Article by Audrey Thibert

In 2017, President Donald Trump enacted a drastic and unprecedented travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries, halting immigration from countries such as Iran and Somalia and blocking Syrian refugees from resettlement in the United States. Despite initial court injunctions temporarily blocking the order, a revised version of the ban gained Supreme Court approval in a 5-4 decision, and the travel ban went into effect.

For the following years of the Trump administration, families were separated and unable to reunite under what Trump called a “complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” When President Joe Biden assumed office, he rescinded the ban, allowing families to reunite and remain together.

However, with Trump’s return to power, fears of discriminatory and violent immigration policies have reignited. In his first week in office, he signed an executive order titled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats.” The ban aims to strengthen national security and protect Americans from immigrants who “exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”

The new executive order gives U.S. officials 60 days to assess the internal vetting protocols of other countries. If they determine a country’s vetting process is “so deficient,” they can recommend suspending immigration from that country. The executive order also aims to deport foreigners who entered the United States illegally after Biden’s rescission of the ban.

This push for immigration control has caused many to fear its ramifications on Muslim communities, domestic and abroad. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee warns that the U.S. government has vested itself with “wider latitude to use ideological exclusion” in rejecting visa applications and deporting foreigners in the United States. The broad language grants wide discretion to officials to deport anyone who holds, or is perceived to hold, a belief deemed threatening. Increased power to define and act on what constitutes a threatening ideology leads to widespread discrimination and abuse of power where individuals are targeted because of the administration’s political motives — not because they are true threats to national security.

In May of last year, during his presidential campaign, Trump stated: “When I’m president, we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals, and if you come here from a violent country and try to bring jihadism, or anti-Americanism, or antisemitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you. You’ll be out of that school.” This rhetoric only intensifies the growing wave of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate that has spiked across campuses nationwide. This new Muslim ban isn’t just being used as a means to keep certain people from coming into the country, but also to target and expel individuals based on their identities and ideologies.

The executive order for the new travel ban mandates that immigrants admitted under Biden’s administration must be checked and are susceptible to deportation based on any grounds deemed valid under the new order. One such basis is ensuring that immigrants “do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists.”

Pro-Israeli groups and politicians often equate pro-Palestinian students with Hamas or terrorists, which threatens student protesters on H1B visas who can be deported with the introduction of this ideological screening. Trump’s plan to deport protestors serves as an unprecedentedly significant move to decrease on-campus demonstrations as well as the presence of foreigners in the United States.

During his last presidency, Trump’s administration targeted Middle Eastern studies departments at U.S. universities, claiming that they promoted Islamic extremism. In 2019, the Department of Education launched an investigation into federally funded programs that focused on Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, criticizing them for indoctrinating students with views sympathetic to radical ideologies.

The potential effects on NYU are significant. In the 2023-2024 school year, NYU welcomed over 27,000 international students to study at its variety of campuses across the globe, with about 2% from the Middle East and North Africa, 63% from East and Southeast Asia and 18.76% from central and South Asia. According to the Islamic Center at NYU, over 3,000 Muslim students use its space and participate in organized events such as those hosted by the Muslim Student Association. Many of these students now face heightened risks due to their immigration status and political activism.

In the last year, hundreds of NYU students participated in pro-Palestinian protests outside of the Stern School of Business, with more than 150 people getting arrested in April 2024. For students who protested while on student visas, their ability to continue doing so under a new Trump administration is now increasingly complicated as they may face deportation threats.

Muslim and pro-Palestinian students are not the only groups to be targeted. Chinese students on student visas have been urged to remain in the United States for their spring semester due to fears of being unable to return if they go home. ICE raids targeting Latinx communities have already occurred in many metropolitan areas, including in Atlanta, Chicago and New York City. The imminent threat of deportation for many has become a focal point of concern, leading civil rights organizations and lawyers to work overtime to counter Trump’s bigoted policies.

