Former Harvard Professor on Resignation Over Anti-Muslim Bias and Institutional Response

Resignation from Harvard Divinity School

• 🎓 Hussein Rashid resigned from his role as assistant dean at Harvard's Divinity School in August 2023, citing anti-Muslim bias.
• 💔 He felt a sense of relief upon resigning but also grief for the program he helped build and the students he left behind.

Campus Division and Program Restructuring

• 📉 Following the October 7th Hamas attack, Harvard experienced fierce division on campus, with students feeling threatened.
• 🚫 Rashid's department, Religion and Public Life, faced accusations of being one-sided and anti-Zionist, leading to the closure or restructuring of programs related to Palestine.
• 🗣️ Despite claims that their program was teaching Jew hatred, no one at the university administration spoke out in their defense.

Trump Administration's Involvement

• 📧 The Trump administration sent a letter with sweeping demands, including shutting down initiatives claimed to fuel anti-Semitic harassment.
• 💰 The administration subsequently cut off over $2 billion in federal funding and initiated federal inquiries into the university.

Harvard's Institutional Response

• 💡 Rashid believes Harvard is relishing Trump's administration's actions as an opportunity to curtail programming under the guise of anti-discrimination.
• ✂️ The Divinity School decided not to renew the contracts for most staff in Rashid's office, reducing the program from 15 people to two, citing budgetary considerations.
• 🏛️ He asserts that Harvard remains a primarily white-serving institution and struggles with its identity, suggesting this underlies the events.

Harvard's Official Statement

• ✅ A Harvard Divinity School spokesperson stated that the school upholds anti-discrimination and anti-bullying policies and that senior leadership had reached out to Rashid.