The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today designated Johns Hopkins University (JHU) as a Hostile Campus for fostering a climate of fear, retaliation, and repression targeting students who speak out against occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
SEE: CAIR Designates Johns Hopkins University as a Hostile Campus
“No university that suppresses, injures, or threatens students for peacefully opposing genocide can claim to be inclusive,” said Zainab Chaudry, Director of CAIR’s office in Maryland. “Johns Hopkins has repeatedly chosen repression over dialogue, militarism over justice, and silence over accountability.”
BACKGROUNDER:
In 2024, nearly 100 civil rights complaintsreportedly led to a federal investigation into anti-Muslim and anti-Arab harassment, including a professor’s email referring to “those brutal Arabs” and suggesting divine punishment. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) reportedly found that JHU misapplied legal standards in its handling of such incidents. Even after signing a resolution agreement with OCR in 2025, JHU failed to defend over a dozen graduate students and alumni whose visas were revoked by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The university offered no public condemnation, further stifling student dissent.
InJanuary 2025, the university’sPublic Interest Investment Advisory Committee (PIIAC) rejected student demands for divestment from weapons manufacturers and companies complicit in Israeli apartheid, offering vague rhetoric instead of transparency or accountability. On May 8, 2025, students established a peaceful Gaza solidarity encampment on Keyser Quad, which was met with a violent crackdown by armed JHU and Baltimore police.
According to eyewitnesses, two students were injured as officers tore down tents and canopies despite the protest being entirely nonviolent. That same day, Palestinian, Lebanese, and visibly Muslim students who reported holding a cultural picnic and performing Dabke were reportedly threatened by JHU administrators and police. According to students, they were told their gathering was a “second attempted occupation” and ordered off campus, simply for expressing their culture and identity. JHU’s failure to register a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter further reveals its efforts to suppress Palestinian cultural and political expression.
Despite calls for divestment, the university continues to profit from war while silencing opposition. JHU’s Applied Physics Laboratory was awarded a $12.4 billion Department of Defense contractto develop advanced weapons and defense systems used in military operations, including those enabling Israel’s assault on Gaza. Unsurprisingly, JHU earned a failing score of 48.3% in the 2025 College Free Speech Rankings, reflecting widespread national concern over its hostility toward student expression.
CAIR’s Unhostile Campus Campaign:
In August, CAIR launched its Unhostile Campus Campaign, a project aimed at fostering a campus environment where Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other students, faculty, and staff opposing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza enjoy free speech and academic freedom and are not subjected to state force or university discipline due to their viewpoints. Since then, CAIR has designated over 20 colleges and universities as hostile due to their creation of a thoroughly hostile and dangerous environment for anti-genocide students.
Students, staff, and faculty who wish to report their university or college campus for consideration as a potential “hostile campus” can complete the ‘Report a Hostile Campus’ form at islamophobia.org/reportcampus.
CAIR’s 2025 Civil Rights Report, “Unconstitutional Crackdowns,” reveals that Islamophobia continues to be at an all-time high across the country. CAIR said viewpoint discrimination against those speaking out against genocide and apartheid was a key factor in many cases.
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CONTACT: CAIR Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry, 410-971-6062, zchaudry@cair.com; CAIR Maryland Outreach Coordinator Kim Syuardi, ksyuardi@cair.com, 202-850-9293; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com