The University of Houston Main Campus boasts a culturally and religiously diverse student body. UH probably has students representing nearly every country and faith system in the world — a sort of miniature United Nations.
In light of this situation, it is most disturbing that a group who stands against such diversity often lurks on our campus in the breezeway of PGH, disseminating pat political solutions and a doctrine that is deeply and frighteningly fascist.
Lyndon LaRouche Jr.‘s supporters initially impress one as intellectual. They have all sorts of arguments to support their claims of conspiracies and wrongdoings by our nation’s leaders, yet, some research on the Internet reveals information students should be loath to forget if we want to repel this group from our midst.
For years Lyndon LaRouche Jr. has been a member of the Democratic party. Yet he has never been able to gain widespread support from the party because his message borders on neo-fascism and his groupies behave more like cult members than political supporters.
Most frightening is that LaRouche’s ties now transcend U.S. borders. LaRouche groups are prominent around the world.
A LaRouche-affiliated group is suspected of being involved in the March death of Jewish student Jeremiah Duggan in Germany. LaRouche’s group has also been accused of brainwashing recruits in Australia. Parents of group followers are alarmed at their children’s fear of separation from the new quasi-cult.
LaRouche has been known for many years as the most virulent anti-Semite in the American Democratic Party. Unfortunately, it’s not just American Jews LaRouche targets; LaRouche supporters in Australia accused a Jewish family in Melbourne of conspiracy with David Koresh‘s uprising in Waco. LaRouche-related groups around the world spout conspiracy theories not only against our own President Bush, but also against Tony Blair and the Queen of England. LaRouche professes that the Queen is the overseer of an international drug cartel. In Australia they spout hate rhetoric against Jews, Aborigines and environmentalists.
Lyndon LaRouche has never gained widespread Democratic support in America because he scares people.
While there is merit in allowing free speech on campus, there is no reason why we should tolerate a group that is so outspokenly anti-Semitic and hateful toward minorities both inside and outside our own country.
After a review of history and doctrines held by past world leaders, one thing is clear: groups that have anti-Semitism as their central doctrine have ended by imperiling not only Jews, but the rest of society. In Germany, Hitler’s main focus was on the Jews, but eventually his hate club affected Africans, homosexuals, Catholics and basically anyone he thought stood in his way.
Here on campus, we have the opportunity to learn history and political science from scholarly resources — professors who teach their classes according to well-researched textbooks.
True, we may not always get the whole picture, but that is where the University library should play a large part. Students should take the time to visit the library and check out a few books to answer their questions instead of relying on fringe hate groups camped out in the PGH breezeway.