The Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative is a program at San Francisco State University founded and led by controversial professor Rabab Abdulhadi. Abdulhadi’s actions under the auspices of the initiative have led to allegations of antisemitism and resulted in a lawsuit against the university claiming anti-Jewish discrimination was taking place. ^{1 2}

Founding and History

In 2002, Robert Corrigan, who was president of San Francisco State University at the time, launched a task force to counter what he considered to be Islamophobia and anti-Arab and Palestinian sentiments. As a result, Rabab Abdulhadi was hired in 2006 establish the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program within the College of Ethnic Studies at the school. ³

Since its establishment, the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative and its director Rabab Abdulhadi have come under accusations of antisemitic behavior, which Abdulhadi’s allies have characterized as “vicious attacks and smear campaigns by Zionist and right-wing, white supremacist forces.” Abdulhadi’s allies blame these attacks for the suspension of the search for two tenure-track faculty members for the program and have claimed that successive administrations have cut her and the initiative out of Muslim and Arab-related initiatives at the university. ⁴

Civil Rights Act Lawsuit

In 2017, the Lawfare Project, a network of legal professionals that works to defend the legal rights of Jewish people, filed a lawsuit on behalf of two students at San Francisco State University against the university’s board of trustees, administrators, and the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative’s director Rabab Abdulhadi. The lawsuit alleged that the university had created a hostile environment for Jewish students that had violated their civil rights. The case was settled between the university and the students in 2019, with the school agreeing to hire a coordinator for Jewish student life, to provide more funding to promote viewpoint diversity, and to issue a public statement that acknowledged that Zionism is an important aspect of many Jews’ identity. ^{5 6}

Funding

The Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative is not an independent nonprofit organization and is part of San Francisco State University, which does not break down in its public tax documents how much funding the initiative receives. ⁷

However, the initiative’s website does list donors and their cumulative donations as of 2017. Notable donors include Buena Vista United Methodist Church, which contributed between $10,000 and $24,999; WESPAC Foundation Inc., which contributed between $5,000 to $9,999; and the American Studies Association, ADC Research Institute, EMAAR BRANDS Corporation, University of California Berkeley, and the Tides Center, which all donated smaller amounts. ⁸

Projects and Programs

The Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative administers several different programs at San Francisco State University. The program offers a minor in Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas and includes several courses in gender and sexuality, including Introduction to Arab and Arab American Feminisms, Queer Arabs in the US, and Gender and Modernity in Arab and Muslim Communities. ⁹

Research Projects

The initiative is engaged in several research projects, such as Teaching Palestine, which seeks to gain recognition for Palestinian issues in wider critical studies, and issues, such as racial and environmental movements. Other initiatives include mapping Arab and Muslim diasporas, documenting activists within those populations and their oral histories, and the Gender and Sexuality in the Global South/Arab and Muslim Communities project. ¹⁰

Edward Said Scholarship

The initiative offers a scholarship to students seeking a minor in Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas. The scholarship is named after Edward Wadie Said, who helped to establish post-colonialism as a field of critical theory and was also an activist for Palestine. ¹¹

Leadership

Rabab Abdulhadi is the founding director and senior fellow at the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative. Abudulhadi is a controversial academic who has been accused of promoting antisemitism and was named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that San Francisco State University and Abudulhadi in particular were creating an environment hostile in Jewish students in violation of federal civil rights laws. ^{12 13}

The organization that brought the suit, the Lawfare Project, has alleged that Abdulhadi has positively portrayed terrorists who have murdered Jews and has stated that Zionists are equivalent to white supremacists. ¹⁴ As a result of the lawsuit, San Francisco State University agreed to numerous changes, including a statement about Zionism being part of many Jews’ identity and hiring a coordinator for Jewish life. ¹⁵

Abdulhadi sought legal sanctions against the Lawfare Project, but her motion was dismissed in court. ¹⁶

