We are the undersigned Muslim community-serving mosques and community organizations, reaching out to you with a sense of urgency to request that you show moral leadership and lead your institution’s response to pro-Palestinian student activism on your campus with care and respect.
We serve your students as their house of worship, offer them pastoral services, and have parents who have children at your institutions who are concerned about their well-being and safety.
As faith leaders and conscientious citizens, over the last 6 months we have heard from students advocating for Palestine how they felt invisible, undervalued and not supported by our region’s educational institutions. We are concerned that ill-intentioned groups have been consistently doxxing our students and faculty members, cynically distracting from their activism by unfounded accusations, and threatening their safety.
We are saddened to witness that many of our area colleges and school districts have failed to properly support these students against anti-Muslim hate and such attacks on their integrity and character. As we watch with concern how some college campuses across the nation have been made unsafe for students advocating for Palestine, we request that you and your administration refrain from seeing pro-Palestinian activism as a problem that needs to be targeted.
Furthermore, we are deeply concerned that as students wrap up their semesters in a high stress atmosphere, many students in our area are being threatened with disciplinary action, negatively impacting their mental health.
We believe colleges should refrain from weaponizing student code of conduct against student activism — suppressing their First Amendment rights and problematizing their engagement in the best traditions of civil disobedience that is entrenched in this nation’s history would be a mistake of historic magnitude.
As we reiterate our zero tolerance against anti-Muslim hate, antisemitism, and any form of discrimination, regardless of race or religion, we respect students’ commitment to holding the American educational systems accountable for their complicity in systems of violence, including their financial role in aiding the violence against Gaza.
The historically entrenched and ever-growing Muslim community in our region expects our area educational institutions to fully respect students who are advocating for peace and humanity as we witness atrocities in Palestine day in and day out, and as our federal and local elected leaders fail to act in line with moral values to address one of the most horrific episodes in world history.
Threats of disciplinary action, securitizing campuses with police presence and violence, and tolerating doxxing and harassment of our students is unacceptable.
As a leader of a respected educational institution, we ask that you show moral leadership by supporting these students’ freedom of expression and the right to organize.
Our communities will continue to support these students and their courageous voices.
Regards,
- 3 Puerto Rican Imams
- Al Jamia Masjid of Philadelphia
- Alhidaya Islamic Center
- Amana Complex
- Amana Foundation
- CAIR PA
- CAIR-Philadelphia
- Center City Mosque – Philadelphia
- Islamic Society of Delaware
- Khair Community Center
- Majlis Ash-Shura of the Delaware Valley
- Masjid Al-Falah Philadelphia (Indonesian Community)
- Masjid Al-Wasatiyah
- Masjid Ar Rahman
- Masjidullah
- Muslim Life at Penn
- Muslim Society of Delaware Valley
- Norristown Islamic Society
- PA Muslims & Allies Phonebank for Palestine
- Philastine Relief Fund
- Quba Institute
- The Foundation for Islamic Education
- The Philadelphia Masjid, Inc.
- Zubaida Foundation
(Above list of signatories will be updated periodically.)