CAIR

BREAKING: we filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Indiana University for violating Jewish doctoral student Sabina Ali’s First Amendment rights by retaliating against her pro-Palestine expression on two different occasions during the Fall 2025 semester.

The plaintiff, Sabina Ali, issued the following statement at the filing of her lawsuit:

“This lawsuit documents Indiana University’s history of suppressing pro-Palestinian speech, including IU administration’s brutalization of students, faculty, and staff during the Spring 2024 encampment for Gaza. Perpetuating this ongoing repression, Professor Günther Jikeli has sought to suppress my pro-Palestinian expression, violating my First Amendment rights. He has repeatedly falsely characterized activism for Palestinian liberation as ‘terrorism,’ conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and policed the boundaries of Jewish identity to exclude anti-Zionist voices. Jikeli’s disregard for democratic faculty governance and his abuse of authority—such as denying my conference travel funding as targeted punishment for my speech—undermines academic freedom and creates a toxic environment of fear and retaliation, exemplifying how universities can too easily revert from sites of inquiry into instruments of repression.”