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Washington, D.C. | www.mpac.org ([link removed]) | June 7, 2025 — The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) strongly condemns the baseless accusations made by Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which equated peaceful student protestors exercising their First Amendment rights on college campuses with members of terrorist organizations. Mr. Greenblatt made these remarks at the Republican Attorneys General’s summer national meeting in New York, where, according to exclusive audio obtained by The Forward, he characterized student protestors as “acting like members of ISIS and al-Qaeda” and warned that left-wing campuses posed “the real deal threat” to Jewish communities.

Al-Qaeda conducted the worst terrorist attack on our nation’s soil, resulting in the deaths of over 3,000 Americans. ISIS carried out a brutal campaign of terror that included mass executions, enslavement, and the beheading of American journalists—actions that bear no resemblance whatsoever to students peacefully protesting on college campuses. If Mr. Greenblatt is referring to the recent targeted violence against Jewish people conducted by Elias Rodriguez and Mohamed Sabry Soliman, neither perpetrator was a student protester on a college campuses.

Mr. Greenblatt’s comparison of peaceful student protesters to members of ISIS and al-Qaeda is not only inflammatory—it represents a categorical misapplication of the legal framework surrounding the First Amendment and a dangerous invitation to suppress protected speech under the guise of national security. Under well-settled constitutional law, the government—and by extension, any institution acting under public pressure—cannot punish or restrict expression merely because it is unpopular, controversial, or even offensive. This is merely the latest example of how the ADL, a purported civil rights organization, throws academic freedom and 1st Amendment rights under the bus using debunked, discredited, and discriminatory social science based on harmful stereotypes of Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians.

The ADL cannot, in good conscience, continue to be seen as a credible partner on civil rights, hate, and religious freedom. We ask members of the interfaith community, civil rights organizations, and religious freedom groups to join us in publicly condemning Mr. Greenblatt’s egregious statements. This is not the first time he has made egregious remarks about students on campus and will not be the last.

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