Harvard University is investigating the Harvard Republican Club (HRC) after the student group’s social media post targeting a Muslim campus event triggered backlash and accusations of harassment.
The Dean of Students Office is reviewing whether the club violated Harvard’s harassment and photography policies with the post after receiving a complaint, according to a report by The Harvard Crimson.
On April 4, the HRC shared a post criticizing the Harvard Islamic Society’s Eid al-Fitr event on campus celebrating the end of Ramadan. The post remains pinned to the top of the student group’s X account.
“Today, students were interrupted from their midterm studies for several hours by loud music and prayers outside their windows,” it reads. “Harvard’s historic Quincy Courtyard had been turned into a bazaar selling Hijabs, Burqas and Qurans for an Eid Mubarak celebration hosted by Harvard’s Islamic Society.”
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The club also claimed “prayer mats” covered the grass, speakers “blasted Islamic music” and the event “attracted dozens of unvetted strangers who roamed outside student dorms.”
The post further alleged that Harvard campus security told one of its members he was not allowed to take pictures of the event.
“Harvard has been captured,” the post said.
Moeen M. Razzaque, co-president of the Harvard Islamic Society, pushed back on the claims in an op-ed for the Crimson, calling the post “blatant lies” and “bigotry.”
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He defended the event as a “typical gathering of University affiliates and guests” that was planned months in advance with administrative approval, and he called on Harvard to take disciplinary action against the Republican group.
“Since the HRC chose to engage in flagrant conduct with no remorse, they must face consequences. A formal university complaint has been lodged; if there is no further University action or intervention after such a public attack, then Harvard’s stated commitment to religious pluralism is only in writing,” he wrote.
Muslim civil rights group The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also urged Harvard to act.
In a letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber on April 14, the group demanded the university take “immediate disciplinary action” against the Harvard Republican Club for its “abusive targeting of Muslim students celebrating Eid” and “publicly condemn Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism.”
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Harvard University and the Harvard Republican Club did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The Ivy League university is currently battling the Trump administration over its crackdown on antisemitism on university campuses.
Last week, the Trump administration slashed more than $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts to Harvard after President Garber said the school would not comply with the administration’s demands related to antisemitism.
The dispute comes after the Justice Department sued Harvard in March, alleging it failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students from harassment and discrimination on campus after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
