More than 1,200 people, including Georgetown University faculty, staff, students and other community members, signed an open letter demanding the release of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown researcher detained by federal immigration services March 17.
Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP), an organization of Georgetown employees who support Palestinian self-determination, released the “Open Letter Against the Repression of Free Speech & Academic Freedom” on March 21. At a March 23 protest on Georgetown’s campus, speakers further encouraged protestors to sign the letter and push for Khan Suri’s release.
Federal immigration agents detained Khan Suri, a postdoctoral researcher in Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, on March 17 outside his home in Rosslyn, Va. He is currently being held in a detention center in Alvarado, Texas, according to a federal online locator of detainees.
According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson, Khan Suri was detained for “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” as well as “close connections” to someone affiliated with Hamas. DHS has not yet released evidence to support these claims.
FSJP’s letter connects references to ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza to domestic political controversies under the administration of President Donald Trump.
“The struggles at home and abroad are interconnected: also this week, we witnessed the abduction and detention of a Georgetown faculty fellow, Badar Khan Suri,” the letter reads. “We call for Badar Khan Suri’s immediate release.”
In a March 21 statement on Instagram, FSJP encouraged Georgetown community members to sign the letter and call for Khan Suri’s release.
“Dr. Badar Khan Suri’s abduction and detention demands a response from all his colleagues in academia, and all people of conscience,” FSJP wrote. “We must resist the advancing violations of human and constitutional rights across our country.”