The Palestine Taboo: Race, Islamophobia, and Free Speech

The true test of a democracy is the extent to which civil rights in law are enforced in practice for the most vulnerable groups in society. As members of Congress demand mass arrest and expulsion of college students exercising their free speech right to dissent against U.S. foreign policy in Gaza and the West Bank, the racial fault lines in American democracy are laid bare. Similarly, university presidents are buckling to external political pressure to violate academic freedom of Muslim and Arab faculty targeted by external anti-Muslim and pro-Israeli groups and politicians. In this timely lecture, Distinguished Law Professor Sahar Aziz examines how Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism intersect to produce systematic assaults on the civil rights of racialized communities.

Professor Sahar Aziz has been a leading scholarly voice around freedom of speech and religion on college campuses and in American public life. She is Distinguished Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers University, and she is Director of the Center for Security, Race, and Rights. Her most recent book is The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

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