Religious freedom is a human right.
“We fight for religious freedom for everyone everywhere, but on our very own campuses, these freedoms are being violated for Jewish students.” Anila Ali.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, August 17, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Muslim and Multifaith Women leaders of AMMWEC welcome the Los Angeles Federal District Court order to end Jew Exclusion Zones on UCLA Campus
A Los Angeles federal district court has ordered UCLA – the University of California, Los Angeles, to stop allowing and assisting antisemitic agitators, to ban Jews from large parts of UCLA’s campus. Three Jewish students filed a federal lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles, for allowing, aiding and abetting antisemitic activists to bar them and other Jewish students from accessing the heart of campus.
In Frankel v. Regents of the University of California, Becket -a non-profit, public-interest legal and educational institute with a mission to protect the free expression of all faiths, and co-counsel Clement & Murphy PLLC filed a lawsuit against UCLA.
“In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, anti-Jewish demonstrations emerged on college campuses nationwide. Jewish students and faculty were prevented from accessing parts of campus unless they agreed to disavow Israel’s right to exist. The activists used checkpoints, issued wristbands, built barriers, and often locked arms to prevent Jews from passing through,” alleged Becket.
UCLA helped a group of activists set up encampments by providing them with metal barriers, enabling the harassment of Jewish students and thereby denying safe passage for Jewish students, stopping the Jewish students from accessing classes, the library, and other critical parts of campus.
UCLA has failed in its obligation to protect its Jewish students.
Anila Ali – CEO of American Muslim Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council and Soraya M. Deen, an Executive Board member and founder of Muslim Women Speakers, both members of the International Religious Freedom Roundtable and Chairs of Religious Freedom Roundtables of their native countries, Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively, were appalled at UCLA’s failure to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students.
“We fight for religious freedoms across the world, and our failure to protect our Jewish students in our own country is egregious and a stark violation of our constitution,” they both asserted.
“No student should ever have to fear being blocked from their campus because they are Jewish,” said Yitzchok Frankel, the Petitioner, a third-year law student at UCLA and a father of four. Frankel, who wore a Kippah, was forced to abandon his regular routes through campus because of the Jew Exclusion Zone on campus.
Soraya Deen, who spoke at the Notre Dame University’s Religious Liberty Summit last month on Jewish Muslim Relations after October 7th, highlighted the lethal hostilities between the communities.
“The Muslim leadership in America and Los Angeles in particular, have desecrated all Communal Contracts with the Jewish community by their failure to call out anti Semitism,” said Soraya. She expressed deep concern over the rising violations of religious liberties for the Jewish communities in the United States. “From schools to synagogues, from cemeteries to communities, Jewish life is under attack,” she added.
“Freedom of religion known as religious liberty, is the right that protects people’s ability to believe, speak, and act in accordance with their understanding of truth, both in private and in public. The First Amendment prohibits the government from establishing a religion or interfering with religion,” said Zebunnesa Zeba Zubair, UN Global Peace Ambassador and AMMWEC executive board member.
“Today Jewish students’ religious freedoms were violated, tomorrow it can be Muslim students. Hate starts with Jews, but does not end with Jews. We must all stand together in unity and shun this hate. I wish Muslim male leaders would come out of their mosques and stand with us in supporting the Jewish community at such a critical juncture,” said Ali.
“It is only when we stand together as the Children of Abraham, PBUH, will we be able to crush the evil forces trying to divide us and destroy our nation,” added Ali.
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Religious Freedom is a fundamental human right.
