Lawsuit Challenges MU Parade Ban of Controversial Palestinian Group

Alongside the University of Missouri Marching Tigers at this year’s homecoming parade could be a controversial “Free Palestine” student group.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which is alleged to have terrorist ties, filed a  suit against MU on behalf of Mizzou Students for Justice in Palestine (MSJP).  It comes as the Tigers have sold out all their games this season, with increased attendance also expected at homecoming festivities.

The lawsuit, announced Wednesday, accuses University of Missouri System President Mun Choi of violating the First Amendment by barring the group from participating in the university’s 2024 homecoming parade and forcing MU to allow it to participate in this year’s parade. Yet the legal fight has quickly become about more than parade floats—it’s also drawing attention to CAIR’s own checkered record and the troubling rhetoric of its allies, including MSJP.

CAIR, the self-proclaimed largest Muslim civil rights organization in America, has for years tried to position itself as a mainstream defender of constitutional rights. In an email to Metro Voice, the organization asserted its mission is to “protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.”

But the group’s leadership and national chapters have repeatedly courted controversy for antisemitic and anti-Israel statements. Nihad Awad, CAIR’s executive director, was involved in a now-defunct organization the U.S. government described as a “propaganda apparatus” for Hamas, the terrorist group responsible for the October 7 massacre in Israel.

CAIR’s leader praised the Oct. 7 attack

But it gets worse. Awad publicly celebrated the attack, declaring he was “happy” to see “people breaking the siege,” according to The New York Times, which reported President Joe Biden condemned the remarks at the time. Awad has also called Israel’s existence illegitimate and trafficked in conspiracy theories and blood libel about Jewish organizations “corrupting” the U.S. government.

The rhetoric isn’t limited to national leaders. Zahra Billoo, director of CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, warned her followers that “Zionist synagogues, Hillels and Jewish Federations” are “your enemies.” She minimized the atrocities of October 7 as “decolonization” and has even praised Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.

When she was criticized, CAIR National doubled down and supported her statements. This kind of language has drawn widespread condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans, and the Anti-Defamation League, which notes that CAIR’s leaders routinely frame pro-Israel American Jewish organizations as enemies and spread antisemitic tropes.

Students for Justice in Palestine’s troubled past

The lawsuit against MU centers on the exclusion of MSJP from the 2024 homecoming parade, a decision justified by university officials as necessary for the safety of students and the public. University spokesperson Christopher Ave cited “concerning actions” by MSJP members, including verbal abuse and stalking that led to a senior group leader being banned from campus, reports KOMU-TV Columbia. President Choi pointed to “significant disturbances” at Students for Justice in Palestine events nationwide—including open support for Hamas’s terror attack at other SJP chapters—as a reason for the ban.

In the video below, SJP organizers called on students to be “martyrs.”

Missouri’s MSJP dubiously claims it is not affiliated with the national SJP network. But the record of SJP groups elsewhere raises fair questions. At the University of Virginia, the local SJP chapter praised Hamas’s October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 Israeli civilians, as “a step towards a free Palestine.” Sen. Josh Hawley called out SJP for “lobbying in support of the murder of innocent people” and “menacing Jewish Americans.”

Terrorist organization label

CAIR’s involvement in the case is likely to inflame tensions, not ease them. The organization is now facing a bill in Congress that would label it a foreign terrorist organization, citing its founders’ ties to Hamas and a history of promoting radical ideologies on American campuses. Florida has already designated CAIR as a terrorist front, and the group was named an unindicted co-conspirator (see FBI files here) in the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history.

The University of Missouri says it will defend its decision in court. It’s a case that’s about much more than parade participation: it’s a flashpoint in a broader battle over the boundaries of free speech, campus safety, and the disturbing normalization of anti-Jewish hate under the banner of civil rights.

It’s too early to know if the CAIR lawsuit will result in anti-semtic chants being shouted along with M-I-Z and Z-O-U and Truman the Tiger at the September 27th parade.

–Dwight Widaman | Metro Voice