‘Sense of fear’: Harvard reports find anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bias

Harvard president says students report being pushed ‘to the periphery of campus life’ over their identities and beliefs. Students and staff at Harvard University have faced both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia amid a deeply polarised atmosphere on the campus of one of the top universities in the United States, separate reports have found. The release of the reports on Tuesday follows the establishment of separate task forces on combating anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim sentiment last year amid campus protests over Israel’s war on Gaza. The task force on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias found a similar climate of hostility, describing a “deep-seated sense of fear” among students and a state of “uncertainty, abandonment, threat, and isolation” on campus. “As Muslim students we have been living in constant fear,” the taskforce quoted an unnamed student as saying.