On Feb. 24, the Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice initiative held an online open classroom on Islamophobia to examine historical and contemporary forms of anti-Muslim racism, immigration enforcement, and political repression. The event, titled “Enemy Alien/ICE, Racism & Empire,” was the first session of their Ramadaniyat series. 

The panel was moderated by Rabab Abdulhadi, director of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies program at San Francisco State University (SFSU). She opened the event with a moment of silence honouring the victims of global conflicts, including Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine. 

Abdulhadi said the series was launched after the cancellation of the only class on Islamophobia at SFSU, which raised concerns about academic freedom. 

“We felt it was necessary to continue this conversation publicly,” Abdulhadi explained. 

She also emphasized that the discussion is particularly crucial in the context of the Trump administration’s use of the Enemy Alien Act to ‘divide and conquer’ immigrant populations.

Throughout the discussion, panellists described Islamophobia as part of a long-standing pattern of racialized state power. Hatem Bazian, lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, described Islamophobia as a persistent form of racism directed at Muslims. He argued that while the issue is widely recognized, institutions and policymakers often only engage with it symbolically.

“Data shows continued high levels of Islamophobic sentiment,” Bazian said. “Absence or only symbolic engagement with addressing Islamophobia limits Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian freedom to participate and speak up in civil society.”

The event’s title references the legal concept of the enemy alien used by the United States during World War II to justify the internment of Japanese Americans. Abdulhadi said similar legal frameworks and rhetoric have re-emerged in contemporary immigration enforcement, particularly through U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations targeting immigrants and international students.

Panellists then discussed several individual cases to illustrate these dynamics.

Amal Thabateh, a staff attorney with the legal advocacy organization Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR), discussed the case of Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman currently held in ICE detention in Texas. According to Thabateh, Kordia was arrested during a pro-Palestine protest in 2024. Although the charges were dropped, she was detained by immigration authorities in 2025 while pursuing a green card.

Thabateh said immigration judges have twice ordered Kordia released on bond, but government appeals have kept her detained.

“It is no secret that Leqaa is being targeted and continues to be confined because of her advocacy for Palestine and because she is Palestinian,” Thabateh said. “She is experiencing her second Ramadan in detention [….] It’s really inhumane, the conditions she’s endured.”

Palestinian author and journalist Laila El-Haddad explained that Kordia’s case shows how intersecting identities can increase vulnerability within immigration systems.

“She is quadruply vulnerable,” El-Haddad said. “She is Muslim, she is a woman, she is Palestinian, and she has a precarious legal status. All of those characteristics have been weaponized.”

Another panellist, Momodou Taal, a doctoral student at Cornell University, described his experience with disciplinary action and immigration scrutiny following pro-Palestine activism on campus. Taal said he was suspended after participating in protests calling for university divestment from companies linked to Israel. 

In March 2025, Taal’s legal advisors warned he could become a target of immigration enforcement, and he chose to self-deport from the United States.

After returning to the United Kingdom, where he holds citizenship, Taal said he was detained by counter-terrorism police under Schedule 7 of the UK Terrorism Act, which allows authorities to question individuals at the border without suspicion.

During the six-hour interrogation, he said officers asked questions about his views on Palestine and his religious identity.

For the panellists, cases like Kordia’s and Taal’s illuminate broader patterns linking Islamophobia, national security, and political repression.

“The crises we’re facing with Islamophobia are part of a long history of empire, colonialism, capitalism and racism,” Bazian said.

Speakers encouraged participants to follow cases like Kordia’s and raise awareness about immigration detention and surveillance targeting Muslim and pro-Palestinian communities.

“Say her name,” Thabateh urged attendees. “Spread the word. Too many people still don’t know about her case.”