NYU Activists Harassed Online After Confronting Chelsea Clinton at Christchurch Vigil
Student activists confronted Chelsea Clinton after the vigil for remarks she made criticizing Rep. Ilhan Omar.
By Téa Kvetenadze and Maggie Chirdo
Members of the NYU community held a vigil in Kimmel on Friday in response to the deadly terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The gunman opened fire during religious services, killing 49 people and injuring dozens.
Several speakers, including various faith leaders, addressed the packed Kimmel stairs with messages of solidarity and love. NYU student Mariam Abukwaik revealed to the crowd that her uncle was among those killed.
“The terrorist attack today does not make any sense,” she said. “My uncle was murdered. New Zealand families are broken.”
She added that such atrocities are part of a larger global issue of Islamophobia. “Attacks like today aren’t new,” Abukwaik said. “Muslims are being persecuted everywhere.”
The gathering was reminiscent of the response to the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October that killed 11 people, during which the NYU community also packed the Kimmel stairs to grieve and pay their respects. Friday’s vigil was hosted by groups including the Islamic Center at NYU, the NYU Muslim Students Association, and the Black Muslim Initiative.
Also attending the event was former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who co-founded the Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership in NYU’s Division of Student Affairs in 2012. After the vigil, several student activists angrily confronted Clinton about her recent criticism of Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom Clinton accused of anti-Semitism.
“This right here is the result of a massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you have put out into the world, and I want you to know that and I want you to feel that deep inside,” Leen Dweik, an activist and NYU senator-at-large, told Clinton. “Forty-nine people died because of the rhetoric that you put out there.”
Other protestors yelled that Clinton had “stoked a genocide” and that her “Islamophobic rhetoric got people killed.”
Clinton could be heard apologizing, and saying, “I do believe words matter.” She left Kimmel shortly afterward.
“Our liberations are bound together, and if you stand in opposition to one people’s liberation, you stand against in opposition to all liberations,” Dweik told Local when asked about the confrontation. “I don’t want you standing with Muslims if you hate black people, if you hate Jewish people, if you hate the people in Palestine. I don’t want you.”
Khalid Latif, executive director and imam for the Islamic Center at NYU and another co-founder of the Of Many Institute, linked the Christchurch attack to other acts of violence in the United States; in particular, he cited the 2012 shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and the 2015 massacre at a black church in Charleston. He asked those in attendance to continue to condemn white supremacy and show up for their Muslim friends.
“The only thing that is going to extinguish this bigotry, this hatred, this supremacy, is real love, unconditional,” Latif told the crowd. “If you want to know what happens when we call [white supremacy] anything less than that we just add to the further victimization of Muslims and minorities of all backgrounds.”
Updated: March 16, 2019
Video of the incident with Chelsea Clinton quickly went viral after Friday’s vigil and divided social media, with prominent pundits and politicians expressing both outrage and support for Dweik’s actions. Both Dweik and her friend and fellow activist Rose Asaf have since received threats of death and sexual violence, according to a tweet from Asaf, who has set her account to private.
In an interview with NYU Local immediately after the confrontation, Dweik said that she thought that Clinton’s attendance at the vigil was “ridiculous.”
“Our collective memory is not that short,” she said. “You can’t be in a position of authority and responsibility and say things like that and get away with an ‘I’m sorry.’”
Dweik responded to the criticism with a Twitter thread, in which she explained that she felt angry and sad at the vigil, “in a space that was supposed to center me and my fellow muslims in mourning and instead became a space in which non-muslims preached abt [sic] love while turning around and supporting violent campaigns against muslims globally.”
Journalist Yashar Ali was one of those to criticize the pair, calling the confrontation “shameful” on his Twitter. Mayor Bill de Blasio, himself an NYU alum, also voiced his support for Clinton.
Others came to Dweik and Asaf’s defense, including journalists Ashley Feinberg and Noah Hurowitz.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Dweik explained that she had wanted to convey her grief to Clinton. “It wasn’t this planned attack,” she told the paper. “I very specifically waited until after the vigil. I wanted this person to know they’ve caused harm. You’ve done things that have hurt this community and the grief people feel today you’re not separate from.”
