The Council on American-Islamic Relations has designated University of California, Berkeley a “hostile campus” due to the “systematic suppression of anti-genocide speech,” the organization announced.
CAIR cited a “long and escalating pattern of targeting Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and allied students and faculty who speak out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza” as reason for the designation.
Specifically, the organization pointed to UC Berkeley’s 2016 suspension of a course titled “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis” a week after the course began, the 2024 arrest of community members — including one student — following their protest for Palestinian rights, and a 2024 update to free speech policies shortly after students began organizing Gaza solidarity encampments.
A 2024 CAIR-California report found that 85% of Muslim students at UC Berkeley experienced Islamophobic harassment, the highest percentage among all 87 campuses surveyed in the report.
“UC Berkeley built its reputation on free speech, but it has clearly made a discriminatory exception when it comes to speaking up about Palestine,” CAIR research and advocacy specialist Maryam Hasan said in a news release. “University leaders who discipline students for demanding human rights in Gaza are not only cowardly but are also complicit in injustice.”
“University leaders who discipline students for demanding human rights in Gaza are not only cowardly but are also complicit in injustice.”
Maryam Hasan, CAIR research and advocacy specialist
CAIR is the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. It aims to enhance understandings of Islam and empower American Muslims.
UC Berkeley joins a list of 28 other U.S. universities CAIR designated as “hostile campuses,” including two other UC campuses: University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Irvine.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said that the university is working closely with members of the campus’s Advisory Committee on Muslim and Palestinian Student Life and Campus Experience to better understand and address Muslim and Palestinian communities’ needs and interests.
“UC Berkeley has an unwavering commitment to free speech, and to effectively confronting harassment and discrimination of every sort,” Mogulof said. “The campus is dedicated to supporting a community where all can thrive and feel a true sense of belonging without regard for their identities, origins, or beliefs.”
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