In the face of rising anti-Arab and Muslim hate on campuses nationwide, NYU must act decisively to protect its student body. The university should provide resources to help students navigate the visa process and ensure protections for student protestors. NYU must also supply as much vital information to its students as possible, including clearly outlining the protection of student protestors, Arab and Muslim students and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies departments. This, combined with a public statement denouncing these xenophobic policies, would be a good start to approaching the problem.

Source: Washington Square News

Current and former students at the University of Michigan have filed a lawsuit against the school alleging it disproportionately disciplined pro-Palestinian protesters and violated their free speech rights.

The federal lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Detroit. The plaintiffs allege that the school violated the students’ constitutional rights to free speech, due process and equal protection under the law.

The six current and former students also allege that the University of Michigan initiated discipline proceedings against the students for speech-related conduct that other groups weren’t punished for.

The plaintiffs also alleged that students were targeted with different degrees of disciplinary proceedings based on race. They also allege they were fired from campus jobs and blacklisted for future employment.

“The egregious Constitutional violations outlined in this suit are merely a fraction of the repression the University of Michigan has subjected student activists like us to because of our assertion that the University should not financially invest in, and materially benefit from, the genocide of the Palestinian people,” graduate student and plaintiff Nora Hilgart-Griff told the Detroit News.

“That the University has departed from its longstanding allowance of student protest–even protest that may be critical of University policies or leadership–for this issue alone is evidence of the way the Palestinian people are systematically and intentionally dehumanized by the countries who fund and enable their dispossession and deaths.”

The lawsuit names the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents, its president, Santa Ono, vice president for student life, Martino Harmon, and two independent consultants, Omar Torres and Stephanie Jackson, as defendants.

Campus Protest Movement

Campus protests against Israel erupted after it launched a devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip in response to the Hamas-led 7 October attacks. Both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The campus protests were widespread during the 2023 school year, but have been more sporadic this year. Rights groups say there has been a crackdown on free speech by universities and the US government.

The University of Michigan lawsuit is the latest component of the campus protest movement, with current and former students alleging that their schools’ behavior violated constitutional rights, and potentially hindered their post-graduate career courses.

In September 2024, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Maryland sued their school to hold an interfaith vigil on 7 October to mourn those killed in Gaza. A federal judge ruled that the school could not block the event.

The University of Michigan case is related to a student sit-in at the university president’s office and a “die-in” at a student gathering space in August.

The lawsuit alleges that the school called in police from more than 10 jurisdictions to disperse the latter event. The police made 42 arrests and gave citations to protesters for failing to leave the building when they were told to do so.

The plaintiffs allege that the university has never taken similar action at prior sit-ins, which are common.

Twenty-five of the students given disciplinary notices requested an arbitration before a student panel, and all were found to have not violated the student code. Harmon, the vice president for student life, later rescinded the decision, according to the lawsuit.

The student protest movement was catapulted into the limelight by congressional hearings, in which a Republican majority in the House of Representatives alleged the schools had not done enough to stamp out protestors.

A Republican-led House committee accused university leaders of giving into antisemitism, with the US director of national intelligence even alleging that Iran is providing financial support to pro-Palestine activists. The debate also helped put Congresswoman Elise Stefanik on the political map.

Following her grilling of university presidents, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Stefanik as the US’ ambassador to the UN.

Source: Middle East Eye

The department’s Office for Civil Rights said it investigated nine complaints against University of California schools in Los Angeles (UCLA), Santa Barbara, San Diego, Davis and Santa Cruz. The complaints alleged the schools failed to respond effectively to antisemitic and anti-Arab harassment.

The civil rights office concluded the universities “appear not to have responded promptly or effectively” to allegations of discrimination and harassment that were brought to the administrations’ attention.

Under the agreement, the schools must step up reporting of complaints to the OCR office and review all complaints and reports of harassment from the past two academic years to determine if further action is needed. The agreement also calls for more training of university employees and campus police officers about their obligations under federal law.

The University of California system said the agreement is one of several steps it is taking to ensure its campuses are respectful and welcoming to all.

“Ensuring an inclusive University environment requires sustained focus and action,” the system said in a written statement.

