Updated below the fold...

By now you've surely heard of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, David Horowitz and Co.'s campaign to enlighten campuses around the nation about the grave threat that Islamic radicalism poses to the very foundations of Western Civilization.  And you've probably seen this picture which they'll be using to promote the nefarious impact of Islam on women.  In a press release about IFAW, here's how they describe the photo:

A major theme of the Week will be the oppression of women in Islam. The photo accompanying this article, which shows a teenage girl buried before being stoned to death for alleged sexual offenses, will serve as the poster for the protest Week. The stoning took place in Iran.

Horrifying, no?  However, if you click on that last link, you'll notice that there is no photo accompanying the article.  I wonder why that would be?

This photo turns up all over the right-wing media, but the 'stoning' actually takes place in a 1994 Dutch indie film called De Steen, directed by Mahnaz Tamizi. The ‘teenage girl' is actress Smadar Monsinos.

Whoops!  The gang at Sadly, No! has a screen capture of the FrontPageMag press release before it was scrubbed of the image (which is still being used to promote the week's events).

more on the flip...

To be clear, the subjects of terrorism, Islamic radicalism, and the treatment of Muslim women are legitimate items of discussion on campus, both in and out of the classroom.  These conversations occur on campuses every day - even in the Women's Studies courses Horowitz so robustly decries (despite not having taken the time to step inside one) - and conservatives have important contributions to make to these discussions.

However, these discussions are premised on the good-faith assumption that the facts which are being interpreted are, indeed, facts.  By trying to pass off a fictionalized account of a stoning - as the public image that is to be most associated with Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, no less - Horowitz and his crew are undermining the very foundations upon which open intellectual exchange rests.

Horowitz is welcome to bring his traveling road show on to campus.  Given the credibility of his track record with the facts, however, we suggest that members of campus communities where these events will occur take what he and his cadre have to say with a healthy sprinkling of sodium chloride.

[updated]:  The response from Horowitz?  "Not my fault!"  Of course, we're left to wonder why, if the photo is, as Horowitz claims, legitimate, it disappeared from the September 21, 2007 article.

And despite his assertions to the contrary, no one who has drawn attention to his fraudulent attribution of the image has denied that horrible things happen to women and homosexuals in the Middle East.  They undoubtedly do, as they do around the world.  That said, Horowitz and company's decision to present a staging of a stoning as fact speaks to an unwillingness to do the hard work necessary to evaluate evidence and calls into question whether they're really trying to spark a discussion or something far more inflammatory. 

[update 2]: Matthew Yglesias points out that when one reads the student organizing guide for IFAW, one gets the sense that bringing people together to discuss important global topics isn't exactly the driving idea.

[update 3]: You have got to be kidding me!  Horowitz's "Not my fault" response has been scrubbed now!  Again, Sadly, No! has the original screen captures.