As a Muslim American, I have always had to balance different perspectives. Coming from a divorced Muslim household, my parents are on opposite sides of the spectrum concerning nearly all core principles: religion, politics and education. My mother is a highly religious woman who has spent her life attempting to mold me into the ideal Arab wife and has given me strong foundational Islamic ideals and principles. My father, on the other hand, believes in the American Dream. In a complex sense, he is just as extreme in his beliefs as my mother. Both parents have consistently played a metaphorical game of tug of war with me as I grew up. Being mixed, I learned to navigate different identities, cultures and political beliefs. However, if there’s one thing my parents agree on, it is that when it comes to Palestine — or any human rights issue for that matter — the right to free speech should never be up for debate.
Last year, students at Stony Brook University were arrested for participating in pro-Palestinian protests, with some potentially facing disciplinary action that could impact their futures. In January 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order aimed at canceling the visas of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses. The order threatens policing on those who have engaged in protests deemed anti-Israel, which raises concerns about free speech and academic freedom. While there has been no official confirmation of deportations at the University, the broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian advocacy across American universities is alarming.
This pattern isn’t isolated to Stony Brook’s campus — across the country, universities have responded to pro-Palestinian protests with severe crackdowns. At Columbia University, students set up an encampment demanding the school divest from Israel — only to have the New York Police Department called in, resulting in over 100 arrests, including the daughter of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. At Barnard College, at least 53 students were suspended, evicted from their dorms and their student ID cards were deactivated to prevent access to campus buildings. Even West Coast universities have seen intense reactions to student-led protests, with military-grade security forces on standby as counter-protesters attacked pro-Palestinian protesters with poles, fireworks and bear mace.
What is frustrating is how quickly support for Palestinian rights became equated with extremism. There is a clear difference between calling for the freedom of a group of people and endorsing violence, but policies like these deliberately blur the line. Students who staged peaceful sit-ins were met with arrests, warnings about suspension and university emails justifying police intervention. If protesting for human rights is now considered a punishable offense, what does that say about the U.S.’s commitment to free speech?
These discussions can be difficult. I have spent much of my life seeing both sides of debates. However, shutting people down is not the solution. If the U.S. really values democracy and Western values, it cannot pick and choose who gets to express their beliefs based on political convenience. Universities were created to be the basis for open dialogue, not institutions that intimidate students into silence. Stony Brook, Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles are all Western universities that are meant to be guardians of Western philosophical traditions. By mishandling these protests, these schools have betrayed core ideals such as free expression, academic freedom and the right to peaceful protest — principles that have long been foundational to the missions that they claim to uphold. Arresting students, deporting them and deactivating their student IDs are all actions concerned with maintaining order rather than upholding the values that the U.S. was built on.
Regardless of where you stand on the complexity of Middle Eastern politics, the bigger issue here is whether we are willing to defend the right to dissent. If we start losing that value, we lose much more than just a debate — we lose the foundation of what free speech is supposed to entail. If these schools truly stand for the ideals they teach, then they must be held accountable. Faculty, alumni and students alike must demand consistency in how universities handle the rights to protest and free speech. Ironically, universities like Stony Brook allow protesters that engage in hateful speech to go unchecked, revealing a lack of consistency in how they approach First Amendment rights. A genuine commitment to these values requires consistency in their enforcement.
The question we should be asking is not whether we agree with the content of these protests. Rather, it is whether we will allow universities to set a precedent where activism is met with arrests, evictions and state-enforced crackdowns, or demand that these institutions live up to their claims of being spaces for critical thought and civic engagement.
If you care about academic freedom, the right to protest or even the ability to challenge authority without fear of punishment, now is the time to act. Contact student organizations, write to university administrators, support legal defense funds for arrested protesters and, most importantly, keep the conversation going.
If universities no longer stand for dissent, what do they stand for at all?
