Sahar Aziz - Author, Professor, and Advocate

Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Israel/Palestine in the Context of Current Attacks on Academic and Political Freedom [UCDavis]

Current attacks on academic and political freedom at universities are justified by claims to combat antisemitism at the same time that such attacks disproportionately target Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab students and faculty. Professor Sahar Aziz joined Professor David Myers in conversation examining how these issues are influencing public debate, academic spaces, and political expression at universities across the United States. The event was co-sponsored by the University of California-Davis Department Religious Studies, Department of Jewish Studies, and Department of Middle East and South Asia Studies.… Continue reading

Silencing Dissent: The Islamophobia Industry’s Assault on Academic Freedom [Rutgers]

Anti-Muslim and pro-Israeli Zionist special interest groups are orchestrating hate campaigns against Muslim faculty and academic centers focused on studying Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism. Falsely claiming to combat antisemitism, these hate groups lobby Congress and state legislatures to violate free speech laws and academic freedom principles with the objective to deny Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab faculty and students equal rights to engage in open intellectual inquiry as their Jewish, Christian, and White peers. Professor Sahar Aziz joins other experts to discuss the origins and harms arising from the Islamophobia industry’s… Continue reading

Right to Protest and Resistance: Campus and the Workplace [Wayne State Law]

The Wayne State Journal of Law in Society hosted a symposium exploring how crackdowns on campus speech across the country tested universities’ stated commitments to free speech and academic freedom. Professor Aziz was invited to address the various forms of pressure by anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic special interest groups and elected officials put on university administrators to censor, discipline, and expel anti-war college activists. The responses prompt numerous legal and policy questions on the fragility of free speech rights, especially as they apply to racial minorities.… Continue reading

Past as Prologue: The Struggle for Racial Equality and Free Speech in an Age of Authoritarianism [TCNJ]

In celebration of Black History Month, Professor Sahar Aziz delivered a keynote address at The College of New Jersey entitled Past as Prologue: The Struggle for Racial Equality and Free Speech in an Era of Authoritarianism. In her remarks, Professor Aziz drew parallels between the current crackdowns on Palestinian, Muslim and Arab American anti-war student activists and the experiences of Black civil rights leaders and students in the 1950s and 1960s.… Continue reading

Antisemitism and Palestinian Genocide [Rutgers]

Professor Sahar Aziz hosted Holocaust and genocide scholar, Dr. Raz Segal, for a fireside chat on antisemitism and what Dr. Segal has described as Israel’s genocide in the Gaza strip starting on October 8, 2023. Dr. Raz Segal traces the emergence of antisemitism as a modern phenomenon tied to the nation-state and the late colonial world and its settler outposts. The struggle against antisemitism from the late 19th century, therefore, focused on protecting a group from exclusionary and violent states. Dr. Segal explains how the weaponization of this struggle as… Continue reading

Islamophobia, Race, and the Palestine Taboo [UAlberta]

Across North America, Muslims exercising their political rights in defense of Palestinian human rights face state-sanctioned repression that, in turn, legitimizes private discrimination in workplaces, schools, and public spaces. In this keynote lecture, Distinguished Professor Sahar Aziz examines how the historical legacies of Orientalism explain contemporary Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism against university students, faculty, and activists partaking in a global, anti-genocide social movement. More information about the keynote lecture is available here.… Continue reading

Academic Freedom Under Attack [AAUP-AFT]

The Rutgers University AAUP-AFT hosted a teach-in on the multiple threats to academic freedom since October 2023 targeted at faculty and students who defend the humanity of Palestinians and critique Israel’s military assault on Gaza as a genocidal campaign. Professor Sahar Aziz discussed the systematic harassment and intimidation of Muslim, Arab and Palestinian American professors by self-described pro-Israeli organizations, politicians and university administrators whose political objective is to censor criticism of the state of Israel. Watch Professor Aziz’s remarks here or below.… Continue reading

Voices Under Siege: Free Speech, Islamophobia, and Palestine in Academia [Georgetown]

Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative hosted Professor Sahar Aziz, Professor John L. Esposito, and Professor Robbins on a panel addressing the critical issues of free speech, Islamophobia, and the challenges faced by pro-Palestine voices in American academic institutions. The conversation focused on the current state of academia and its role in promoting or stifling open dialogue on contentious issues. Scholars discussed how pro-Palestine voices are being marginalized and their free speech rights violated within academic settings. Additionally, the conversation touched on how Islamophobia has played a role in the suppression of… Continue reading

The Palestine Taboo: Free Speech, Race and Islamophobia [WashU]

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… Continue reading

Digital Islamophobia: Disinformation, Elections and Islamophobia [MEC]

Professor Sahar Aziz provides her analysis about a recent report by disinformation researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza that revealed a multi-platform global influence campaign promoting anti-Muslim hate and sectarianism. The report highlights the use of disinformation to spread a neoconservative agenda, including xenophobic, anti-immigration, and anti-Muslim propaganda and disinformation. Against the backdrop of the war on Gaza; and a series of consequential elections in Europe and the United States (U.S.), the campaigns fall under broader attempts to shape public opinion using hate speech. It is one of the… Continue reading

Author | Professor | Advocate

Category: Events