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Criticizing Muslim event might be ‘harassment’ school says
Harvard University is investigating the campus Republican club for filming a Muslim event that occurred outside in a courtyard.
On April 4, the Harvard Republican Club posted a short video and one photo on its X account of an Eid al-Fitr event hosted by the school’s Islamic Society.
“Today, students were interrupted from their midterm studies for several hours by loud music and prayers outside their windows,” the group wrote on X.
“Harvard’s historic Quincy Courtyard had been turned into a bazaar selling Hijabs, Burqas and Qurans for an Eid Mubarak celebration hosted by Harvard’s Islamic Society,” the club wrote.
The group also said the university had been “captured.”
Someone filed a complaint against the club for filming and taking photographs at the even that occurred out in the open, which has prompted a school investigation.
“College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo confirmed in a Tuesday statement that the complaint had been referred to the DSO’s Student Engagement team, which handles cases of alleged misconduct by registered student organizations,” The Harvard Crimson reported on Thursday.
The student newspaper reported further:
Harvard College policy prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of religion under its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying Policy. College policy also requires advance permission for photography and filming on campus intended for public dissemination, and filming must comply with existing University rules, including the [bullying policy].
Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for the school to punish the Republicans club over the post, the student newspaper also reported.
“The post singles out members of the Harvard community for apparent discriminatory harassment based solely on their Islamic faith,” CAIR’s Unhostile Campus Campaign Specialist Maryam Hasan wrote to President Alan Garber.
Harvard officials have “an obligation under Title VI to address conduct that could interfere with students’ equal access to educational opportunities,” the letter argued, as paraphrased by The Crimson. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance,” according to the Department of Justice.
The pro-Palestinian group considers the Ivy League university a “hostile campus,” according to its 2025 report.
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