The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has criticized President Donald Trump’s executive order directing officials to investigate incidents of “anti-Semitic harassment and violence” on college campuses, as the group says it threatens “Free speech.” The group’s condemnation comes despite the fact that just one month ago they celebrated the postponing of a lecture set to be given by an Israeli military doctor.
Upon taking office, Trump signed two major executive orders aimed at combatting the rise of anti-Israel and anti-semitic protests on college campuses across the country. The first executive order was part of a campaign promise to investigate and potentially deport students on visas who support terrorist groups or express “hostile attitudes toward [American] citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.”
Alongside the visa revocation measure, Trump also issued an order to investigate incidents of anti-semitism on campuses. The administration argued that Jewish students have been subjected to “denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms; and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault.” The order calls on government agencies to document these incidents and propose legal strategies to counter them.
CAIR denounced this order in a statement, calling it “dishonest.”
“Like the college students who once protested segregation, the Vietnam war, and apartheid South Africa, the diverse collection of college students who protested against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza deserve our country’s thanks,” the group said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s attempt to smear the many Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian and other college students who protested the Israeli government’s genocide in overwhelmingly peaceful ways represents a dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable attack on both free speech and the humanity of Palestinians, all for the sake of a foreign government.”
Despite its claims that the Trump administration is attacking free speech, CAIR, which refers to itself as “America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization,” has previously taken action against pro-Israel events on college campuses.
According to a report by the Daily Caller, last month CAIR celebrated the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s decision to postpone a lecture by an Israeli military doctor after its advocacy campaign. The group bragged that its “letter campaign” against the event “led to over 6,000 emails delivered in a matter of hours to the University’s Surgery Department Chair and Dean urging them to rescind this speaker invitation.”
CAIR’s Maryland chapter stated, “Providing a platform to a representative of the Israeli Defense Forces – an entity directly responsible for the ongoing genocide and targeting of healthcare workers in Gaza – to speak on the topic of saving lives is egregious and fundamentally at odds with the principles of medical ethics and human rights.”
The organization also condemned Harvard University’s newly implemented standards for identifying anti-Semitism, arguing they threaten “academic freedoms.”
