AMP signs onto letter protesting institutionalized discrimination against Arab and Muslim students

The American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) today announces it has signed onto a letter, along with several other legal and social justice organizations, asking Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, and the Board of Regents to reconsider the "Statement of Principles" adopted last spring. The coalition says the Statement of Principles does not address the rash of attacks against Muslims and students of color and reasserts its former position that the new policy actually impinges upon the free speech rights of Arab and Muslim students. 

The letter states:

As our communities absorb the shock of Donald Trump’s election and the ascendency of xenophobic, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate to the highest echelon of power, we write to make clear that we represent some of the UC's most vulnerable populations. These are the communities in the crosshairs of Trump’s plans to persecute Muslims and criminalize political speech.1 The Intolerance Statement is an inadequate tool to confront racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism in the current political climate. Moreover, the Intolerance Statement is actively harmful for students who are Arab, Muslim, and/or activists for Palestinian rights.  ...

We also write to alert you, again, to a sustained anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian campaign targeting students and faculty across the UC who have engaged in speech supportive of Palestinian rights. The David Horowitz Freedom Center has repeatedly postered campuses across the UC, defaming individual faculty members, students and student groups by name as “terrorists” and “Jew-haters” for their support for Palestinian rights. The posters deploy anti-Muslim and anti-Arab stereotypes. Notably, the Regents and the Office of the President have been so far silent in response. As the Regents fail to even condemn true harassment against its students and faculty, their professed concern about upholding values of tolerance and inclusion for all vulnerable groups on campus –including Arab, Muslim, and anti-Zionist Jewish students – rings hollow.  

Read the full letter.