About 40 Georgetown students stood in Red Square last Thursday wearing handcuffs and holding makeshift bars to protest a recent Immigration and Naturalization Service policy requiring universities to submit information about students from20 Muslim countries to a comprehensive national database.
Members of Campaign Civil Rights, a coalition composed of Amnesty International, Muslim Students Association, Peace Action, Georgetown Solidarity Committee and the Young Arab Leadership Alliance, held up signs and gave speeches denouncing the INS policy and urging the administration not to comply.
Yunis Merza (SFS ‘04), the president of CCR, stated that the new policy infringes on the civil rights of Muslim students at Georgetown.
“This is primarily targeted at over twenty Muslim and Arab students that as a result are being humiliated. It is a violation of privacy,” Merza said.
Under INS policy, international students must report to the INS office to fill out forms, get fingerprinted and have their pictures taken. In addition, students must notify the INS if they change their majors or switch residence halls.
Shadi Hamid (SFS ‘05), a member of the steering committee of CCR, stated that the main goal of the protest was to inform students about the new regulations imposed on international students.
“We wanted to raise awareness about an issue that not a lot of students are familiar with but is very important and will eventually affect all Americans.”Hamid said.
According to coordinators of the protest, CCR hopes to convince the administration to release a statement supporting the rights of international students. Merza said that the group would like the University to refuse to comply with the INS policy.
Hamid said that he believes that unless there is a subpoena or a court order, profiling is a violation of one’s rights and privileges.
“We want to send a message that, as concerned students, we will not let the INS and the FBI trample over the values that make our country great—freedom, justice and tolerance for other religions and cultures,” Hamid said.
