Muslim Students Association endorses Jamal Edwards for Young Trustee

After meeting with the three Young Trustee candidates, Duke Muslim Students Association has unanimously decided to endorse Jamal Edwards. We believe that Edwards’s commitment to advocating for racial justice and inclusivity on campus will translate well to his role on the Board. Edwards has proven, on both the university and national level, that he is wholeheartedly committed to issues affecting marginalized and minority groups, which is important to us as Muslim students. Furthermore, Edwards is in tune with issues that concern the majority of the students, including the current housing model and its impact on Duke’s social culture. We are convinced that Jamal Edwards is the most competent and dedicated candidate for the role of Young Trustee, and we fully support his candidacy.

Wills Rooney’s extensive experience with religious life at Duke gives him insight into the concerns of Muslim students on campus; however, we are not entirely taken in by his conception of a university-wide curriculum as a primary concern for the Duke community.

We appreciate Max Schreiber’s declared commitment to increasing faculty diversity and university affordability, but we do not believe that he is equipped to do so. We are troubled by many of Schreiber’s uninformed answers to our inquiries during the endorsement meeting, including his statements that Pakistan is one of the “Arabic” countries neighboring Israel and that Egypt had a “theocratic military” in 1948. Schreiber failed to explain his essentialist statements about the “violent” nature of Palestinians, who are represented in our community. Furthermore, Schreiber vilified Malcolm X, a prominent Black Muslim freedom fighter, and appropriated Dr. King’s life work in order to belittle student activists, revealing a lack of historical knowledge on the subject. Moreover, we are alarmed by Schreiber’s statement that his campaign’s focus on the hiring of faculty of color is motivated merely by his constituency rather than personal interest. We express our grave concern for the implications of his election for the future of the student body.

Yossra Hamid, Trinity ‘16

President, Duke Muslim Students Association