Colleges and universities nationwide saw tension and at times violence erupt on campuses after the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, with dueling campus rallies and widespread allegations of antisemitism and anti-Arab harassment.

The Department of Education has been investigating dozens of complaints that campuses violated Title VI, which bars discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color and national origin at colleges and universities that receive federal funding. Examples of harassment can include slurs, taunts, stereotypes, name-calling and racially motivated attacks or hateful conduct, according to the department’s website.

The department reached a similar agreement with Brown University in July.

A separate investigation found the University of Cincinnati did not respond appropriately to reports of harassment, the Office of Civil Rights said. Examples from some two dozen complaints include a Palestinian student who reported receiving death threats, which the university did not investigate, and an anonymous complaint that a Jewish student’s home was egged and smeared with feces.

The University of Cincinnati said in a statement it will review its policies and previously filed complaints, and take steps “to practively enhance ongoing efforts to prevent discrimination and harassment.” The university said it investigated the complaint of vandalism at the Jewish student’s home, which was made directly to the federal office, but found no reports or evidence of the incident.

UCLA’s handling of dispersing its encampment in the spring drew widespread criticism. Chaos erupted after hundreds of protesters defied orders from campus police to leave the encampment. One night, counter-protesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours before police stepped in.

The investigation into UCLA stemmed partly from concerns of compliance related to about 150 reports the school received about rallies in October and November 2023 as well as a pro-Palestinian encampment in the spring, the department said.

“Of particular concern were reports of violence against students of Jewish ancestry … and of a violent assault by counter-protesters on pro-Palestinian protesters” at the encampment, the department said.

At rallies, protesters chanted “death to Israel” and “no peace until they’re dead,” the department said. At the encampment, protesters maintained checkpoints that excluded Jewish students from the protest area and parts of the campus, prompting the school’s chancellor to issue a statement saying Jewish students on campus, among others, felt “a state of anxiety and fear.”

Muslim and Palestinian students experienced “unwanted filming, doxing, and being followed” on or near the UCLA campus, the department said. A task force report cited by the department said counter-protesters heckled people inside the encampment, saying things like, “you’re a jihadist,” and “you’re a terrorist.”

The four other UC campuses also had “widely reported incidents” of alleged harassment against students, the civil rights office said. UC Santa Barbara was notified of antisemitic vandalism at a dorm and signs posted at a student center that targeted Jewish students by name; UC San Diego and UC Davis also received complaints about students experiencing or witnessing antisemitic comments or actions by students and professors.

Source: The Associated Press

The various institutions of postwar Europe were intended to keep the peace, bring warring peoples together and build a sense of continental attachment and even loyalty. From the growth of the European Union itself to other, softer organizations, dealing with culture or sports, the hope has always been to keep national passions within safe, larger limits.

But growing antisemitism, increased migration and more extremist, anti-immigrant parties have led to backlash and divisions rather than comity. The long war in Gaza has only exacerbated these conflicts and their intensity, especially among young Muslims and others who feel outraged by Israeli bombings and by the tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, a large proportion of them women and children.

Those tensions were on full display in the recent violence surrounding a soccer match between an Israeli and a Dutch team in Amsterdam, where the authorities are investigating what they call antisemitic attacks on Israeli fans, as well as incendiary actions by both sides. Amsterdam is far from the only example of the divisions in Europe over the Gaza war and of the challenges they present to European governments.

The normally amusing Eurovision Song Contest, which was held this year in Malmo, Sweden, a city with a significant Muslim population, was marred by pro-Palestinian protests against Eden Golan, a contestant from Israel, which participates as a full member.

The original lyrics to her song, “October Rain,” in commemoration of the 1,200 Israelis who died from the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel’s response in Gaza, were rejected by organizers for their political nature, so were altered to be less specific. Her performance was met with booing and jeering from some in the audience, but she did receive a wave of votes from online spectators, pushing her to fifth place.

It was hardly the demonstration of togetherness in art and silliness that organizers have always intended.

In Germany, where supporting the existence of Israel is a “Staatsräson,” a fundamental principle of the German state, there have been numerous examples of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies. Palestinian supporters say they, too, have felt marginalized, their voices unheard or unheeded.

