The University of Southern California has banned a Muslim student from speaking at a graduation ceremony, citing safety concerns. The valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, says she's being silenced for her pro-Palestinian views.

Los Angeles

The University of Southern California (USC) has prohibited Asna Tabassum, a Muslim student, from delivering a speech at a graduation ceremony. The decision was based on safety concerns, according to the university. Tabassum, who was set to be the valedictorian, has expressed that she feels silenced because of her pro-Palestinian views.



U.S.C. cancels Muslim student's valedictorian speech

For Muslim-American student Asna Tabassum, being chosen as valedictorian for the University of Southern California was cause for celebration. But then USC abruptly banned Tabassum from speaking because of a pressure campaign by pro-Israel activists. She says she feels surprised, disappointed and betrayed. A university is supposed to embrace discourse. It's supposed to embrace ideological inquiry. If you silence one person, you're effectively silencing a lot of people. Campus Jewish groups opposed Tabassum's selection and the campaign to silence her was fired up by social media posts like this one from self-help book author and self-described Jewish activist Samantha Edis. They chose a Muslim anti-Semitic and anti-Israel student. Tabassum's detractors pointed to links from her Instagram page to a site that criticizes Zionism as, quote, a racist settler colonial ideology. I'm not an anti-Semite. And I think any conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is deeply, deeply problematic. USC Provost Andrew Guzman wrote to the university community saying that the decision was all about campus safety, saying the intensity of feelings fueled by social media has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement. The Council of American Islamic Relations called USC's decision cowardly. Now the message is obviously the message is we don't stand by our students, especially if those students happen to be Muslim students, especially if they are students who dare to speak for Palestinian human rights. And the message they sent is that we reward bigots who engage in defamation and threats against the security of a university. Last year, the heads of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania were forced to resign after being grilled by conservative Republicans in a congressional hearing about alleged anti-Semitism on campus. On Wednesday, the president of Columbia University, Neimat Shafik, faces questions from the same congressional committee about anti-war activism, student protests, and freedom of speech. Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera, Los Angeles.

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