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Muslim IUPUI student says she is victim of harassment due to Palestine support

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Muslim IUPUI student who is a member of a Palestinian student group says she’s being repeatedly harassed and falsely accused of supporting terrorism.

Police are trying to figure out who is making the blog posts, posters and phone calls about the student.

The student, who asked only to be referred to as Haneen, is a board member of Students for Justice in Palestine. She declined an on camera interview with 24-Hour News 8, saying she fears for her safety.

Haneen and other SJP members gathered on campus for a conference Sunday and found posters accusing Haneen of supporting terrorism. Group members said they also found anonymous blog posts with similar accusations. Haneen said she’s been receiving harassing phone calls this week.

“We are not terrorists. We stand against terrorism. We stand against oppressors,” SJP board member Hassan Jamal said.

Jamal and other campus activists are asking school leaders to publicly condemn the harassment of Haneen.

Chancellor Nasser Paydar released a statement Thursday saying in part, “the University abhors all forms of racism, bigotry and discrimination.” He did not mention any specific incidents.

“When any one of our students are affected, we’re all affected,” IUPUI spokesperson Maggie Smith-Simmons said Friday.

Smith-Simmons said school leaders worked with police to successfully remove a video and one of the blog posts about Haneen.

“We’re doing everything we can to help Haneen and it’s a difficult situation for her,” Smith-Simmons said.

Jamal said he and Haneen’s other friends have been escorting her to class because of her safety concerns.

Both Jamal and Haneen said they considered IUPUI a welcome place until Sunday.

“I hope that IUPUI returns to the glorious IUPUI that I once thought it was,” Jamal said.

School leaders said they don’t know if the people behind the posts, posters and phone calls are IUPUI students.