130 Jewish Georgetown members slam Trump for 'weaponizing' faith in Badar Khan Suri arrest
More than 130 Jewish members of the Georgetown University community in Washington, D.C., released a signed statement Friday in support of Badar Khan Suri, a Muslim postdoctoral scholar and professor at the school who was arrested and targeted for deportation last month by the Trump administration.
More than 130 Jewish members of the Georgetown University community in Washington, D.C., released a signed statement Friday in support of Badar Khan Suri, a Muslim postdoctoral scholar and professor at the school who was arrested and targeted for deportation last month by the Trump administration.
Jewish faculty, staff, students and alumni wrote in the public statement that Trump is “weaponizing” the Jewish identity and faith, along with fears of antisemitism, to justify the arrest, detention and attempted deportation of Suri and other Muslim students and scholars.
The letter comes after Suri, whose attorneys filed a petition challenging his detainment, was arrested outside his apartment building in Virginia. Suri, who has been a postdoc at Georgetown for the past three years, was accused by the Department of Homeland Security of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
The statement also criticizes the administration’s revocation of visas from international students who have engaged in political protests.
“While we may hold varying opinions and perspectives on Israel-Palestine, we all agree that the growing wave of politically motivated campus deportation efforts is an authoritarian move that harms the entire campus community,” the letter said. “We encourage Jews and everyone — at Georgetown and beyond — to take action and speak out.”
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