When hate speech turns into conduct

(JNS) — Many in the media have spent the last few days debating the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and activist who led tension-filled campus protests in the past year that targeted Jewish and Zionist students and faculty. Much of the discussion has been on the First Amendment and free-speech rights. Surprisingly, the elephant in the room has been largely ignored.

After the December 2023 congressional hearings that saw three university presidents grilled over their inaction to protect Jewish American students and faculty from discrimination and harassment on campus, one would think that our collective memory would not have forgotten one of the most jarring lines of the hearing. In response to a question by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, said calling for the genocide of Jews would violate Penn’s harassment policy when “speech turns into conduct.”

It is astonishing that so many people refuse to acknowledge that it is Khalil’s conduct that led to him being taken into custody and facing deportation. His attorneys and supporters tout his role as the lead negotiator for the pro-Hamas crowd that occupied a university building during the 2024 anti-Israel demonstrations. But there is a counter-narrative, largely ignored in the mainstream media, that recognizes that Khalil’s conduct includes handing out pro-Hamas pamphlets calling for the destruction of the United States. 

There are a number of questions one must answer when applying for a green card for permanent residency in the United States. Many of them are related to the security of the United States, including the following:

Do you intend to:

Engage in any activity that violates or evades any law relating to espionage (including spying) or sabotage in the United States?

Engage in any activity whose purpose includes opposing, controlling, or overthrowing the U.S. government by force, violence or other unlawful means while in the United States?

Engage in any activity that could endanger the welfare, safety or security of the United States?

Other questions include:

Have you ever served in, been a member of, assisted (helped), or participated in any armed group (a group that carries weapons), for example: paramilitary unit (a group of people who act like a military group, but are not part of the official military), self-defense unit, vigilante unit, rebel group, or guerilla group?

Have you ever been a member of, or in any way affiliated with, the Communist Party or any totalitarian party (in the United States or abroad)?

On last week’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host defended Khalil, stating “I don’t support his point of view, but you know what, if you’re an honest person you have to defend him, if you believe in free speech because that’s what free speech means. I say it all the time when it’s on the other foot, and I can’t change because it’s now this guy. It’s defending the dirtbags you hate.”

Like many, Maher misses the elephant in the room. Khalil engaged in conduct that violated the conditions of his green card. Maher goes on to tout the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression statement on Khalil, “If the government has got anything other than just somebody who is saying things that they don’t like … they need to show it now because, otherwise, the harm to First Amendment freedoms will be serious.”

Maher ends the segment with the following statement, which may be a forewarning of what’s to come if liberal democracies continue to ignore illiberal conduct from those who are in our country by invitation, “… he hates this country, he hates Western civilization, and I defend to his death his right to say it.”

I fear that we are being led down the path of homicidal empathy by those in power who are not only putting themselves at risk but are gambling the entirety of Western civilization. 

Brandy Shufutinsky is a social worker, writer, researcher, and advocate. She has worked towards advancing the rights of victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault within the military community through practice, education, and research.