Sahar Aziz - Author, Professor, and Advocate

Amid Gaza Protests, Universities are Cracking Down on a Celebrated Protest Tactic: Sit-Ins [The Intercept]

On October 25, hundreds of people participated in a sit-in at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, calling on school administrators to cut ties with weapons manufacturers involved in Israel’s occupation of Palestine. It was part of a wave of activism around Israel’s siege of Gaza on university campuses around the country, and it ended in increasingly typical fashion: Campus police arrested 57 of the demonstrators for trespassing because they remained in the university’s Whitmore Administration Building after it had closed at 6 p.m. The incident at Amherst is reflective of… Continue reading

Unconditional Supporters of Israel Know the Facts Are Not on Their Side [Jacobin]

On Saturday, November 4, some three hundred thousand people marched in Washington, DC, in solidarity with Palestinians. It was the largest pro-Palestine march in US history, a heartening sign that the McCarthyite backlash to solidarity with Palestinians in the face of Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip has not accomplished its aims. Rather than cowing critics of Israel, which has killed more than twenty-two thousand Palestinians in Gaza, domestic repression has fueled commitment, a determination among many not to sit idly by as an entire people are slaughtered.… Continue reading

Why pro-Palestinian demonstrations are popping up on college campuses [Scripps]

“We’ve seen quite a bit of sympathy for Palestinian civilians,” said Sahar Aziz, a law school professor and director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University. “They recognize that Palestinians have grievances. Many of these young people don’t rely on formal educational institutions for information. And this is one of those topics where they rely heavily on things that are on the internet and that are on social media.” Aziz also wrote the book “The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom.” Social media, combined with… Continue reading

‘Systematically erased’: Middle Eastern and North African women and LGBTQ+ Americans don’t see themselves in U.S. data [the19th]

There is no exact definition of MENA by a group like the United Nations, but it generally includes countries as far north as Turkey that border the Mediterranean Sea. While many religions and ethnicities are represented in this region, shared Arab ancestry or Islamic identity is sometimes used as a way to group countries over strict geographic boundaries. “But these are subjective lines that are gone, and they are certainly a result of colonial preferences,” said Sahar Aziz, professor of law at Rutgers University and author of “The Racial … Continue reading

NJ Muslim Mayor Who Was Denied White House Entry [Gothamist]

A Muslim mayor in New Jersey is calling for an end to the U.S. government’s terror watch lists after he was barred from a celebration at the White House. Mohamed Khairullah — in his fifth term as Prospect Park’s mayor, and first elected to the borough’s council in 2001 — was on his way to an Eid al-Fitr celebration at the White House on Monday when he was told the Secret Service would not allow him to attend. Khairullah, a well-known Muslim leader in New Jersey, said at a Tuesday… Continue reading

Why the 2022 Election was Historic for Muslim Women’s Representation [The 19th]

A record number of Muslim women ran for office in 2022 — and they won. The election cycle made history with 153 Muslim candidates on the general ballot, per a report released by Jetpac Resource Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Sixty-one percent of Muslim women candidates won, compared with 56 percent of Muslim men. Mauree Turner, the only nonbinary Muslim in the midterm elections, won a second term in the Oklahoma legislature. It’s a notable shift in a country with a deep history of Islamophobia. Sahar Aziz, professor… Continue reading

Teacher at Center of Hijab Uproar Sues Olympic Medalist for Defamation [New York Times]

A seconds-long interaction in a New Jersey classroom unleashed a national firestorm last October as it ricocheted across social media platforms. A 7-year-old girl had come home from school upset, telling her mother that her teacher in Maplewood, N.J., had tried to pull off the hijab the girl wears as an observant Muslim. Her mother recounted the story on Facebook, and Ibtihaj Muhammad, an Olympic medalist who fences in a hijab, immediately denounced it as abuse in an Instagram post that went viral. By the next day, Gov. Philip D.… Continue reading

She was Fired for Being Publicly Pro-Palestinian [Philadelphia Inquirer]

“This particular case is going to the heart of the American fundamental right to politically dissent, to express your beliefs,” said Sahar Aziz, a Rutgers Law professor and author of The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom. “And when you belong to a group that’s not afforded those beliefs at equal levels as everyone else, that’s evidence of discrimination against that group — but also a threat to those American values.” Flip the situation to a member of any other marginalized group speaking in support of human rights… Continue reading

France burkini ban challenged in country’s top court [The Independent]

France’s top court is set to deliver a ruling on the controversial burkini ban after hearing an appeal by the city of Grenoble to allow the bathing suit in public pools. Grenoble formally allowed women to wear the full-length swimwear in state pools in May, 10 years after a local ban on the burkini was introduced in several French cities. But not without a grim warning from the interior minister that he would work to block the move. The decision, said minister Gérald Darmanin, was an “unacceptable community provocation,… Continue reading

Where Migrants Suffered Matters at the U.S.-Mexico Border [TIME]

On March 11, as the number of Ukrainians arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border began to tick up, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a special memo advising border officials that they could, on a case-by-case basis, offer that particular group special treatment. Unlike tens of thousands of other migrants, fleeing violence in other countries, border guards could exempt Ukrainians from the public health order, Title 42. The exemption, which was first reported by CBS News, was cheered by immigrant advocates and lawmakers. But many also pointed… Continue reading

Author | Professor | Advocate

Category: Press Mentions