Lowell High School has barred a Yemen-born activist and journalist from meeting with the campus’ Jewish club, claiming it was not given enough warning about his appearance.
Luai Ahmed, who lives in Sweden, is an openly gay Muslim man who regularly writes on Jewish-Muslim relations and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On his Instagram account (opens in new tab), which has more than 300,000 followers, Ahmed regularly posts videos decrying antisemitism and radical Islam.
Ahmed, who is on a nationwide speaking tour, had been invited to speak to Lowell High School’s “Jew Crew” student group on Nov. 4.
A club member filled out a form this week asking the school for approval, but in an Oct. 30 email obtained by The Standard, Assistant Principal Isaac Alcantar denied the request. “If a speaker is not vetted, we could land in a situation where what they say may impact members of our community in a way that the group/staff had not intended,” Alcantar wrote to the club.
Alcantar said the students had not given administrators the requisite five-day notice and that school officials need to review a presenter’s slides before an appearance.
Keeping tabs on SF’s movers and shakers.
Get the inside scoop on City Hall and local politics in our weekly Power Play newsletter.
The club member responded that she submitted a form seeking speaker approval Oct. 28, a week prior to the scheduled event. She wrote that Ahmed wouldn’t be using slides and could not provide the presentation in advance.
“The students in Jew Crew, and many others that [are] interested in coming, desperately need a way to ask questions, create dialogue, and learn from diverse opinions,” the student wrote. “Preventing this from happening is counter to what Lowell stands for.”
Alcantar had not responded to that email by publication time. When The Standard reached Ahmed on Thursday afternoon, he was unaware that the Lowell event had been canceled.
“Students deserve to hear voices that challenge them to think critically about propaganda, identity, and moral courage,” Ahmed wrote. (opens in new tab) “Silencing or postponing such conversations does not protect students, it deprives them of the chance to confront reality. How many gay Muslim Arabs who grew up under Islamic theocracy and dictatorship do your students get to listen to?”
Lowell was not the only Bay Area high school to cancel an event with Ahmed this week.
Ahmed had been slated to speak Thursday at Alameda High School at an event titled “Beyond Labels: A Journey from Extremism to Empathy,” but administrators postponed the appearance after a pro-Palestine activist group objected.
Alameda Families & Friends for Collective Liberation, working with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, launched a social media campaign (opens in new tab) to stop the “self-proclaimed Zionist” from speaking on campus.
The groups accused Ahmed of engaging in “pinkwashing,” using his identity as a gay man to “project a progressive image of certain communities while vilifying Islam as inherently queerphobic.”
Alameda High School officials sent out a notice Wednesday stating that Ahmed would not be making a presentation until they had an “opportunity to learn more about the speaker and the subject matter,” according to a screenshot of the email posted on social media (opens in new tab).
The Alameda Unified School District confirmed to The Standard that Ahmed’s talk had been postponed. “This falls under our board policy on controversial issues,” AUSD Senior Manager for Community Affairs Susan Davis said. “We want to make sure the principal knows that it’s happening and that there’s alternative viewpoints.
Prior to the postponement, Ahmed commented on an Instagram post from the community groups, encouraging members to come to the event to engage in dialogue. Ahmed met with students Tuesday at Hillel of Silicon Valley.
“Come and learn, ask questions — I am willing to answer,” he wrote.
The cancellations come amid controversies over antisemitic content in California school curricula. The San Francisco Unified School District this year revoked its ethnic studies curriculum over concerns about its characterization of Israel and omission of Jewish identity.
In a report released this month (opens in new tab) by the California Department of Education, the Oakland Unified School District was found to have “contributed to a discriminatory environment for Jewish students and staff” by organizing districtwide teach-ins about Palestine and flying a Palestinian flag on campus.
Lianne Gensler, parent of a Jew Crew member at Lowell, said the administration’s decision to cancel Ahmed’s appearance reflects a double standard applied to Jewish students.
“I am frankly shocked and dismayed that our progressive school, which should be fostering open dialogue and critical thought, is instead silencing voices that speak against extremism,” she wrote in an email to Lowell’s principal, Jan Bautista.
SFUSD spokesperson Laura Dudnick said that Lowell “is still considering the most appropriate path forward for this student club-sponsored event.”
“Administrators are obligated to conduct due diligence when evaluating potential guest speakers,” she said, “particularly with regard to student safety and the integrity of the learning environment.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that an Oct. 7 event hosted at Lowell, “Remembrance for the Martyrs of Palestine,” had not been canceled.