Concerns of Islamophobia and antisemitism cause fear among students

Hofstra students report facing Islamophobia and antisemitism on campus. // Photo Courtesy of U.S. News & World Report.

After the escalation of the Palestine-Israel conflict in October with the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, both Muslim and Jewish students have reported an increase in discriminatory acts and feelings of fear both on and off campus.

Zainab Mozawalla, a junior political science, economics and global studies triple major, expressed that after the Oct. 7 attack, she noticed a rise in hate towards Muslims. Mozawalla is a hijabi Muslim and a member of the Muslim Student Association and the Middle Eastern North African Student Association, among other organizations on campus.

In an instance off-campus shortly after the attacks, Mozawalla was approached by an unknown woman who yelled at her, “You support terrorism. You are a terrorist. You are a murderer,” which was then followed by a man repeatedly saying, “Shut your mouth.”

“As a 19-year-old, when a grown man is being so aggressive with you, you are scared,” Mozawalla said. In the moment, she was frightened but didn’t recognize the severity of the situation until later. “It was more of the effects after that really traumatized me because when I would go out anywhere, I started noticing more of the looks and the little things,” Mozawalla said.

She began feeling afraid to leave her car in unfamiliar areas due to concerns of potential reactions to her.

“Any time I walked out of my house, I would look around because I feel so unsafe,” Mozawalla said. “After Oct. 7, it triggered this domino effect.”

Mozawalla’s other hijabi friends on campus shared with her that they also noticed an increase in suspicious looks from others as they went about their day. As a result, they have felt unsafe both on and off campus.

“This just happened to me, but I know so many people who are scared to say their story,” Mozawalla said. “I know two hijabis who were hate crimed on campus. I do not know their stories, though, because they were even scared to tell me.”

The Hofstra Chronicle could not confirm these incidents or reach these individuals for comment.

Tal Heyman, a senior public policy and public service and English double major, also expressed her experience with antisemitism recently as a first-generation Jewish American.

Heyman, who is also a member of Hofstra Hillel, said, “Thankfully, Hofstra has been pretty good at [keeping] hate off campus … however, there have been a few swastikas engraved in elevators and some inciting comments on Hofstra’s official Instagram account.”

Heyman said that she has experienced backlash when sharing her opinions on her own social media profiles. One Hofstra alum reached out to her through her direct messages to harass her.

“[I] almost blacked out because of how stressed I was,” Heyman said.

Moving forward, students believe that Hofstra could do more to support students during this time.

“I want Hofstra to send out an email or report acknowledging how antisemitism and Islamophobia have spiked on campuses and to remain respectful of others, both in person and online,” Heyman said.

Heyman implored others to think about the golden rule and treat others the way they would like to be treated. “Even if they have differing opinions from other students, they should not be harassing the student and be open to other’s beliefs.”

“On campus or in the world, it’s a matter of taking away that fear and making [students] feel safe,” Mozawalla said. “I’m scared. I don’t want to somehow be labeled as something that I am not. It’s a scary world we live in, and it’s a matter of navigating through that.”

“How is that impacting the students on campus? Naturally, fear,” said Ibad Wali, the Muslim chaplain at Hofstra for the Muslim Student Association. “There is a lot of fear. There is a lot of despair due to the lack of leadership [and] lack of support.”

Wali, a volunteer, has had trouble finding time to support all the Muslim students on campus in the past couple months since the conflict escalated. He noted that other schools, including Stony Brook University, have full-time chaplains to help their students.

“As academics and leaders in academia, our goal is to at least have a common ground, which is humanity. That is where we need to start our conversations,” Wali said. “We expect that politics remain outside of our leadership at Hofstra and at any university. If our leadership in academia is influenced by politics, then our academic integrity is compromised.”

As a result of frustration from students regarding the lack of support from the university, the organization Hofstra Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was formed, including both Jewish and Muslim students. According to the organization, their goal is to have a platform to amplify the voices of Palestinians and the lives lost. Although the university has not officially recognized the group due to the application deadline for student clubs, the organization did meet with the Student Government Association (SGA) and gained approval to host meetings.

An anonymous spokesperson for SJP informed The Hofstra Chronicle that the group faced issues when they tried to conduct their first meeting. The group had over 60 interested students and had received approval from SGA to meet in an empty classroom. When members arrived to meet in the room, they were met by a Public Safety officer who said they received a call to lock the room because another group was meeting there.

This occurred around 20 minutes before the meeting was set to begin. SJP then changed the meeting location to another empty classroom, where they were then met with multiple Public Safety officers saying they were also sent to lock the doors of that room.

The members of SJP told the officers that they gained approval from SGA to meet in an empty classroom and were then let in to meet. The incident was reported by SJP to the Office of Equity and Inclusion, which promised that this would not happen again and that Hofstra would be supportive of the growth of the organization.

Carolyn Eisenberg, a professor of U.S. history and American foreign policy, is one of 55 Hofstra faculty members who signed a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before the recent humanitarian pause. She also expressed the importance of students’ awareness of the conflict.

“My biggest concern about students is that they are not paying attention. And they need to pay attention,” said Eisenberg. “They need to form a judgement about what they think about it.”