(NewsNation) — Attempts to quash the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and occupations at college campuses around the U.S. are not working, according to the leader of one of the nation’s largest Islamic civil rights groups.
“The people, especially these young people, Gen Z, is actually invigorating them to speak more boldly … and to organize themselves more,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
He says anti-Jewish incidents are unfortunate, but it’s not the vast majority of protesters. He also says he sees Jewish students participating in the protests at the University of Michigan, and calling on the school to divest itself of investments linked to Israel.
“Words that are harmful and actually hurt people’s feelings and feel somewhat threatening have no place in our discourse,” he added. “But what should have zero tolerance is that the United States of America is currently funding ethnic cleansing crimes.”
Walid says the students are not looking for instant results but are taking lessons from the big protests of his parents’ generation: civil rights and Vietnam.
“Those protests took college students ten years before there was actual action and movement. I think the students who are on the ground now, they’re not looking for instant results. This is really a movement right now. This is a pivotal moment in American history.”
CAIR calls itself the nation’s largest Islamic civil rights organization. It has branches in 20 states and a lobbying and public outreach effort in Washington, D.C. Its website is currently encouraging people to call on USC to reinstate its commencement ceremony and the originally scheduled speaker, Asna Tabassum.