Event description from a 09/17 email from Dean of Students John McKnight:
Join us for in-depth exploration of how 9/11 has reshaped U.S. domestic and foreign policy over the past 23 years. Through an overview of key policies across four presidential administrations, Amena Ghaffar-Kucher will examine the enduring impacts of the 9/11 wars, evolving surveillance strategies, and shifting U.S. priorities in the Middle East. By connecting these policies to broader trends in counterterrorism and security, this event highlights the lasting influence of 9/11 on American governance and global power.

Although this seeming omission was the source of some concern among students, Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher did not shy away from the topics of Islamophobia, in fact making it a focal point of her presentation on U.S. foreign policy and its subsequent discussion, and included additional mentions regarding anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiments.

Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher began her presentation with a timeline of significant events between 9/11 and today in order to demonstrate its lasting impact. She made it clear in her presentation that structural Islamophobia in the United States is not solely tied to 9/11, but rather is part of perennial fears of a greater “Islamic peril.” She emphasized the far-reaching dangers of Islamophobia, asserting that it affects not solely Muslims, but anyone perceived to be Muslim. This segued into an analysis of three distinct—yet often overlapping—forms of bigotry: Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, and anti-Palestinian racism. Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher explained that Anti-Arab racism promotes stereotypes of Arabs as backwards and violent, and anti-Palestinian racism depicts them as terrorists when they resist occupation by Western powers. Anti-Palestinian racism, she clarified, also extends to those who support Palestine irrespective of race, religion, or ethnicity. She explained that these prejudicial attitudes are among the reasons why so many Americans support Ukraine but not Palestine, explaining that through a prejudice-warped lens, the 42,000+ Palestinian civilian casualties “are not worthy of our tears.”

Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher attributed the “perpetual war on terror” to these same attitudes. She explained that Islamophobia has been used to justify America’s imperialist actions during the war on terror under every American president since 9/11. Presidents Bush and Obama both acknowledged that terrorists are not representative of Muslims altogether—a sentiment not shared by President Trump—yet escalated counterterrorism measures that primarily impacted Muslim civilians. Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher wrapped up her presentation by discussing the popular narrative surrounding Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians. She stated that the media contributes to these narratives by reinforcing sensationalized stereotypes of Muslims that frame them as perpetual suspects. This, she elaborated, has historically shaped public perceptions of Muslims in a negative fashion. She concluded by asserting that this history remains relevant today, particularly with the looming presidential election, and encouraged students to educate themselves with resources like “Teaching Beyond September 11th” in order to rectify the failure of many schools to properly teach these issues.

Transitioning the event into the Q&A portion, Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher began with a question for the audience, asking if anything in the presentation had surprised them. One student in attendance responded, expressing surprise that many Americans view 9/11 as a unifying force, explaining that in his and his parents’ experience the opposite was true. Several of the questions asked by the audience centered around the impact of presidential rhetoric in relation to presidential actions. Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher elucidated that while little distinguished the counterterrorism policies of Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden, the “overt Islamophobia” in Trump’s rhetoric made him far more dangerous and legitimized hate crimes and harassment. When a question shifted the discussion towards the pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses, Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher shared her own anxieties about giving this presentation, anxieties developed as a result of rampant anti-Palestinian sentiment on campuses. She concluded the Q&A section by sharing a personal story about her son’s teacher intended to demonstrate the normalization of Islamophobia in the United States.

Reached for comment after the event, Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher responded to questions regarding the impacts of bigotry. She provided insight on how the prejudicial trifecta of Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, and anti-Palestinian racism have combined to influence Western perspectives on Palestine and Israel. “Negative views of both Arabs and Muslims stretch back hundreds of years, and the events of 1948 further vilified Arabs,” she explained, claiming that demonizing Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians “has helped justify policies and attitudes that dehumanize Palestinians and legitimize occupation,” something particularly evident in American foreign policy. She believes some who hold such prejudices are acting out of ignorance, which in turn is derived from an intentional “suppression of [Palestinian] history.” When asked about Islamophobia, anti-Arab sentiment, and anti-Palestinian sentiment on college campuses, Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher immediately pointed out that these prejudices are “not new on U.S. campuses.” She cited the fact that “many university leaders refused to name Palestine in their messages after October 7” as an example of both these prejudices and the aforementioned ignorance that fuels these beliefs, criticizing these administrators’ unwillingness to question why they refuse to acknowledge Palestine, adding that “willful ignorance has been incredibly harmful.” Explaining that such prejudice manifests in many ways, she highlighted the particular prominence of anti-Palestinian racism in the past year, lamenting “the backlash against student activism and civil disobedience—acts that are often celebrated in history.” She added that these three forms of prejudice “often intersect, leading to a compounded effect of discrimination.”

One cause for hope, however, is in college students’ efforts to combat these prejudices. Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher highlighted how students “are creating inclusive spaces for dialogue, supporting one another, and actively challenging harmful stereotypes.” She praised the students’ initiative in educating themselves and one another, as well as their coalition-building across groups. In particular, she expressed appreciation of the “Muslim-Jewish solidarity we’ve seen over the past year,” that challenges “all forms of oppression, including Islamophobia and antisemitism.” A major issue, she elaborated, “lies with our campus leaders…the Palestinian exception to free speech is a dark stain on our history, and history books will not look kindly on these leaders,” adding that they must confront their prejudices and recognize their complicity “in the various forms of oppression that exist on college campuses, whether that is anti-Palestinian sentiment, antisemitism, anti-Blackness, or Islamophobia.”

