‘About enforcing a vision of American identity—white, Christian, and uncritically patriotic’
The recent detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil is white Christian nationalism in action, 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 moment encapsulating America’s current expressions 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 center in Louisiana. The Trump administration claims it has the right to deport non-citizens for actions like those in which Khalil has been accused of engaging.
These include leading a student group which “openly declared its mission was to ‘fight for the total eradication of Western civilization’ while taking instructions from terrorist organizations,” according to pro-Israel pundits.
On the other hand, free speech groups and Democrats in Congress contend Khalil is being punished merely for his speech.
Wong says “contemporary allegations of ‘antisemitism’ chill free speech and political dissent just 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.”
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What drove McCarthyism has morphed into our current “surveillance state” which, Wong contends, “disproportionately targets Arabs, Muslims, and other non-white, non-Christian individuals and communities.”
Just as anti-communist rhetoric once served to purge academics, artists, and activists from public life, disingenuous allegations of antisemitism today warp legitimate concerns into a tool for criminalizing pro-Palestinian activism, 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.
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IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Allie Wong speaks about Columbia U. pro-Hamas protests; The News Movement/YouTube
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