Nearly half of Muslim students at California universities say they have been harassed, survey finds

Nearly half of Muslim students surveyed at California colleges and universities say they have been targets of anti-Islamic harassment or discrimination in the last school year as pro-Palestinian protests erupted on campuses, a sharp increase from four years ago, the Council on American Islamic Relations said in a new report.

The study, which surveyed hundreds of Muslim students attending a cross-section of about 87 California public and private campuses, found that 49% of students, or 352 of 720 respondents, said they had experienced anti-Muslim acts by students, staff or administrators at school.

CAIR and the Center for the Prevention of Hate and Bullying, a CAIR-affiliated group that jointly published the study, attributed the rise to widespread pro-Palestinian protests, which in the past year led to hundreds of arrests and multiple lawsuits against universities, including UCLA and USC, over accusations of unjustified police use of force, free speech and equal access violations.

Pro-Palestinian campus protests tended to include a diversity of students, including many Muslims and Jews, and demonstrators were often accused of using antisemitic language or symbolism as they pushed for universities to divest from Israel. In many cases, encampments attracted counterprotesters, including a violent confrontation at UCLA.

"Instead of feeling safe and supported on their own campuses ... many universities, administrators, and law enforcement have failed to offer the necessary support, leaving students feeling threatened, targeted, and isolated," said Bayanne Kanawati, program manger for the center, which surveyed students at campuses including UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Berkeley and Cal State Fullerton.

"College administrators must create a safe and inclusive environment for all, particularly those from marginalized communities. Students should be able to express their identities and political views freely, without fear of discrimination," Kanawati said.

The survey was conducted online between March and July, a period that covered the height of campus protests in April, May and June.

The CAIR report, released this week, came out as UCLA's response to protests have come under scrutiny. Multiple campus groups have released findings about discrimination on campus, while the University of California system this month also published an external report that criticized UCLA's handling of the encampment. This fall, UCLA initiated new protest restrictions, increased security patrols and launched dialogue programs on campus to bring together groups that were on opposite sides in the spring.

CAIR's study echoed findings of the UCLA Task Force on Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Muslim, and Anti-Arab Racism, which released a report in April and June that decried a campus that's "less safe than ever" for those groups and criticized "increased harassment, violence, and targeting" of them.

Another report last month from the UCLA Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias, which surveyed more than 428 Jewish or Israeli students, faculty, staff and administrators, also found 84% believed that antisemitism had "worsened or significantly worsened" since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

CAIR also reported students were generally reluctant to tell administrators about their experiences or seek help from university leadership. About half of all surveyed students — 47% — said they felt either neutral or unsafe about their safety on their campus.

"Islamophobia is not just a political issue. It has deeply personal consequences for students navigating their education under constant fear and scrutiny," Osman Khan, Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate and Bullying, said in a prepared statement.

While the report found negative trends in Muslim students' perceptions of their place on campuses, its data are limited.

Most of the schools surveyed were in the San Francisco Bay Area or Southern California, where the bulk of the state's Muslim students are located. Only a handful of colleges in Central and Northern California, including UC Merced and Cal Poly Humboldt, were included. Several campuses where there were major pro-Palestinian protests involving Muslim students, such Pomona College, were not surveyed.

The numbers of survey respondents at individual campuses were also small. At UCLA, where more than 46,000 graduate and undergraduate students are enrolled, the survey logged responses from 26 Muslims. At USC, the number was 21. The most-represented university in the study, UC Irvine, had 43 people participate.

_____