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President Santa J. Ono
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations said Wednesday it filed a complaint requesting a federal investigation in response to a leaked tape in which University of Michigan President Santa J. Ono complains that Congress and other powerful groups pressured the school to prioritize combating antisemitism over Islamophobia.
CAIR's complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.
“We urge President Ono to do what is right and ensure that the University of Michigan is in compliance with its obligations under federal and state law to ensure that no students, staff, or faculty experience a hostile environment on campus due to Islamophobia or anti-Arab bias," said CAIR staff attorney Amy V. Doukoure in a statement.
“There can be no excuse or exceptions for the University of Michigan’s failure to address Islamophobia on campus simply because of pressure from powerful groups or politicians with political agendas," Doukoure said.
CAIR Attorney Amy V. Doukoure
The leaked audio tape, posted on X of the university’s Tahrir Coalition, an activist group composed of over 90 student organizations supporting the liberation of Palestine, was first reported by Metro Times.
“The government could call me tomorrow and say in a very unbalanced way, the university is not doing enough to combat antisemitism, and I could say it’s not doing enough to combat islamophobia, and that’s not what they want to hear, so the whole situation is not balanced,” Ono says in the leaked audio. “There are powerful groups who may know that my peers from presidents of other universities have been in the hot seat in Congress. The question from Congress is not balanced. It’s focused almost entirely on antisemitism, which I think is an issue, but there’s also islamophobia as well.”
Doukoure stated:
"CAIR-MI has repeatedly called on the University of Michigan and President Santa Ono to take action to quell Islamophobia on campus since the incidents on October 7 last year."
The complaint comes at the same time Jewish students have complained about a rise of antisemitism at U-M since Oct. 7, 2023.
UM did not immediately respond to a request from Deadline Detroit for comment.
