Islamophobia invaded American University campus on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 8. Many AU students spotted hateful posters about Islam, the Muslim Student Association, and the Students for Justice in Palestine group. Such posters have provoked fear and intimidation among Muslim and Palestinian students.
The organization behind the posters is Stop the Jihad on Campus.
As a Muslim American who is also the vice president of MSA at AU, I have the responsibility to clarify and set the record straight. This defamation of Muslims, the MSA, and SJP is not a tolerable act. The messages SJC sends are not only absurd and hateful about Islam and SJP, but they are also false. Therefore, the university’s administration needs to do more to stop these attacks.
Granted, individuals have a right to feel however they please about others. People are entitled to their opinion. The problem isn’t whether people don’t like Muslims. The problem is that SJC targets Muslims and Palestinians and blatantly calls them terrorists just because they belong to organizations like the MSA or SJP.
And while supporters of SJC may believe that their speech is protected under the First Amendment, they are wrong. The First Amendment does not protect all speech. Thanks to the Supreme Court case Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, “any offensive, derisive or annoying word to any other person” is not protected under the freedom of speech. Now, compare “offensive or annoying” words to the posters which said that SJP supports the “slaughtering of Jews.”
On the contrary, SJP is a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, and community members organized on democratic principles to promote justice, human rights, liberation, and self-determination for the Palestinian people.
Additionally, the MSA’s mission is to create a safe environment for both Muslims and non-Muslims at AU. We try our best to foster a community where we have an open dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims about concerns that either group might have. Indeed, the MSA is open to all students regardless of their affiliation with any group, political view, or spiritual belief.
As a liberal Muslim, I can understand why post-9/11 people may feel uneasiness toward Muslims. And, I can also understand that prejudice and discrimination are not social injustices that will be resolved if I “complain” about them. However, the perpetuation of false, negative messages about Muslims is by no means justified just because some people in the West dislike Muslims.
In response to the flyers, representatives from MSA and SJP met with Assistant Vice President of Campus Life, Fanta Aw, and a few other administration members on the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 9 to discuss a course of action. The representatives demanded the administration support the MSA and SJP by sending a mass email to the AU community. On Tuesday, the administration sent out an email explaining the situation and ensuring the safety of AU students. The email also condemned the negative messages portrayed in the posters.
While the email seems to have contained the situation, such actions on campus cannot be pushed under the rug. An email is just words. We need real action. The administration revealed that it has been aware of the SJC activities for a number of years now. Yet, no formal action was taken to prevent this from happening again. There is no security camera footage that can give Public Safety officers a lead on who hung up the hateful flyers. Furthermore, the administration merely talks about providing a platform for educating students about the Islamophobic activity but has not gone through with it.
In order to move forward, the AU administration needs to take this situation more seriously than it has been in past years. There should be workshops and teach-ins that explain the tactics and the real motivations behind why organizations spread Islamophobia. I would even go further and suggest that, just as students are required to take a bunch of general education classes that are supposed to broaden students’ minds, students should be required to take a class discussing diversity and its issues in the United States as whole. Students should be taught about organized discrimination in all its forms, whether it’s against Blacks, African Americans, Asians, South Asians, Arabs, Muslims, or any other minority. Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” So let’s abide by this statement and really attempt at pushing for social change. The elimination of discrimination starts with changing norms, and education will do that if implemented correctly.
