Two days after the Georgetown University College Republicans (GUCR) removed a post claiming Muslims are incompatible with a Christian vision of the United States, GUCR members deleted the group’s X account as the club faces a university investigation following widespread community backlash.
The now-deleted post on X said “Let’s Be Honest: Muslims have no place in American society.” After the post and the widespread outrage, several GUCR members denounced the post and left the club’s messaging channel, while other student organizations and individuals called for the university to sanction GUCR.
After GUCR took down the post early Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for the group said the post did not fully represent the organization’s viewpoint.
“We affirm the First Amendment rights of all Americans and we are called to love everyone,” a GUCR spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Our properly articulated position is that sharia law is incompatible with Western civilization and American society as it seeks to oppress women and persecute religious minorities. This wasn’t expressed in the original tweet which is why it was promptly deleted.”
On March 11, university administrators condemned the post as Islamophobic and said they are investigating the incident. In a subsequent statement on its Instagram page, GUCR said the post did not reflect the organization’s values.
“Last night, the Georgetown University College Republicans were made aware of an X post regarding Muslims in the United States,” GUCR wrote on the story post, which expired Thursday. “This post is inconsistent with the values of our organization, and was made without the knowledge of the executive board. It was promptly deleted upon its discovery. Since then, appropriate internal disciplinary action has been taken.”
“The executive board has taken appropriate action to ensure posts like these would not be made again,” GUCR added. “We reaffirm our commitment to Georgetown University’s values.”
Since then, GUCR has archived its entire X page. In the days leading up to and after the post about Muslim Americans, the account published multiple posts referencing minority groups in the United States, including one discrediting same-sex marriage licenses and one condemning birthright citizenship for “foreign aliens.”
These posts remained online until GUCR deleted its account. The organization also made its Instagram page private early Wednesday evening, though it was public again midday Thursday.
The Georgetown University Student Association (GUSA), Georgetown’s student government, said GUCR’s actions constitute harassment.
“There is no room for debate when it comes to the humanity of our students,” GUSA wrote in a March 11 Instagram post. “Any response from GUCR that is not a full retraction and apology for this disgusting Islamophobia is entirely unacceptable. We must be clear: Targeting students based on their faith, gender, or sexual orientation is not ‘political expression’; it is targeted harassment.”
GUSA President Darius Wagner (CAS ’26) told The Hoya on March 10 that he met with university officials to discuss the incident. GUSA later wrote in the Instagram post that interim University President Robert M. Groves “has been briefed” on the incident and that Groves encouraged administrators to reach a formal conclusion to the investigation “swiftly.”
Under Georgetown’s student organization standards, clubs receiving benefits such as GUCR are expected to uphold “respect for others” and adhere to the university’s code of student conduct and non-discrimination policies. The university code of student conduct prohibits harassment or discrimination on the basis of a protected category, such as religion, race or sex.
In the days following the initial March 8 post, student groups including Georgetown University College Democrats (GUCD), GUPride, Georgetown Jewish Student Association, Georgetown University South Asian Society and Asian American Student Association condemned GUCR’s post on social media.
Georgetown’s Muslim Student Association (MSA), a student affinity group, said GUCR’s actions directly contradict the university’s values of embracing diversity.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent tweet and Islamophobic sentiment expressed by GU College Republicans (GUCR),” MSA wrote in a March 11 post. “For an organization representative of, and funded by, Georgetown, a school that claims to embrace community in diversity, to be so blatantly discriminatory and hateful is unacceptable.”
“Both the retweet and their follow-up statement reflect the xenophobic, Islamophobic, and orientalist tropes that members of our community face and institutions like Georgetown have a responsibility to counter,” MSA added.
Ahmad Abuirshid (CAS ’26), MSA’s president, said it is important for community members to be well-informed about Islam in light of the post.
“It’s Ramadan — it’s a good time to learn about Islam and talk to your fellow Muslims,” Abuirshid told The Hoya. “Learn more about the religion before you make your own piece or make your own remarks about it. Inform yourselves.”
“I would say the person that made the tweet is very uninformed, and their follow-up was very uninformed as well, that’s the nicest way I can put it in all honesty,” Abuirshid added.
GUCD’s statement encouraged students to submit a bias report to the university about the incident. After a student files a bias-related report, the university can review cases, provide support for affected students and create channels for students to file formal complaints that could lead to disciplinary action.
Will Severn (SFS ’27), who is writing a letter to university administrators, said he believes GUCR is in violation of student organization standards.
“They receive funding from the tuition dollars that all of us pay into the university,” Severn told The Hoya. “The student organization standards and the access to benefits policy are incredibly clear about how organizations should conduct themselves, how they practice and should operate, and that post flies in the face of all of them.”
Spencer Woodall (LAW ’27), a former GUCR board member, said the post will deter prospective GUCR members.
“The college is a mostly liberal campus, and I feel like it has a very important place to make sure that people who might have more Republican-leaning views or people who just want to listen to other perspectives, they can have a place to do that,” Woodall told The Hoya. “But, the issue is that with a tweet like this, I doubt many people who were willing to hear other political beliefs or find other communities would be willing to seek out the College Republicans, because they wouldn’t want to be attributed to an organization that tweets things like this.”
Jay Ennis (SFS ’07), who served as GUCR chairman in 2005, said the post does not represent conservative values.
“I am disheartened to learn of the GUCR’s misrepresentation of the Islamic faith and community as it pertains to American society,” Ennis wrote to The Hoya. “It does not reflect what we as Republicans stand for and should not be reflected in a university that builds itself upon inclusivity for everyone, regardless of religious thought or creed. In a time of increasing divisiveness, I would encourage the organization to do better.”
Luke Madden (SFS ’28), a registered Republican who left the GUCR chat, said the post takes advantage of the right to freedom of speech.
“We are given extensive freedoms and privileges in this country, and I think this is a way of abusing those because free speech, and academic free speech in particular, is meant to cultivate intellectual conversation, discussion, on the major issues of our time,” Madden told The Hoya. “To instead turn around and use it to propagate these ideas and this rhetoric is extraordinarily hurtful.”
Abuirshid said discriminatory speech should not be tolerated at Georgetown.
“No one should feel comfortable saying that on a college campus where so many people have so many different backgrounds,” Abuirshid said. “We all come to study together for these four quick years, and no one should be on the receiving end of such hate speech.”
