IN THEIR OWN WORDS

In this report, the California Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CA) presents its analysis of a 2019-2020 college campus climate survey of American Muslim college and university students.

The survey was administered to students at over sixty institutions of higher learning primarily throughout the state of California, including both public and private universities and colleges. Its purpose is to examine the lived experiences of American Muslim college students and the issues they face, particularly as a consequence of their real or perceived Muslim identities.

MUSLIM STUDENTS SHARE
THEIR LIVED EXPERIENCES

A student organization taped flyers of an anti-[M]uslim event by Ben Shapiro to every seat before a panel on Islamophobia my freshman year.

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So many of us were black listed and our campus didn’t support us by providing any mental health services or speak[ing] out against this and in support of … students.

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We had a huge issue about graffiti threatening to kill muslims [and] our [administration] didn’t tell us. We found out from the school newspaper.

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The university [administration] prefers to stay neutral rather than support [Muslim] victims.

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I had an Abrahamic religions class taught by a professor who was very uneducated about Islam and disregarded my concerns when I brought them up to him and got upset when I took action against him.

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Anytime I have an opinion in a political class, it is immediately labeled as anti-America[n] and I’m always attacked.

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[There have been] comments against Palestinian and Muslim students including flyers by noted Islamophobe David Horowitz’s Freedom Center. [There were] death threats against Muslim/AMED Studies Professor Rubab Abulhadi.

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I am a student in the Disabled Students’ Program; it was difficult for me to access [the program]. I was told that ‘it was not wise to make me mad because I might bomb (that person’s) house.’

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Because of my involvement in SJP, the safety of my identity has been threatened. I have experienced anti-Palestine slurs said by protestors, [and] police escorts [have been] required at SJP conferences for safety.

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