human rights Archives

Islamophobia, Antisemitism and Palestine [Cornell]

Sahar Aziz, Distinguished Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers University Law School, examines the erroneous zero-sum discursive frames, most acutely in foreign policy debates, that pits Muslims and Jews as competitors, rather than allies, in defending civil and human rights. This talk was the third in the series “Antisemitism and Islamophobia Examined” that brought four leading academics to Cornell University in the Spring 2024 semester to explore the history of these forms of prejudice, examine the impact on Jews and Muslims in America today, and map… Continue reading

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

Sure, the US cares about human rights — when it benefits us [The Hill]

President Biden’s red-carpet treatment of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is another nail in the coffin of U.S. human rights policy. Such willful blindness to India’s poor human rights record extends to the Middle East. Indeed, human rights advocates have long criticized the U.S. government for its selective, politicized enforcement of human rights laws and policies in furtherance of one goal: to remain the sole “Great Power” in the Middle East and North Africa. U.S. hegemony in the region has five main goals: first, to retain control over the distribution and… Continue reading

State-Sponsored Transnational Repression: A Conversation with the FBI [Princeton]

Professor Sahar Aziz participated on a panel at Princeton University that explores the causes and consequences of state sponsored transnational repression. Her remarks begin at minute 44.… 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

Impact of Global Competition on Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East [Arab Center]

Professor Sahar Aziz contributed her expertise on human rights in the Middle East during the Arab Center’s sixth annual conference on the panel Competition on Democracy and Human Rights in the Middle East. The conference addressed developments in US policy with regard to human rights and democracy, the role of Russia and China in empowering totalitarian regimes and representing a new axis of authoritarianism, the impact of US disengagement and growing Russian and Chinese power projections on human rights, the role of international mechanisms like UN resolutions and Human… Continue reading

Kleh Lecture on Global Islamophobia [Boston University School of Law]

Myriad political, social, and economic contexts contribute toward Islamophobia and consequent normalization of anti-Muslim racism in various parts of the world. Simultaneous to the rise in global Islamophobia is the rise of right-wing populism, especially in Western nations. Whether it is in the form of right-wing political parties in Europe, Trumpism in the United States, concentration camps for Uighurs in China, the genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar, or the Hindutva movement in India, Muslims are perceived by the state and the public as security, political, or economic threats. The widespread scapegoating of… Continue reading

The Egyptian Revolution [UTexas]

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 captivated the imagination of pro-democracy activists worldwide and turned the name of Cairo’s Tahrir Square into a buzzword for freedom and popular resistance. However, since the February 11, 2011 deposition of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s road to democracy has been marred by two military coups, a decrease in government transparency, and the erratic reign of a democratically elected president-turned-authoritarian who wasn’t even his own party’s first choice nominee for office. Our guest, Professor Sahar Aziz, helps us understand the political earthquakes in Egypt’s bumpy transition from… Continue reading

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Tag: human rights