The University of Georgia is facing a federal civil rights complaint for alleged anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian discrimination against its own students.
The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Georgia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against UGA. CAIR and SJP allege that UGA violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through “extreme differential treatment of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students, students perceived to be Palestinian and students associated with or advocating for Palestinians,” referencing the arrests and suspensions of nine student protesters on Apr. 29.
The complaint alleges that UGA has enforced its freedom of expression policy in a discriminatory manner. The complaint includes numerous examples, including the suspensions of peaceful protesters without proper notice, locking these protesters out of their on-campus housing, terminating their employment and even barring them from campus and from their own graduations. The punishment was harsher than those handed out to other protesters who were found to have violated the university code of conduct in recent years. One student from a European background was reprimanded and ordered to write a two-page paper for occupying a classroom to protest the Georgia Board of Regents’ immigration policies.
CAIR-Georgia described how students associated with SJP have been the target of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic harassment on campus that has escalated since the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.
“UGA’s targeted, discriminatory investigation of students and student organizations that are made up of mostly Palestinians, Arab or Muslim members, perceived to be Palestinian, affiliated with, or advocating in support of Palestinians amounts to a McCarthyist campaign to punish students for their identity and/or expressive activity, effectively shunning them from the UGA campus community,” the complaint stated.
CAIR-Georgia also said that “UGA did not take meaningful steps to end the harassment, prevent it from occurring or remedy its effects.”
Instead, the group claims that “UGA reinforced the hostile anti-Palestinian environment” on campus. For example, UGA President Jere Morehead issued a statement of support for Jewish students after the terror attack on Oct. 7, but he has not done the same for Palestinian students.
“[Morehead has] failed to acknowledge the impact that the ongoing genocide of Palestinians has on students of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim identity. Instead, he characterized campus demonstrations in support of Palestinian liberation as politically opportunistic and hateful,” according to the complaint.
CAIR-Georgia also said that UGA’s Israel Fest has, for the past two years, been held on Eid, a holy day for Muslims that celebrates the end of Ramadan. It described the scheduling of this festival, which includes activities that celebrate the Israeli Defense Forces, as “deeply offensive” and “Islamophobic.”
SJP members have said that UGA administrators refused to meet with them and ignored concerns about their physical safety. These complaints were echoed by Zeena Mohamed, a student organizer with SJP and one of the “UGA 6” who contested their suspensions but lost their appeals.
“As an Arab and Muslim student at UGA, I have faced relentless doxing, threats and harassment both online and on campus,” Mohamed said in a news release. “I’ve been subjected to blatant racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, and every time I sought support from the university, UGA not only failed to respond, but actively used its institutional power to target and profile myself and other Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students.”
CAIR-Georgia, together with SJP and attorneys Sarah Gerwig and Samantha Hamilton, called on the U.S. Department of Education to investigate UGA’s “failure” to protect these students from doxing and other threats and to “ensure UGA is held accountable for its unequal treatment of these students.”
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