The police in Germany have shut down pro-Palestinian conferences and denied entry to pro-Palestinian speakers, while some German art organizations have withheld prizes to authors whom they have deemed to have been overly critical of Israel or of Israeli conduct in Gaza or the West Bank.

A year ago, the Frankfurt Book Fair was accused of “shutting down” Palestinian voices, after an awards ceremony to honor “Minor Detail,” a novel by a Palestinian author, Adania Shibli, was canceled because of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Just this week a documentary film about life in the occupied West Bank that won the Berlin film festival this year, “No Other Land,” opened in German cinemas with renewed charges that it exhibits “antisemitic tendencies,” according to the Berlin city website Berlin.de.
The director of the fair, Tricia Tuttle, rejected the charge, and the website changed its wording.

“The Gaza war has infected everything,” said Stefan Kornelius, a senior editor of the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. “The war causes people to position themselves and support a one-sentence verdict on the Mideast,” he said. “It often runs counter to German Staatsräson on Israel, which supports Israel whatever it takes, and that counterreaction, especially in the arts, causes people to back the Palestinians with some intensity.”

What took place in Amsterdam, however, was of a different order and shook many in Europe beyond the Netherlands.

The match last week between an Israeli team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Amsterdam’s Ajax, was part of the Europa League competition run by the Union of European Football Associations, best known as UEFA.

While soccer has always been a deeply partisan sport, stoking nationalism and sometimes related violence, the sport’s near universality also provides a common bond and players from one country often play on teams in others.

Fearing the kind of violence seen in Amsterdam, the authorities in France, which like the Netherlands has a significant minority of Arab and Muslim citizens, deployed an extra 4,000 police officers for a soccer match Thursday evening on the outskirts of Paris between the national teams of Israel and France.

President Emmanuel Marcon, his prime minister and two former French presidents attended the match in a show of solidarity against antisemitism, and though demonstrators protested nearby, there was only a minor skirmish in the stands that the police quickly controlled.
Passions have been running high. In Germany, Berlin police are investigating reports that a youth team of Makkabi Berlin, a Jewish football club, were chased by a crowd yelling “Free Palestine” and bearing sticks and knives after a match with another Berlin club. The police said that they were investigating the incident on grounds of breach of the peace, incitement and insult.

If Oct. 7 changed so much for Israel and Jews abroad, Israel’s asymmetric response, which has brought accusations of multiple war crimes and even genocide, has changed much for Arabs and Muslims in Europe, too. Many Muslims in Europe say they feel threatened themselves.

The rise of extremist nationalist parties like the Alternative for Germany, which has numerous neo-Nazi members and has used racist language to condemn immigration and call for the expulsion of nonnative German citizens, has heightened those anxieties.
Aiman Mazyek, chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, said that there is “a climate of fear” among Muslims since Oct. 7.

“Many Muslims in our country are uneasy, they’re afraid to speak out at all, and feel intimidated by the debate,” he said. There have been attacks on mosques and “on Muslims and also those who are perceived to be Muslims at a rate like never before,” he said.

According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, which monitors both antisemitism and anti-Muslim discrimination, nearly one in every two Muslims in the bloc face racism and discrimination in their daily lives, a sharp increase since 2016, it said in a report last month.

They are targeted, the report said, not just because of their religion, but also because of their skin color and ethnic or immigrant background. Young Muslims born in Europe and women wearing religious clothing are especially affected, the report said, and many face racial profiling by the police.

Given the heightened atmosphere, there is much attention on Thursday’s France-Israel match.

Hélène Conway-Mouret, vice president of the foreign affairs and defense committee of the French Senate, said that feelings among young Muslims were running especially high because of the horrors of the long Gaza conflict and confusion about where they belong.
“There is a real identity issue with second and third generation Muslim immigrants,” she said. “Their parents knew they were Moroccan, for example. But their children wonder, ‘Are they Moroccan,’ and yet they are not.” Nor are they always accepted as French, and face significant discrimination.

In a way, she said, support for the Palestinians “brings them together as a community.”

