Islamic group sues Northwestern over required antisemitism training, claims it violates Civil Rights Act

According to a complaint obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, the lawsuit argues that the training violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by federally funded institutions on the basis of race, color, or national origin. “Under the pretense of combating antisemitism, Defendant Northwestern University has enacted policies and practices that prohibit expressions of Palestinian identity, culture, and advocacy for self-determination,” the filing states.

The mandatory video at the center of the controversy was produced by the Jewish United Fund (JUF) and features a montage of statements from Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke juxtaposed with those from anti-Israel activists, illustrating that “you can’t tell the difference” between the two. Northwestern students who refused to complete the training were barred from registering for classes and were given an October 20 deadline to comply.

CAIR contends that the training “equates critical engagement with Zionism with anti-Jewish statements by the Ku Klux Klan,” and discriminates against “Palestinian and Arab students by branding their ethnic and religious identities, cultures, and advocacy … as antisemitic and subject to discipline.”

The complaint also claims the training “restricts Northwestern students from advocating for Palestinian liberation, equal rights, an end to apartheid in Palestine, and for the rights of Palestine’s indigenous people.”

The lawsuit follows months of escalating anti-Israel activism at Northwestern. Earlier this year, protesters vandalized the university’s Holocaust center with graffiti reading “Death to Israel,” “Intifada Now,” and with Hamas triangles. The university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter hosted an anarchist training using materials from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization, encouraging students to “build an Intifada” and “destroy amerika.”

Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, Northwestern has been among several US campuses that saw a surge in antisemitic activity. An anti-Israel Gaza encampment took over Deering Meadow in spring 2024, where Jewish students reported being harassed with slurs such as “dirty Jew” and “Zionist pig.” Video footage showed masked demonstrators wearing Hamas insignia confronting and threatening students, while others displayed defaced posters of university president Michael Schill, who is Jewish, with devil horns and blood drops. The US Department of Justice later included Northwestern among the universities under federal investigation for alleged antisemitic harassment and discrimination following Oct. 7.

CAIR’s complaint also references the violent, antisemitic Deering Meadow encampment (April 25–May 1, 2024), which plaintiffs described as “nonviolent protest” featuring “dancing, prayer, and community building.” Witnesses, however, said some participants shouted antisemitic insults and posted a crossed-out Star of David near the encampment.

The university had previously partnered with CAIR on an anti-discrimination training that relied on the radical organization’s own unverified data to claim Muslims suffer five times more hate crimes than Jews, despite FBI data showing the reverse.

Even as CAIR sues Northwestern for mandating an anti-antisemitism program, its own state chapter promotes the very kind of Diversity, Equity (DEI) and Inclusion workplace education it now condemns. In Michigan, CAIR-MI advertises Workplace Diversity and Sensitivity Training for employers. Executive Director Dawud Walid told local media that his office frequently receives complaints from Muslims who face ridicule or harassment at work.

“Some employees come to us and complain. We contact the employer,” Walid said. “In some cases it’s just ignorance of the employers. We provide them with sensitivity training. If it doesn’t work we refer the people to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and the EEOC … There is verbal taunting, making fun of Muslims how they pray, or mocking the head scarf that females wear.”

CAIR’s Michigan office boasts that its sensitivity programs are designed to foster inclusion and prevent religious discrimination, precisely the purpose of the Northwestern training CAIR’s national organization now calls a civil-rights violation.

CAIR presents itself as a Muslim civil-rights group but has been dogged for decades by accusations of extremism and ties to terrorism. In 2009, federal prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial, the largest in US history, in which millions were funneled to Hamas, a designated terror organization.

CAIR’s longtime executive director Nihad Awad previously led the Islamic Association of Palestine, identified by the US government as a Hamas propaganda arm. Awad drew widespread outrage in November 2023 when he said he was “happy” to see Hamas’s October 7 terrorist massacre in Israel, which killed more than 1,200 people, including Americans.

CAIR has repeatedly platformed controversial figures such as Linda Sarsour, removed from the Women’s March for antisemitic rhetoric, and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who claimed US support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins.”

“The idea that an antisemitism training could somehow threaten anyone’s civil rights is absurd,” Michael Teplitsky, president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, told the Free Beacon “Northwestern worked with JUF to create a program aimed at inclusion and understanding, exactly what universities are supposed to do.”