The true test of a democracy is the extent to which civil rights in law are enforced in practice for the most vulnerable groups in society. As members of Congress demanded mass arrest and expulsion of college students exercising their free speech right to dissent against U.S. foreign policy in Gaza and the West Bank, the racial fault lines in American democracy were yet again laid bare.
Similarly, university presidents are buckling to external political pressure to violate academic freedom of Muslim and Arab faculty targeted by external anti-Muslim and pro-Israeli groups and politicians. In this episode, Distinguished Law Professor Sahar Aziz examines how Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism intersect to produce systematic assaults on the civil rights of racialized communities.
These concerted efforts to quash the nonviolent Palestine Solidarity Movement set dangerous rights-infringing precedents that are now being weaponized against immigrant rights advocates and supporters of diversity, equity and inclusion. The same conservative groups and politicians who complain about the erosion of free speech in America are now spearheading the policing of viewpoints and speech expressed by progressive students and faculty on college campuses.
Listen to Professor Aziz as she explains the origins and harmful consequences of the Palestine Taboo on all American’s free speech and political freedoms, which is the basis of her forthcoming book on the topic.
#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #Genocide #PalestineTaboo #FreeSpeech #AcademicFreedom
Suggested Readings
Sahar Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom (2022)
Mitchell Plitnick and Sahar Aziz, Presumptively Antisemitic: Islamophobic Tropes in the Palestine Israel Discourse (2023)
Sahar Aziz, Racing Religion in the Palestine Israel Discourse, AJIL Unbound , Volume 118 , 2024 , pp. 118 – 123.

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In Part II of this two-part series, guest host Esaa Mohammad Sabti Samarah, PhD, LMSW reunites with Dr. Siham Elkassem, Dr. Bryn King, Dr. Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer, and doctoral candidate Amilah Baksh to move beyond naming harm and toward a deeper examination of responsibility. This episode turns a critical lens on how the social work profession responds, or fails to respond, to anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim racisms, with particular attention to the ways calls for “neutrality” shape research, teaching, and professional practice.

The conversation interrogates neutrality as it appears in social work academia, especially in relation to empiricism and claims of objectivity. The panel introduces and critically examines the concept of “weepy universalism,” a term they coin for social workers in their forthcoming work to describe how generalized expressions of sympathy can obscure power, flatten difference, and ultimately reproduce harm rather than challenge it.

The episode also brings these debates down from theory to practice, exploring what they mean for social workers on the ground, particularly those working with youth and communities most directly impacted by these forms of racism. The series closes with a collective call to action, challenging the profession to move beyond symbolic gestures and toward principled, sustained solidarity with Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, as part of broader struggles for justice and liberation.

This episode invites listeners to reckon with complicity, resist comfort, and reimagine what ethical practice demands in moments of profound injustice.

#BeyondNeutrality #EthicalSocialWork #SolidarityNotSilence #WeepyUniversalism #YouthJustice #DecolonizeSocialWork #JusticeInAction

Links to Published Works

Dwaikat-Shaer, N., Baksh, A., Elkassem, S., & King, B. (2025). Phenomenologies of Silence: On the Palestine Exception and the Complicity of Social Work Academe. Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work, 3(2).

Siham Elkassem - Google Scholar

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In this first episode of a two-part series, guest host Esaa Mohammad Sabti Samarah, PhD, LMSW leads a powerful conversation examining how anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim racisms function as distinct yet interconnected systems of harm. Together with scholars and practitioners Dr. Siham Elkassem, Dr. Bryn King, Dr. Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer, and Doctoral Candidate Amilah Baksh, the discussion examines how these forms of racism operate across structural, institutional, and interpersonal levels, and how they are sustained through histories of colonialism, racialization, and political violence.

The episode critically interrogates the social work profession’s response to these realities, confronting the gap between professed values and practiced silence. The panel names this silence as more than inaction: it is complicity reinforced by selective empathy, professional caution, and institutional pressures that limit meaningful engagement with Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim suffering.

Listeners are invited to reflect on how racism is produced and maintained within professional spaces, and how social work education and practice can either reproduce harm or become a site of resistance and transformation. Part I lays the foundation by naming the problem clearly and setting the stage for a deeper examination in Part II, Beyond Neutrality: Confronting Silence, Resistance, and a Call to Action. The second episode deepens the conversation by examining neutrality, dissent, and professional responsibility, with particular attention to the impact on youth and affected communities.

This episode is essential listening for anyone committed to racial justice, human rights, and accountability within social work and allied professions.

#AntiRacism #PalestinianRights #AntiMuslimRacism #AntiPalistinianRacism #AntiArabRacism #ArabAndMuslimVoices #SocialWorkJustice #ColonialismAndResistance

Links to Published Works

Elkassem, S. (2024). Beyond Hate: Confronting Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Racism in Social Work. Intersectionalities, 12(1), 1-29.

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