George Mason U Profs Say School Condemned ‘Islamophobia’ – But Not Antisemitism
“I do not recall reading a single email you have sent to the GMU community of professors, staff, and students since Oct. 7, 2023, in which you solely denounced antisemitism.”
This is one of the main reasons that George Mason University is now being investigated by the Trump administration.
Campus Reform reports:
GMU condemned ‘Islamophobia’—but not anti-Semitism, faculty say
Professors at George Mason University (GMU) have criticized the school’s president for denouncing anti-Muslim discrimination but not strongly condemning anti-Semitism.
In November 2023, GMU President Gregory Washington published a statement entitled “Denouncing Islamophobia” after Palestinian students were shot.
However, a GMU professor identified the next month that Washington never published a similar statement condemning Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, during which more than a thousand Israelis were killed.
“I do not recall reading a single email you have sent to the GMU community of professors, staff, and students since Oct. 7, 2023, in which you solely denounced antisemitism, in which you identified the harassment, assaults, vandalism, and other criminal acts as motivated by antisemitism,” the professor wrote to Washington at the time.
Following Oct. 7, a group of law professors reportedly requested that Washington issue a statement condemning anti-Semitism, but Washington declined their request, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
On July 1, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced it had opened a Title VI investigation into George Mason University over allegations that it failed to address a hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty during 2023–2025.
In a letter to the GMU administration, the department explained that it opened the investigation after receiving a complaint “that the University discriminated on the basis of national origin (shared Jewish ancestry) by failing to respond effectively to a pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students and faculty.”
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gregory washingtons position is crystal clear and its not pro america
I’m an islamaphobe. Islam frightens me. Muslims frighten me. They are completely intolerant. They want to kill me just because 1) I was born Jewish 2) I would not convert 3) I refuse to be a second class citizen. There is nothing wrong with being an islamaphobe. It is a survival response to an ugly primitive hateful violent ideology. It’s common sense.
Just received the following from my daughter who works at GMU. Sent to staff and students by Washington on November 2, 2023:
Dear fellow Patriots:
There is no avoiding this sobering truth: This is a fraught moment for the world, our country, and our university, with increased acts of violence and hostility toward members of the Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, and Palestinian communities. In particular, hateful expressions against the Jewish community are on the rise right on our own campus, including a very recent attempt to leaflet the Fairfax campus with deeply offensive antisemitic rhetoric. This disgusting behavior is not normal for Mason, and it is fundamentally at odds with who we are as a university community. We repudiate antisemitism just as we repudiated the terrorist attacks on Israel last month. While we must acknowledge others’ right to express themselves as they have, we as a community also claim our right to call out such expressions as ignorant, hateful, and contrary to our values.
For many, the safety and well-being that we value at George Mason University feel threatened, and I am writing to share what we are doing to preserve those cherished hallmarks of our community.
In my last message about the unfolding conflict in Israel and Gaza, I shared that security efforts are in place to address safety concerns, and services are in place to assist people in crisis. Since that time, and in responses to heightened tensions nationally and on campus, we have increased security to stay ahead of threats that may emerge without warning. In addition, we have organized pre-existing campus services into a coordinated approach, which we are calling the Patriot Plan for Community Safety and Well-Being. All of the information in this message is now contained on the plan’s web page, which designed as a one-stop online resource page where you can access information and updates on this topic.
Each of us came here to improve ourselves and our community in our own personal ways. We should be assured that we can do so without fear for our safety and well-being. We are all in this together, and I hope you find this resource helpful.
Sincerely,
Gregory Washington
President
*sigh*
One more time… THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ISLAMOPHOBIA.
A phobia, by definition, is an unreasoned fear of something. Since it’s inception, Islam has murdered and destroyed it’s way across the planet, eliminating anything it’s psychotic leaders claim is “unclean”. Fear of Islam is the farthest thing from a phobia; it is, in fact, a completely rational response to deliberate, all-encompassing terror.