‘ About enforcing a vision of British identity—white, Christian, and naively patriotic’
The new detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of Columbia student scholar Mahmoud Khalil is bright Christian nationalism in activity, according to a 38-year-old Columbia PhD student.
Allie Wong, who specializes in dis/misinformation, radicalization, and conspiracy theories , and ( in her words ) was “brutalized” by police at pro-Hamas rally last year, writes in Religion Dispatches that Khalil’s arrest was” not an anomaly”.
It was” an inflection point”, Wong ( pictured ) says. ” A second encapsulating America’s current gestures of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hostility”.
Khalil, who graduated from Columbia in December, was arrested earlier this month and sent to an ICE detention centre in Louisiana. The Trump administration claims it has the proper to arrest non-citizens for activities like those in which Khalil has been accused of engaging.
These include leading a student party which “openly declared its goal was to ‘ struggle for the total destruction of Western society ‘ while taking guidance from criminal companies”, according to pro-Israel pundits.
On the other hand, free conversation organizations and Democrats in Congress contend Khalil is being punished only for his statement.
Wong says” modern allegations of’ hatred’ shiver free speech and political opposition only as McCarthy-era accusations of communism did”. Such “fus]es ] state repression with the imperatives of white Christian nationalism”.
She adds Senator ( Joe ) McCarthy portrayed communism not just as a political enemy but a “godless ]… ] existential evil”, and that it wasn’t enough to just purge the country of the Reds — “it was about enforcing a vision of American identity—white, Christian, and uncritically patriotic”.
Further: Yale terminates professor’s contract for alleged relationships to criminal organization
What drove McCarthyism has morphed into our present” security position” which, Wong contends, “disproportionately targets Arabs, Muslims, and another non-white, non-Christian individuals and communities”.
Just as anti-communist speech after served to purge academics, artists, and activists from public life, deceptive allegations of racism today warp genuine concerns into a device for criminalizing pro-Palestinian advocacy, paradoxically , undermining the safety , of Jewish communities. Such efforts erase nuance, blur distinctions, and dismiss critiques of Israeli policy as sinister threats to Jewish existence. All who call for an end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians—including , Jews—are now accused of antisemitism and, following]Secretary of State Marco] Rubio’s logic, may be seen as threats to national security.
Wong further alleges Arabs in the U. S. “have been denied a coherent racial identity”, the government classifies the demographic as white, yet does not afford it the same “privileges and protections” that “whiteness” grants others.
Khalil, and those like him, are no different than academics who endured government harassment during the Red Scare and student protesters during the Vietnam War, Wong says.
Last May, Wong wrote ( rather poetically ) about her experience at a Columbia pro-Hamas protest … and , law enforcement’s subsequent response.
MORE: Harvard paper dedicates regular column to ‘ existential threat’ of’ Christian Nationalism ‘
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IMAGE CAPTION &, CREDIT: Allie Wong speaks about Columbia U. pro-Hamas protests, The News Movement/YouTube
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