(USNewsMag.com) – Late on Thursday, the Biden administration initiated an investigation into six prominent U.S. universities and a local school district regarding suspected discrimination against both Jews and Muslims. The Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Education announced that five complaints recently filed report instances of antisemitic harassment, while the other two complaints highlight allegations of anti-Muslim harassment.
The probe was ordered by President Joe Biden after he received complaints from Jewish students at Harvard University, New York University (NYU), Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University in New York City; Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; as well as Barnard College—all part of the Ivy League group of elite private colleges that includes Harvard and Yale.
They also include the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena; Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Biden administration’s investigation late Thursday directly targeted antisemitic and anti-Muslim discrimination claims to counter what is happening in Gaza.
The probe will also target the following institutions: the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Wellesley College, Cornell University, Lafayette College, Cooper Union, and the Maize Unified School District (in Kansas).
Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon further acknowledged that the organization acknowledges the apprehension felt by students and school communities as hatred spreads within educational institutions.
The investigations come at a time when college campuses across America have been rocked by allegations against students affiliated with white supremacist groups such as Identity Evropa (IE), American Vanguard (AV), and Patriot Front (PF).
The current wave of political unrest in the US surrounding Middle Eastern politics was sparked by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. On that day Hamas fighters paraglided over the Israeli border, landing in an open-air music festival. The militants killed hundreds of civilians—mostly college students—in cold blood, and took more than 240 hostages.
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