CAIR-Chicago Condemns Politicized Federal Investigation Targeting Northwestern University and Other Colleges
Northwestern University President Michael Schill defended his actions before Congress at a hearing on antisemitism in May 2024. Credit ABC 7.
(CHICAGO, IL, 2/4/25) – The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Chicago), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the Trump administration’s politicized investigation into Northwestern University and other colleges under the guise of combating antisemitism.
Although CAIR-Chicago and CAIR deemed Northwestern an institution of concern in 2024 due to its mistreatment of anti-genocide voices, the Department of Education’s latest investigation represents a dangerous conflation of legitimate political speech with hate speech.
In response to the announcement, CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab stated to ABC 7:
"This is a politicized action by the administration that has little to do with actual antisemitism, whose definition is being expanded from bigotry against Jews to include legitimate criticism of Israel and its documented crimes against humanity. This is both dangerous to combatting actual antisemitism and to American freedoms and an affront to common sense. The interests of a far-right rogue foreign government are placed above all else, which is stunning.”
CAIR-Chicago stands in firm support of students’ and faculty’s right to express their views on international human rights without fear of government retaliation. We call on the administration to refocus on addressing actual bigotry rather than weaponizing federal investigations to silence legitimate discourse on Israel’s policies.
CAIR-Chicago’s mission is to defend civil rights, fight bigotry, and promote tolerance.
CONTACT: Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, 202-870-0166, arehab@cair.com; Monia Alhelou, Operations Coordinator of CAIR-Chicago, 312-212-1520, malhelou@cair.com; Hafsa Haider, Communications Coordinator of CAIR-Chicago, 561-317-7509, hhaider@cair.com