There have been nearly 70 arrests so far in Amsterdam, including 10 Israelis, for mostly minor offenses. Dutch officials have decried the attacks in Amsterdam as antisemitism, including what they said was an orchestrated effort to seek out Jews, as they also investigate inflammatory actions and vandalism by some Israeli fans.

“What happened over the past few days is a toxic cocktail of antisemitism, hooligan behavior and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel, and other countries in the Middle East,” Femke Halsema, the mayor of Amsterdam, wrote to the City Council.

“Antisemitism can’t be answered with other racism,” she added. “The safety of one group cannot be at the expense of the safety of another.”

Source: The New York Times

On Oct. 17, a man approached a group of pro-Palestinian protesters, calling them terrorists outside of Coffman Union. The incident was caught on video, posted to the Students for Justice for Palestine’s Instagram page and reposted on Al Jazeera’s Instagram page. “All you f—ing Muslim terrorists,” the man in the video said.

On Oct. 22, one day after the Morrill Hall takeover, a man in a crowd of a pro-Palestinian protest in front of Coffman Union yelled calling speakers and them terrorists. “Every time a speaker stopped talking, the man yelled terrorists,” Abouhekel said. Abouhekel did not report the incident to University administration or the University of Minnesota Police Department.

University of Minnesota spokesperson Jake Ricker said the safety of students, faculty and staff is the University’s top priority. “Acts of harassment, intimidation or bias — including these two incidents — are entirely unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Ricker said. “We have and will respond promptly and fully to any reports of this behavior on campus.”

Fourth-year student Shahd Abouhekel took the Oct. 17 video. “I feared for my safety and feared this guy would like physically attack us,” Abouhekel said. “He kept saying, “You guys are terrorists, all of you are terrorists, effing Muslims.’” Abouhekel did not report the incident to the University of Minnesota Police Department but said she sent a direct email to Heather McGinnis, senior assistant to the vice president for Student Affairs, reporting the incident.

McGinnis responded to Abouhekel’s email and provided links for reporting bias concerns and additional resources for support.

“I told them the rundown of what happened, and they decided to turn a blind eye,” Abouhekel said.

Abouhekel said the University’s response raises concerns for the Muslim community.“ There has been a rise of Islamophobia in the past year, and especially the past few months,” Abouhekel said. “The University decided to just not bring it to light, and they don’t want to address it, and they’re just ignoring it.”

President of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) Ibraheem Fannoun said he wants to see more accountability from the University. “When they hear about these things, they don’t do anything about it,” Fannoun said. “The administration is making a big show of listening, but not taking action.”

Abouhekel said being called a terrorist is nothing new to her, and she has faced discrimination for wearing the hijab at the University this semester. “I was sitting with my friend and we were studying, and the student comes next to us and throws a crumpled piece of paper at me,” Abouhekel said. “We open it up and it says, ‘Your hijab is a disgrace to women.’”

Fourth-year student and President of the Undergraduate Student Government Rahma Ali said she does not feel safe on campus. “It’s not easy being a Muslim woman,” Ali said. “It’s not easy being a woman, and on top of that, a Black hijabi woman too.”

Ali said the issue goes beyond being called a terrorist. Islamophobia affects both the individual it is targeted towards and the community as a whole, negatively contributing to one’s mental health and identity, she added.

There have been issues with verbal harassment against Muslim women in the University community, especially since the Oct. 7 attacks, Fannoun said.

According to Fannoun, Islamophobia on campus has increased since the Oct. 7 attacks due to a misunderstanding of pro-Palestinian messaging.

“People see it as a show of hatred toward other groups,” Fannoun said. “It’s not accurate, and because of that, we see Islamophobia from other student organizations and even random individuals on campus.” Fannoun said his primary goal as MSA president is to prioritize his community and encourage people to do their research on Islam and Muslims.

“Look for somebody Muslim in your classes,” Fannoun said. “Ask them, and tell them to ask those who know, at the end of the day supporting Palestine is something we believe in and our religion is part of our beliefs.”

Source: The Minnesota Daily