In February 2026, Professor Sahar Khamis of UMD’s Department of Communication spoke at the Al Jazeera Forum. Keynote speakers included Khaled Mashal, who, according to the forum’s program, is the “Head of Hamas abroad,” and Abbas Araghchi, foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mashal’s name disappeared from the program after his speech. 

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States since 1997. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led fighters carried out that ideology: deliberately murdering over 800 civilians, hurling grenades into shelters, burning families alive, taking 251 hostages, and filming the atrocities in celebration. Human Rights Watch concluded these acts constituted crimes against humanity. Hamas’s 1988 founding covenant – Article 7 – calls explicitly for the killing of Jews worldwide, framing extermination as a religious obligation. 

The Islamic Republic’s foreign minister represents a regime that shares Hamas’s eliminationist commitments and directs violence at its own people. In January 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps carried out what Amnesty International has called the deadliest crackdown since the 1979 revolution. When millions of Iranians took to the streets demanding economic relief and basic freedoms, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered security forces to fire live ammunition into crowds. Thousands were killed: the Iranian government acknowledges over 3,000; independent estimates run to tens of thousands. The EU has designated the IRGC a terrorist organization in direct response. The UN Human Rights Council has condemned the massacres. Observers have described the January 8–9 massacres as among the largest in modern Iranian history. 

Though Professor Khamis spoke on a panel separate from Mashal and Araghchi’s speeches, Professor Khamis’s UMD affiliation appeared on the forum’s program, alongside Mashal’s and Araghchi. UMD was the only U.S. academic institution with faculty at the event. 

Professor Khamis has every right to hold and express her views. Academic freedom is non-negotiable. We do not call for punishment, termination, or restriction of any kind.

However, Khamis’s record is cause for concern – and raises questions on whether she upholds the same principles of free inquiry that our university should. Free inquiry requires mutual respect to truly flourish. Professor Khamis’s willingness to appear on the same billing with those who advocate for the murder of Jews – calls into question Prof. Khamis’s support for the university’s foundational principles of the free exchange of ideas. This point is magnified when one considers that many UMD faculty, including the authors of this letter, as well as thousands of UMD students and staff, are Jews. 

Professor Khamis’ choice to speak at the forum does not, of course, mean she endorses views expressed there, but a review of her public record makes her attendance all the more concerning. In an article for the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, Professor Khamis condemns Western media for what she calls its “pernicious” coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. In it, she:

• Rejected the label “terrorist attack” for Hamas’s October 7 assault, opting instead for “Hamas operation.”
• Characterized allegations of underage rape as a tactic of war on October 7 as false — despite detailed forensic evidence published by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel documenting systematic sexual violence.
• Denied the existence of Hamas’s military tunnel infrastructure beneath civilian sites — a claim verified by multiple independent sources, including journalists who entered the tunnels.
• In an Arabic-language interview available on YouTube, Professor Khamis referred to the October 7 attack as “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” — the name Hamas itself gave to the massacre.

Professor Khamis’s published record consistently demands historical context for one side of the conflict while omitting engagement with Hamas’s eliminationist charter or the documented atrocities of October 7. Her terminology mirrors Hamas’s own. Her factual claims contradict verified evidence.

In December, 2023, Professor Khamis was appointed to UMD’s antisemitism and anti-Islamophobia task force. The task force convened only after the publication of the positions described above. Faculty members raised concerns. Their objection was specific: a record of denying documented atrocities, adopting the terminology of a designated terrorist organization, and refusing to designate Hamas as such — an organization whose founding covenant calls for the murder of Jews– is difficult to reconcile with membership on a committee charged with addressing antisemitism.

Each element of this record — the published denials, the adopted terminology, the forum appearance, the task force appointment — could be evaluated in isolation. Taken together, they form a pattern that warrants public attention. 

Professor Khamis denies documented atrocities verified by international human rights organizations. She uses Hamas’s own language to describe a massacre. Her profile and affiliation were used to promote the forum, alongside the leadership of Hamas and the IRGC — organizations whose founding documents and recent actions call for and carry out the murder of Jews and the violent suppression of basic human freedoms. And she served on a university committee constituted to address the very form of hatred these organizations espouse.

Are we confusing disagreement with disqualification? We have asked this question; here is the test we apply to ourselves. If any of us appeared at a conference alongside the national director of the Ku Klux Klan or a prominent white supremacist, such as Nick Fuentes, the UMD community should distance itself from us. Not to censor us, though we would deserve that, but to protect the institution’s integrity. At a minimum, we would expect the university to reaffirm the principle that refraining from legitimizing organizations that call for the murder of other faculty on campus, entirely due to their religious and national identities, is a precondition for free inquiry and free speech on campus. Most people would draw that line without hesitation. The question is whether the principle is applied consistently.

Professor Khamis is free to express these opinions at the university, as are we to highlight their nature.

The University of Maryland is committed to free exchange, vigorous debate, and the values of tolerance that make inquiry possible. How is Professor Khamis’s legitimization of an organization that calls for the murder of Jews — through adoption of its language, denial of its documented atrocities, and appearance alongside its leadership — consistent with those commitments?

Brent Goldfarb, Dean’s Professor of Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School of Business

Gilad Chen, Robert H. Smith Chair in Organizational Behavior, Robert H. School of Business

Rellie Derfler-Rozin, Professor, Robert H. School of Business

Bruce Golden, France-Merrick Chair in Management Science, Robert H. Smith School of Business

Neil Goldsman, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Judith Peller Hallett, Professor of Classics and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Emerita

Jeffrey Herf, Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus, Department of History

David A. Kirsch, Associate Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business

Armand Makowski, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Uzi Vishkin, Professor, University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) and Electrical and Computer Engineering

Emanuel Zur, Associate Dean for MS programs, Robert H. School of Business