{"id":420007,"date":"2026-08-29T07:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T07:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420007\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T07:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T07:08:17","slug":"smu-blocks-cair-muslim-youth-event-citing-abbotts-terrorism-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420007\/","title":{"rendered":"SMU blocks CAIR Muslim youth event, citing Abbott’s terrorism label"},"content":{"rendered":"

Southern Methodist University has blocked a Muslim civil rights group from hosting a youth leadership event on campus, citing the governor\u2019s designation<\/a> of it as a terrorist organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Texas chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, one of the country\u2019s largest Muslim advocacy groups, sought to host its annual Muslim youth leadership symposium at the private university in September. The SMU Muslim Law Students Association planned to co-host the event, which teaches high schoolers about civic engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this week, university officials determined that allowing the event on campus would be \u201cinconsistent with our mission and related university policies,\u201d according to SMU spokesperson Megan Jacob.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abdul-Rehman Asif, outreach coordinator for CAIR\u2019s D-FW chapter, described SMU\u2019s cancellation as the result of a \u201cbroader anti-Muslim push that is coming out from certain groups trying to otherize us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSMU has the right to do whatever they want,\u201d Asif said. \u201cIt\u2019s their campus at the end of the day. At the same time, it is unfortunate because our only goal is to train the next generation of youth and a lot of these students look up to SMU.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

SMU\u2019s decision comes as Texas leaders have increasingly scrutinized Muslim groups \u2014 and opened investigations into institutions hosting their events. In January, Paxton launched a probe into a Dallas-area school district<\/a> after an Islamic athletics competition was scheduled to be held at its facilities. The city of Grand Prairie recently canceled a private Muslim pool party<\/a> at a city-owned water park after Abbott threatened its state funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jacob, the SMU spokesperson, maintained that SMU \u201cwelcomes a wide range of organizations and perspectives to campus as part of our commitment to open inquiry and the free exchange of ideas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

CAIR\u2019s youth leadership symposium aims to teach students how to be more engaged citizens. Elected officials, city leaders and police officers have attended past symposiums, Asif said. At this upcoming one, students will learn how to give public testimony at government meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asif said the event, which has occurred for at least 20 years, has been held on college campuses in the past. The location has allowed other students, many of whom might not feel comfortable coming to a mosque or who do not identify as Muslim, to take part in the event, Asif said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows everybody that we\u2019re simply here to contribute to the rest of what society has going on,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Organizers are now looking for another space to hold the symposium, Asif said. It likely won\u2019t be a college campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.<\/p>\n

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron\u00a0Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Southern Methodist University has blocked a Muslim civil rights group from hosting a youth leadership event on campus,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,95009,89512,89396,89204,90463,89304],"class_list":["post-420007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news-faith","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-ed-lab-college-career","tag-tp-education-lab","tag-tp-texas-politics","tag-tp-university-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}