Harvard Muslim Chaplains Condemn HRC Post on Eid Celebration, Citing Harm to Muslim Students

Harvard’s Muslim chaplains condemned a Harvard Republican Club post criticizing an April 4 Eid al-Fitr celebration, calling it “abhorrent” and “Islamophobic” in a Thursday night email to Muslim affiliates — marking the first public rebuke of the post from University employees.

The chaplains wrote that the post, which targeted a Harvard Islamic Society celebration in the Quincy House courtyard, was an “attack on our community” that could deepen feelings of isolation and fear among Muslim students.

“Encountering anti-Muslim hatred, whether from an individual or a recognized student organization on campus, contributes to feelings of unwantedness, isolation, and fear, something deeply hurtful and traumatizing, and something we as a community know and encounter far too often,” the chaplains wrote.

They urged the authors of the post to embrace “the value of dialogue, tolerance and neighborliness” over “hate, bigotry, ignorance, and prejudice.”

The email comes as the HRC faces mounting pressure over the April 4 post, which remains pinned to the club’s X account. On Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations released an open letter calling on University President Alan M. Garber ’76 to discipline the club and condemn what it described as anti-Muslim extremism.

College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo also confirmed on Tuesday that the Dean of Students Office was investigating a formal complaint against the HRC. The complaint centered around potential violations of the College’s harassment and photography policies.

Members of the Harvard Republican Club did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The chaplains declined to comment further for this article.

In the April 4 post, HRC members wrote that “loud music and prayers” at the celebration disrupted students studying for midterms, alleged that religious items were being sold, claimed attendees “covered” the courtyard in “large prayer mats,” and said many of those present were not Harvard affiliates. “Harvard has been captured,” they wrote.

HIS leaders have disputed the post’s factual claims. In a Tuesday op-ed in The Crimson, HIS co-president Moeen M. Razzaque ’26 called the post full of “blatant lies” and wrote that he was “appalled” by its contents. In an April 10 article in The Salient, HIS treasurer Daniel Patel ’27 wrote that there were no prayer mats at the event and that claims that Burqas and Qurans had been sold were inaccurate.

The chaplains linked to both responses in their email and praised HIS leadership for handling the situation “with the decorum and forthrightness of seasoned leaders.”

The chaplains also took aim at the photography and video footage included in the HRC post, describing it as covert surveillance of students.

“Classmates on campus should not secretly surveil their neighbors let alone the religious and festive observances of their neighbors, and later post about it disparagingly,” they wrote.

A University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The chaplains added that they had received “numerous messages of support” from religious, spiritual, and ethical leaders across campus, all of whom condemned the post.

They closed their email by framing the incident as part of a broader pattern demanding attention.

“This incident is indicative of the fact that anti-Muslim bias and Islamophobia are still serious matters that deserve proactive intervention on campus and around the world, the neglect of which puts religious observances for all at risk,” they wrote.

—Staff writer Sebastian B. Connolly can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at sbc.23. Follow him on X @SebastianC4784.

—Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ser.85. Follow her on X @summerellenrose.