USC MSA censors own site:

[Locrian]

Today looking for a some ahadith, I went to the USC website, my usual haunt for the Sahih Muslim and Sahih Bukhari renderings. Lo an behold, the MSA, or Muslim Student Association, the ones in charge of this section have deleted some of the texts that were once there.

Now don't get me wrong. If this was a privately owned and operated web site, they would be more then welcome to post which ever parts they deemed fit, but this being a university website, one would expect honesty in the representation s site wide that are presented under their watch.

I've made a small video which is located here: LINK

This video will show you how to retrieve any and all text that the MSA found too inflammatory to post honestly. The links in the video are as follows:

http://www.archive.org
http://www.usc.edu/contact

Please use the following letter if you don't wish to take the time to write up your own, and let's see what answers we can get.

First off, I want to say I'm very disappointed in a learning institution exhibiting this sort of conduct. I am speaking directly about the removal of English translated ahadith in an attempt to hide from the western nations, exactly what's in the Sahih (correct) Ahadith.

Specifically I'm talking about Sahih Muslim 41:6981 to 41:6985. Though I am very sure as I go to look things up for the English speaking community, I will come by many more more hadith.

I guess I'm wondering what gives you the right to pick and choose what the public sees. If you're not going to post the books in full, then don't post them at all, OR be honest enough to confess you've redacted it for Western, English-only readers in an attempt to sanitize the hadith.

Whoever is reading this knows in his/her heart this is wrong and very deceitful of a learning institution.

I expect some kind of answer to this. I understand there is most likely a logical explanation to this: i.e a zealous website helper deleted the passages without the University knowing.

I eagerly await the reply to this..
In the meantime, I will send people archival sites where the USC has no control.

Thank you

[Dangelooo]

Hello
Are the hadiths submit to any kind of license ?
If not it could be really useful to host them on the server of InvestigateIsl am
Same thing for the several versions of the Quran, the tafsirs and the sirah because I really think that this practice to censor part of their own texts could expand to other websites.
The people of Answering-Islam.com have already put a website with comparative translations of the Quran in english + the transliteratio n from arabic there :
http://quranbrowser.com/

there is also this one :
http://www.islamawakened.com/Quran/

Personally I often use http://www.searchtruth.com/hadith_books.php
There are 4 complete collections of hadiths + a search engine and many other Islamic resources

[Locrian]

Dangelooo,
 I have no idea on the licensing at this time. I'll have to look at this, but the point isn't the hadith can't be found elsewhere: but how many sites link to the USC website? The USC website is favored because of it's status as a university. If we posted all the hadith on a CP related site, how seriously would Muslims take them in a debate?

The point, at least for me, is that anything under the banner of a university should be honest and forthright. I own some personal web space which I allow some people to run sites from. If I allowed those people to misrepresent information, that's a reflection on me as well. It wouldn't happen. All I ask is the university hold the MSA accountable for the items they host on university server space.

[Dangelooo]

Hello
Someone posted in a comment the reason why those Hadiths were removed, here is a complete explanation :
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2008/08/missing-point.html

Censoring Hadiths because they are antisemite would just make Islam appear better to all non-arabic speaker, I think we should try to contact the people who asked for the removal of those Hadiths and explain how important it is that all the text be available to everybody.

The MSA is a university-sanctioned student group and its Web site is hosted on the USC server. When Rabbi Aron Hier, director of campus outreach at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Reut Cohen of the Horowitz Freedom Center discovered the passage, they sent a letter to Alan Casden, a USC trustee and co-chair of the Wiesenthal Center's board, urging him to have the university remove that portion of the Hadith.

Here is the mail I found :
Rabbi Aron Hier, Director, Campus Outreach-SWC (enewsletter@wiesenthal.net)
campusoutreach@wiesenthal.net

[SG1963]

Dangelooo, I wrote the Weisenthal center with my concerns that their action has resulted in helping to sanitize islam, muslims, and Muhammad.  I've received an acknowledgment that my letter was received, but not an actual response to it.  If I get one, I'll post it here in the forum.  And, it probably wouldn't hurt if several others were to write them, stressing the urgency to get these missing hadiths restored so we can have a clear and graphic picture of the horror that is islam.