformed on many issues regarding Islam.
"I didn't know I was a terrorist," she said. Abboud added both Pipes and Shahbandar, who moderated the question-and-answer portion, were too selective with whom they allowed to speak.
Political science master's student and American-born Muslim Nure Elatari said ASU is a good, loving campus that does not tolerate racism.
"This meeting was not peaceful," she said. "People were pointing fingers, and they were not happy. This is not what ASU represents."
After the meeting Pipes said he thought it went "fine" and that there was a considerable representation of militant Islam in the crowd. He added the heated response to his comments would not stop him from returning if invited again.
Reach the reporter at lindsay.butler@asu.edu.
