CAIR and CAIR-Chicago Designate University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as ‘Hostile Campus’ for Targeting Anti-Genocide Voices
- For Immediate Release and Distribution -
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, has designated the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as a Hostile Campus due to its pattern of targeting students who advocate for Palestinian rights and speak out against genocide.
SEE: CAIR Designates UIUC as a Hostile Campus
“UIUC has cultivated a dangerous climate for students who support justice for Palestine,” said Corey Saylor, CAIR’s Research and Advocacy Director. “This is not inclusion, it’s institutionalized Islamophobia.”
Saylor added: “It’s actually been beyond crisis and appalling at this point. Universities like UIUC are not just failing to protect their students but actively punishing them for defending human rights.”
Despite public claims of inclusion, UIUC has subjected Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and allied students to surveillance, arrests, felony charges, and policy crackdowns. In 2024, campus police dismantled a peaceful pro-Palestinian encampment, arrested students, and allegedly used license plate readers, video footage, and social media to surveil others. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was reportedly disbanded, while the administration imposed harsh protest restrictions that disproportionately target Muslim students.
Civil liberties organizations, including the ACLU of Illinois, have condemned the university’s criminalization of dissent. UIUC previously faced AAUP censure for violating academic freedom in the case of Palestinian professor Steven Salaita in 2014. In 2025, UIUC received a failing 49.9/100 free speech score, with students describing the climate as “very anti-Palestine.”
UIUC is the latest addition to CAIR’s list of Hostile Campuses, which now includes more than 20 universities nationwide. Learn more at islamophobia.org/hostile-campuses.
Washington, D.C., CAIR recently launched its “Unhostile Campus Campaign” aimed at fostering a campus environment in which Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other students, faculty, and staff opposing the genocide in Gaza enjoy free speech and academic freedom and are not subjected to state force or university discipline due to their viewpoints.
Institutions of particular concern may be found at: https://islamophobia.org/category/hostile-campuses/
Students, staff, and faculty who wish for their university or college campus to be potentially designated as a hostile campus should complete the ‘Report a Hostile Campus’ form. This form is intended solely to inform CAIR’s ‘UnHostile Campus Campaign.’
Individuals seeking CAIR’s legal and advocacy services should contact their local office or chapter, or if there is no local chapter, file a formal report with CAIR’s National Civil Rights Department.
Earlier this year, CAIR released its 2025 Civil Rights Report “Unconstitutional Crackdowns,” which reveals that Islamophobia continues to be at an all-time high across the country. CAIR said viewpoint discrimination against those speaking out against genocide and apartheid was a key factor in many cases.
CONTACT: Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, 202-870-0166, arehab@cair.com; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com