CAIR-NY, CAIR Condemn Columbia U's Crackdown on Peaceful Anti-Genocide Student Protesters
(NEW YORK, NY, 5/8/2025) - The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), a leading Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned Columbia University for inviting the NYPD onto its campus to target and arrest over 75 peaceful anti-genocide student protesters.
The Trump administration is now targeting the free speech rights of those protesters.
The protest took place yesterday, May 7, 2025, on the university’s second floor of Butler Library, renamed “Basel Al-Araj Popular University” by the activists. Basel Al-Araj was a Palestinian writer and activist who was killed by Israeli police near Bethlehem in 2017.
Protesters are seen sitting peacefully in the library when campus police allegedly entered the area and blocked any means of exit despite students yelling “let us out” over the sound of an active fire alarm. The NYPD’s Strategic Response Group entered the scene after reportedly being invited by the University and conducted mass arrests.
The protest lasted approximately five hours, with protesters demanding Columbia University’s divestment of its $14.8 billion endowment from companies that profit from the Israeli genocide of Palestine. The demonstrators also denounced the ongoing violence against Palestinians and called for an end to what they referred to as apartheid policies.
The arrests have brought heightened scrutiny by the federal government as they are currently reviewing the Visas of the protesters that attended yesterday’s protest.
SEE: Arrests made after protesters occupy Columbia University library
SEE: Dozens of Student Protesters arrested in Pro-Palestinian Protest at Columbia University
SEE: Instagram Video
CAIR-NY's Executive Director, Afaf Nasher, Esq. said:
"Suppressing peaceful protests, like sit-ins at the library aimed at ending complicity in the ongoing massacres of Palestinians, is immoral and flaunts the erosion of civil liberties in our country. Students should not have to risk their livelihoods to speak out against injustice.
"Warping the demand to end a genocide into accusations of antisemitism and safety threats is the real danger. We see this clearly with our government’s use of university-provided student files to aid its hostile attack against legal residents. Universities must stop betraying their students with arrests, academic sanctions, and information sharing with government agencies."
In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said:
"From the Civil Rights Movement to protests against Vietnam War to anti-apartheid demonstrations, peaceful civil disobedience like the latest sit-in at Columbia have been an important part of American history, especially on college campuses.
"By quickly calling in the NYPD to round up students holding a peaceful sit-in, Columbia University just showed that it has not learned anything from the anti-genocide protests it brutally dispersed last school year or the anti-Vietnam and anti-racism protests that it dispersed on campus fifty years ago.
"It is long past time for Columbia University to respectfully engage with peacefully protesting students instead of calling in the police to brutalize them."
CAIR-NY, along with CAIR National and the law firm of Dratel & Lewis, filed for a temporary restraining order and sued four new defendants in its efforts to protect Columbia students, including Mahmoud Khalil, from further violations of students’ constitutional rights. The lawsuit now alleges that federal agencies, at the direction of the President, have participated in efforts to violate the students’ First Amendment rights.
CAIR-NY continues to call on Columbia University to stop escalating situations with the NYPD Strategic Response Group and drop all disciplinary actions.
SEE: CAIR-NY Condemns Columbia University, NYPD Actions against Peaceful Protesters
SEE: CAIR-NY Calls on New York City Council to Disband the NYPD SRG, Invest in Community Programs Instead
CAIR launched its “Unhostile Campus Campaign” aimed at fostering a campus environment in which Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other students, faculty, and staff opposing the genocide in Gaza enjoy free speech and academic freedom and are not subjected to state force or university discipline due to their viewpoints.
CAIR previously designated Columbia as an institution of particular concern due to reported incidents, policies, and discriminatory practices targeting Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other individuals opposing the occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
Other institutions of particular concern may be found at: https://islamophobia.org/category/hostile-campuses/
If you have experienced discrimination or violence during an arrest at a protest, please contact CAIR-NY by filling out an incident report on our website (LINK).
CAIR-NY's mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR-NY es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: Afaf Nasher, CAIR-NY Executive Director, ANasher@cair.com; CAIR-NY Communications Team, comms@ny.cair.com; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com