Statement Condemning CUNY’s Rampant anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian Racism
We, the undersigned organizations, unequivocally condemn the CUNY administration’s outrageous and systemic repression of Muslim students and Palestinian activism on campus, including the most recent singling out of Muslim student leaders for repression and arrest at the City College of New York (CCNY) at a protest to condemn the collaboration between Governor Hochul and CUNY in suppressing free speech and targeting activists who speak out against human rights violations.
On February 27, 2025, the day before the start of Ramadan, the NYPD – in collaboration with the City College of New York (CCNY) – arrested three Muslim student leaders during a protest against Governor Kathy Hochul’s visit to campus. Hochul was scheduled to make a workforce development announcement at CCNY’s Shepherd Hall. This appearance was met with planned protests by What’s your students and community members opposing her administration’s recent directive to remove a Palestinian studies job posting at CUNY Hunter College, a move widely criticized as an affront to academic freedom and an act of anti-Palestinian bias. The event was abruptly canceled in response to anticipated protests.
This state-backed repression was entirely predictable given Hochul’s open hostility towards students and workers educating about Palestine and speaking out against CUNY’s complicity in the genocide. It is part of a broader attack that builds on the politically motivated Lippman investigation launched by Hochul last year in response to growing solidarity with Palestine at CUNY. CUNY’s brutal response to protests of Hochul’s blatant anti-Palestinian stance is emblematic of the racism that has long plagued CUNY leadership’s treatment of Palestinian and Muslim students.
These most recent arrests of students is part of a long history of zionist repression and institutional Islamophobia at CUNY, which has resulted in the surveillance, harassment, and criminalization of Muslim and pro-Palestine students for years.
CUNY and NYPD’s Anti-Muslim Discrimination and Racially Targeted Arrests
The fact that all three arrested students are muslim students is no coincidence. This is deliberate political repression and targeted intimidation of Muslim students—on the day before Ramadan, no less. CUNY has repeatedly demonstrated that it has no regard for its Muslim student population beyond empty gestures like its long-overdue recognition of Eid. These overtures are meaningless when the CUNY administration’s actual treatment of Muslim students includes constant surveillance, harassment, violent arrests, and forcible exclusion and removal from their own campuses.
CCNY security further exposed its anti-Muslim discrimination by denying entrance to hijab-wearing students, despite their possession of valid student identification. Security also denied entry to students wearing keffiyehs; meanwhile, students who were not visibly Muslim or wearing keffiyehs were allowed to enter freely, with some not even being asked for ID. This flagrant discrimination proves that CUNY’s gestures toward its Muslim student body are tokenistic at best, meant to act as a cover for CUNY’s Islamophobic and racist harassment, exclusion, and criminalization.
CUNY’s Longstanding Complicity in Anti-Muslim Repression
CUNY has a long history of colluding with state violence against its Muslim students and faculty organizing in solidarity with Palestine. For years, the university allowed the NYPD to conduct surveillance on Muslim student organizations, infiltrating their spaces under the guise of “counterterrorism.” The NYPD deployed undercover officers at Baruch and Brooklyn Colleges, and used police in its Intelligence Division Cyber Unit to monitor students at Brooklyn and Queens Colleges. More recently, administration colluded with the NYPD – including the notorious Strategic Response Group (SRG) – to brutally raid the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment at CCNY with close to 200 arrests. Instead of investigating rampant anti-muslim repression on campus, universities like Queens College have even investigated the Muslim Student Association student organization instead. Now, CUNY is actively working with the same police force to arrest and intimidate Muslim students on campus for engaging in peaceful protest. This latest incident is part of a larger pattern of institutionalized Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian repression that CUNY refuses to acknowledge, let alone rectify.
CUNY’s Hypocrisy: The Muslim Population It Profits From, and the One It Represses
Islam is the third most practiced religion in New York City, which has the largest Muslim population of any city in the United States. Muslim students make up a significant portion of CUNY’s student body, yet they are consistently treated as second-class students whose rights and safety are disregarded at will. Even when CUNY finally agreed to recognize Eid — years after NYC public schools had already done so — it was only after immense pressure from students. It is clear that while CUNY profits off the tuition dollars and labor of its Muslim student population, it has no problem criminalizing and silencing them when they dare to speak out.
Demands for Immediate Action
We refuse to allow CUNY’s violent repression of Muslim and pro-Palestine students to go unanswered. We demand:
- A Public Apology and Acknowledgment of Wrongdoing from CUNY – CUNY must issue a public statement condemning the targeted arrests of Muslim students and the racial profiling of hijab-wearing students at CCNY.
- An End to CUNY’s Collaboration with the NYPD Against Campus Organizers – CUNY must immediately sever all ties with the NYPD’s SRG and the entire police force notorious for suppressing campus activism.
- Protection for Palestine Organizing at CUNY – CUNY must ensure that pro-Palestine student groups are not subjected to targeted repression, harassment, or administrative retaliation and that information regarding student campus organizing is not handed over to any federal agencies.
- An Independent Investigation into CUNY’s Islamophobic and Zionist Repression – There must be a full, public investigation into the systemic discrimination against Muslim and pro-Palestine students and academic workers, with clear and enforceable measures to prevent further repression and suppression of freedom of assembly and speech on campuses.
- Guaranteed Accommodations and Protections for Muslim Students – CUNY must enact policies ensuring that Muslim students are not forced to choose between their religious observances and their academic obligations.
We Will Not Be Silenced
CUNY is not just complicit in Islamophobic and Zionist repression—it is actively enforcing it. These arrests, the exclusion of visibly Muslim students, as well as Hochul’s crackdown on Palestinian studies efforts by workers and students all point to the same reality: The CUNY administration is more concerned with protecting Zionist interests than defending the rights of its own students or upholding its avowed principles of Academic Freedom
However, no amount of repression will stop the Palestine solidarity movement at CUNY. We refuse to allow Muslim students to be criminalized, Palestine solidarity to be erased, or Zionist repression to continue unchallenged. Our movement will only grow stronger, and we will not stop until Palestine is free.
This statement reflects the collective position of the undersigned organizations and will not be watered down or compromised.
Signatories:
- CUNY for Palestine
- Within Our Lifetime
- Council on American Islamic Relations – New York
- Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – City College of New York
- City College of New York – Muslim Student Organization
- City College of New York – Women in Islam
- Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – College of Staten Island
- Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – John Jay College of Criminal Justice
- Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – New York City College of Technology
- Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – Borough of Manhattan Community College
- Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – Stony Brook University
- Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) – Stony Brook University
- Palestine Solidarity Alliance – Hunter College
- Graduate Center for Palestine
- Muslim Student Association – College of Staten Island
- Majlis Ashura
- SUNY BDS
- Columbia University Apartheid Divest
- The Hampton Institute
- CUNY Law Jewish Law Students Association
- Rank and File Action (RAFA)
- New York City Labor for Palestine (NYCL4P)