Source: Haverford’s Independent Student Newspaper

New York City will offer new curriculum materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia in its public schools and train principals and teachers on how to have difficult conversations about politically charged issues, officials said on Monday in response to criticism that the system has done too little to address the Israel-Hamas war.

In higher education, colleges like Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania have faced a backlash over their responses to the war. A speech announcing the new effort by the city’s schools chancellor, David C. Banks, illustrated how difficult it has been for K-12 leaders to stay out of the fray.

“The way through this moment is not to malign our students or to impose our own ideologies on them — or to bury our heads in the sand,” Mr. Banks said on Monday. “We must educate our students, and sometimes our staff.”

He added: “We cannot and will not have schools where students feel like they can do whatever they want without accountability for their actions.”

The chancellor’s message was among the most direct acknowledgments of continued fallout over the war from a major American public school district. It came two months after a raucous demonstration at Hillcrest High School in Queens — where officials said a pro-Israel teacher was targeted — became a major flashpoint for some Jewish families, who argued the system had not done enough to quell bias in schools.

Since October, local conflicts in New York and other districts have often erupted into animated controversies on the national stage. A number of parent leaders and educators who have vocally supported Palestinians have encountered online harassment. And this month, a Brooklyn grade school faced outrage after a resurfaced social media post showed a classroom map that did not include Israel but called the region Palestine.

On Monday, Mr. Banks said all middle and high school principals would receive mandatory training in March on “navigating difficult conversations” and would then be asked to bring the training to their school staff members.

In addition to expanding teaching materials on antisemitism and Islamophobia, he said the Education Department would offer anti-discrimination workshops to parent leaders. And the chancellor said he would also convene an “interfaith advisory council” to help shape his response.

Mr. Banks was seeking to respond to criticisms, but also said his goal was to provide a more uniform plan for tackling the impact of the war in Gaza in a system that is particularly diverse, with tens of thousands of Jewish, Muslim and Arab students.

New York City’s public schools, like many districts and universities, are under a federal civil rights investigation into reports of discrimination, and Mr. Banks said the system has been fast-tracking its own inquiries into complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Source: The New York Times

Professor Ayoub spearheaded the establishment of Imam Ali Chair for Shia Studies and Dialogue Among Islamic Schools of Thought. This is the first chair for Shia studies in North America, a lasting legacy for Dr. Ayoub’s long and successful career.

Dr. Ayoub was born in a devout Muslim family in 1935 at Ain Qana (South Lebanon), a small town with an integrated religious population. His upbringing was socially integrated with events and people from both the Islamic and Christian religious faiths. Mahmoud Ayoub attended a British Presbyterian missionary school for the blind as a child.

He received his education at the American University of Beirut (BA, Philosophy, 1964), the University of Pennsylvania (M.A., Religious Thought, 1966), and Harvard University (Ph.D., History of Religion, 1975).

His doctoral dissertation, Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of Ashura’ in Twelver Shiism in the Middle Ages turned into a book that still stands as a classic in the field.

From 1988 to 2008, Dr. Ayoub was a Professor and Director of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. Over his career, he also taught at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, San Diego State University, the University of Toronto, and McGill University, among others.

During the early 1990s, he supervised a group project to translate Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, a monumental contemporary commentary on the Qurʾān by the late Mohammad-Hossein Ṭabāṭabāʾī from Arabic into English. Although that project was never finished, it gave birth to Dr. Ayoub’s two-volume commentary on the early sūras of the Qurʾān.

In 1998, Dr. Ayoub helped devise and launch a graduate M.A. level program in Muslim-Christian relations and comparative religion for the Centre for Christian-Muslim Studies, University of Balamand, Lebanon.

After decades of working in leading universities nationwide, Professor Ayoub found a welcoming home at the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary — now Hartford International University for Religion and Peace.  Professor Ayoub and his wife, Linda Clark lived on campus, attended educational events where Dr. Ayoub often offered insightful commentary, and frequently welcomed students, alumni, faculty, and staff into their home.

Throughout his academic career, Professor Ayoub has received distinguished awards and scholarships, both for his achievements and research. Among others, he was a recipient of the Kent Doctoral Fellowship and the Canada Council Fellowship. In 1994-1995, he participated in the Fulbright Exchange of Scholars program for Malaysia. In the Spring-Summer of 2000, he undertook a research project on Christian-Muslim relations in Egypt and Lebanon, also on a Fulbright scholarship.

Published works: 

• Redemptive Suffering in Islam (1978)
• The Qur’an and Its Interpreters – Volume I (1984)
• The Qur’an and Its Interpreters – Volume II (1992)
• Islam: Faith and History (2005)
• A Muslim View of Christianity: Essays On Dialogue (2007)
• The Crisis of Muslim History: Religion and Politics in Early Islam (2014)
• Dirasat fi al-‘Alaqat al-Masihiyyah al-Islamiyyah in Arabic

In addition, his articles have appeared in books and journals such as:

• The Muslim World, Journal of the American Oriental Society
• Bulletin of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies (Tokyo)
• Islamochristiana (Rome, Italy).

Dr. Ayoub’s authority in both the scholarship and comparative study of Islam and Muslim-Christian relations, as well as interreligious dialogue, is demonstrated by the national and international recognition he has received worlwide.

At the Islamic Research and Information Center, we would like to express our sincere condolences to the Islamic society as a whole and, in particular, to Dr. Ayoub’s family, friends and academic associates on the sorrowful loss of Professor Mahmoud Ayoub and ask Allah, Almighty for extending His grace and blessings to his soul.