1. “Welcome to Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas (AMED) Studies | AMED Studies.” AMED. Accessed November 15, 2022. https://amed.sfsu.edu/welcome-sf-state-web-content-management-system.
2. “California State University (CSU) Agrees to Landmark Settlement with The Lawfare Project and Winston & Strawn LLP to Safeguard Jewish Students’ Rights.” The Lawfare Project, March 20, 2019. https://www.thelawfareproject.org/releases/2019/3/20/sfsu-settlement.
3. “SFSU President and Provost: Stop Undermining Dr. Abdulhadi, Friends of AMED and Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Students.” Support Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi, February 16, 2021. Accessed November 15, 2022. https://supportprofabdulhadi.org/2021/02/16/open-letter-to-president-mahoney-and-sfsu-administration/.
4.  “SFSU President and Provost: Stop Undermining Dr. Abdulhadi, Friends of AMED and Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Students.” Support Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi, February 16, 2021. Accessed November 15, 2022. https://supportprofabdulhadi.org/2021/02/16/open-letter-to-president-mahoney-and-sfsu-administration/.
5. “California State University (CSU) Agrees to Landmark Settlement with The Lawfare Project and Winston & Strawn LLP to Safeguard Jewish Students’ Rights.” The Lawfare Project, March 20, 2019. Accessed November 15, 2022. https://www.thelawfareproject.org/releases/2019/3/20/sfsu-settlement.
6. Campion, Angela. “Professor Rabab Abdulhadi Moves To Dismiss Frivolous ‘Lawfare’ Suit That Targets Campus Advocacy for Palestinian Rights.” Palestine Legal, August 21, 2017. https://palestinelegal.org/news/rabab-abdulhadi-moves-to-dismiss-frivolous-lawfare-suit.
7.  “Welcome to Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas (AMED) Studies | AMED Studies.” AMED. Accessed November 15, 2022. https://amed.sfsu.edu/welcome-sf-state-web-content-management-system.
8. “Donor Recognition | AMED Studies.” AMED. Accessed November 15, 2022. https://amed.sfsu.edu/donor-recognition.
9.  “Minor in Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas | AMED Studies.” AMED. Accessed November 17, 2022. https://amed.sfsu.edu/amed-minor.
10. “Intellectual Research Projects | AMED Studies.” AMED. Accessed November 17, 2022. https://amed.sfsu.edu/intellectual-research-projects.
11. “Edward Said Scholarship | AMED Studies.” AMED. Accessed November 17, 2022. https://amed.sfsu.edu/edward-said-scholarship.
12. The Lawsuit.” Support Prof. Rabab Abdulhadi, November 6, 2017. https://supportprofabdulhadi.org/the-lawsuit/.
13. “California State University (CSU) Agrees to Landmark Settlement with The Lawfare Project and Winston & Strawn LLP to Safeguard Jewish Students’ Rights.” The Lawfare Project, March 20, 2019. https://www.thelawfareproject.org/releases/2019/3/20/sfsu-settlement.
14. The Lawfare Project. “U.S. District Court Rejects SFSU Professor Rabab Abdulhadi’s Frivolous Sanctions Motion Targeting the Lawfare Project.” The Lawfare Project. The Lawfare Project, May 31, 2019. https://www.thelawfareproject.org/releases/2019/5/31/us-district-court-rejects-sfsu-professor-rabab-abdulhadis-frivolous-sanctions-motion-targeting-the-lawfare-project.
15. “California State University (CSU) Agrees to Landmark Settlement with The Lawfare Project and Winston & Strawn LLP to Safeguard Jewish Students’ Rights.” The Lawfare Project, March 20, 2019. https://www.thelawfareproject.org/releases/2019/3/20/sfsu-settlement.
16. “U.S. District Court Rejects SFSU Professor Rabab Abdulhadi’s Frivolous Sanctions Motion Targeting The Lawfare Project.” The Lawfare Project, May 31, 2019. https://www.thelawfareproject.org/releases/2019/5/31/us-district-court-rejects-sfsu-professor-rabab-abdulhadis-frivolous-sanctions-motion-targeting-the-lawfare-project.