"Sure, he's very valuable to them. Oubai's filling a very big need right now," Ebrahim says of Shahbandar's relationship with Horowitz and Pipes. "But I don't think that Oubai's a victim there. He's just as opportunistic, if not more so, as they are."
Shahbandar dismisses claims that he's being used to promote some anti-Muslim campaign, proclaiming "I'm no stooge." Both Horowitz and Pipes say calling him their lackey is a feeble attempt to discredit their pupil.
Jeff Newton
Oubai Shahbandar relaxes with some apple-flavored shisha.
Matt Garcia
Alone, at last: After five years at ASU, Oubai Shahbandar has become isolated.
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"Oubai came to me -- I didn't go to him," Horowitz says.
"Why these notions of exploitation?" Pipes asks. "I can be helpful to Oubai and he can be helpful to me. We have the same goals. Where does the conspiracy or exploitation come in?"
Come May, once he walks through commencement ceremonies with two degrees in political science and philosophy, Oubai Shahbandar will face Georgetown and the grandest political battlefield of all -- Washington, D.C.
But if he hasn't learned already in his five tumultuous years at ASU, Shahbandar must figure out how to maintain a more credible reputation at Georgetown at the same time he's constantly putting it on the line, says his ex-girlfriend and confidante, Shanna Bowman.
"Oubai is not a details person," Bowman says. "I don't know why he doesn't understand that your legitimacy is tied to your credibility." Bowman says she's told Shahbandar to keep quiet at ASU for the remainder of his tenure there. "Get your degree and leave," she advised him.
But while Shahbandar has been relatively passive on campus since the Daniel Pipes lecture last September, he shrugs his shoulders when asked if he'll get into any more trouble before he's handed his bachelor's degrees.
"You never can tell," he says with a smirk that suggests he's got at least one more stunt for the ASU community. He mentions that he's contacted Irshad Manji -- a lesbian Muslim from Canada whose book The Trouble With Islam is already in its fourth printing since its release in January -- and asked her to come and speak at ASU. If recent appearances are any indication -- Manji's lectures in other parts of the country have drawn standing-room-only crowds -- the size of the event could dwarf the Pipes lecture of seven months ago.
Shahbandar laughs when asked if he's worried there's a day of reckoning in the time he has left in Arizona. But, he admits, he's gone too far not to at least consider some form of retribution from ASU's administration, its student body, or even the so-called "terrorist cell" he says is lurking somewhere in the Valley.
"It's so funny," Shahbandar says. "I don't know what everyone is so afraid of. I'm just a 22-year-old college kid."
E-mail joe.watson@newtimes.com, or call 602-744-6557.
