By: Mohammed Zain Shafi Khan
When Asna Tabassum, a hijab-wearing Muslim, was announced as the valedictorian for the University of Southern California class of 2024, my initial reaction was the thought of my south Asian mother saying, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you valedictorian?” But what followed was pride. Then the university announced last week that it would no longer allow Tabassum to speak at commencement. After pro-Israel groups mischaracterized Tabassum’s pro-Palestinian views as “antisemitic”, the USC administration claimed that security concerns made her speech untenable.
“I am not surprised by those who attempt to propagate hatred,” Tabassum, a friend of mine, wrote in a statement. “I am surprised that my own university – my home for four years – has abandoned me.”
USC has not just abandoned an accomplished student, but also nearly 1,000 Muslims on campus. I happen to be one of them.
Right now, the reality of being a Muslim student is intertwined with the university’s decision to rescind Tabassum’s well-earned honour. We were teased by our institution, taunted even, as they refuse to publicly stand by their choice. USC has not just abandoned an accomplished student, but also nearly 1,000 Muslims on campus. I happen to be one of them.
Right now, the reality of being a Muslim student is intertwined with the university’s decision to rescind Tabassum’s well-earned honour. We were teased by our institution, taunted even, as they refuse to publicly stand by their choice.
As a Muslim, the lack of support scares me. My hijab-wearing friends have been called terrorists and spat at; my Palestinian peer has had their car broken into and their Qur’an torn and I am judged for wearing a keffiyeh to class or having a sticker on my laptop that reads “Free Palestine”.
When Arab and Muslim students are directly affected, the university’s silence makes its position clear.
When the office of the president can release a statement condemning Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, but not one condemning Israel for killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, it makes the university’s position clear. And when the university refuses to publicly support its choice for valedictorian, again the school’s position is clear.
Understandably, students and faculty are upset and angry. Last Friday, 11 members of the USC advisory committee on Muslim life resigned “in protest against the university administration’s decision to revoke Asna Tabassum’s valedictory address at commencement”.
This committee was convened by the president “to consider a number of tangible solutions to support Muslim students, faculty and staff”. But now, when USC cannot support one student, I doubt it wants to support any of us. Source: theguardian.com/
USC student’s graduation speech cancelled in Israel-Gaza hate row
By Max Matza ,BBC News
The University of Southern California (USC) has cancelled a student’s graduation speech amid backlash over her social media activity on Israel.USC cited “substantial risks” to campus security in the decision to halt the Muslim student’s address.
But Asna Tabassum said she was the target of “a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice”.
Ms Tabassum is the 2024 valedictorian, a student picked out for high academic scores and involvement in campus life. The decision to cancel her speech came after claims that her social media activity was antisemitic. A debate about free speech on US college campuses has intensified since the Israel-Gaza war erupted last October. Ms Tabassum’s Instagram account links to a website that criticises Israel and calls for its “complete abolishment”, instead arguing for a “one-state solution… in which both Arabs and Jews can live together”.
The website also claims that “Zionism is a racist settler-colonial ideology that advocates for a Jewish ethnostate built on Palestinian land”. Pro-Israel groups called for the university to reconsider her selection as valedictorian.
One campus group, Trojans for Israel, said that although it “strongly supports the right to free expression – including informed criticism of the Israeli government… rhetoric that denies the right of the Jewish people to self-determination or calls for the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world must be denounced as antisemitic bigotry”.
In a statement on Monday, Ms Tabassum said she was “shocked” and “profoundly disappointed” by the university’s decision.
“I am not surprised by those who attempt to propagate hatred. I am surprised that my own university – my home for four years – has abandoned me,” she wrote.
“By cancelling my speech, USC is only caving to fear and rewarding hatred,” added Ms Tabassum, who studied biomedical engineering with a minor in resistance to genocide, according to a profile on the college website.
Ms Tabassum later told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that she had not been presented evidence for the security fears.
Source:bbc.com/news
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
