Under Federal Investigation: How Rutgers’ Law Center Used Taxpayer Funds to Platform Extremism

• Rutgers’ law-school center faces bipartisan congressional investigation for hosting speakers linked to terrorism and antisemitism.
• Director Sahar Aziz is accused of turning an academic institute into a partisan platform advancing pro-Palestinian activism.
• Events held days after the October 7 attacks praised Hamas’s violence and justified “resistance” narratives.
• The sponsor firm’s co-founder, arrested on child-sex charges, is still listed on the center’s website.
• Lawmakers demand independent oversight and federal review of taxpayer-funded university programs promoting extremist viewpoints.

When Rutgers University founded the Center for Security, Race, and Rights (CSRR) in 2018, it described the new institute as “a hub for critical scholarship on discrimination and civil liberties.”[1] Its stated goal—exploring how national-security policy intersects with race, religion, and civil rights—was admirable. Yet, within a few years, this publicly funded law-school center would become the focus of a bipartisan congressional investigation and a national controversy over antisemitism, academic neutrality, and the use of taxpayer money.

The question now confronting New Jersey’s flagship university is larger than one center: how can a publicly funded institution allow a unit accused of legitimizing extremism and promoting one-sided political agendas to operate under its banner?

Nexus with U.S.-Designated Terrorist Group

The defining controversy erupted on September 11, 2021, the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. CSRR co-hosted an online panel titled “Whose Narrative? 20 Years Since September 11, 2001.” Among its speakers was Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida professor who in 2006 pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.[2] [3]

The symbolism of hosting a convicted terror supporter on the anniversary of 9/11 drew immediate condemnation; families of victims called it “academic amnesia.” The outrage reached Washington. On March 27, 2024, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), launched an investigation into Rutgers. Her letter to University President Jonathan Holloway left little ambiguity[4]: “Rutgers-Newark’s Center for Security, Race, and Rights (CSRR) has become notorious as a hotbed of radical antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist activity. CSRR’s Director Sahar Aziz and numerous CSRR fellows and faculty affiliates have records of virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism.”

Foxx also highlighted that “notoriously antisemitic, pro-Hamas Columbia Professor of Modern Arab Politics Joseph Massad is a CSRR Distinguished Senior Fellow and faculty affiliate.” She continued, “Rutgers stands out for the intensity and pervasiveness of antisemitism on its campuses. Rutgers senior administrators, faculty, staff, academic departments and centers, and student organizations have contributed to the development of a pervasive climate of antisemitism.”

A companion Senate Judiciary Committee release, issued on February 7, 2024, under Senator Lindsey Graham, accused Rutgers of housing a center that “sponsors events featuring anti-Semitic speakers, individuals who justify violence against the State of Israel, terrorist sympathizers, and advocates of domestic radicalism.”[5] A subsequent Senate update on April 4, 2024, confirmed that both chambers were coordinating investigations.[6]

Rutgers’ administration defended the event as an exercise in academic freedom. However, the question lingers: how could a taxpayer-funded university condone such incidents?

Mastermind Behind the Controversy

At the core of the congressional investigation is Professor Sahar Aziz, the Egypt-born founder and director of CSRR. Aziz is the author of The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, which accuses U.S. counterterrorism policy of “racializing” Muslim identity and framing faith as a national security threat.[7]

In 2021, Aziz was selected as a Soros Equality Fellow by the Open Society Foundations[8], an organization criticized for supporting radical movements and regime-change initiatives against certain sovereign governments. Her supporters credit her with broadening civil-rights discourse; however, CSRR’s event archive suggests a different orientation—one in which her academic platform serves as a vehicle for political activism presented as scholarship. [9] Congressional critics describe this as “an echo chamber of radical and anti-Israel discourse funded by the public. CSRR’s Director Sahar Aziz and numerous CSRR fellows and faculty affiliates have records of virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism.” [10] 

The center’s networks reinforce that perception. CSRR has engaged figures from Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), whose 2024 Annual Report, Challenging Impunity, denounces Western governments and U.S. allies in the Middle East.[11] For members of Congress, such ties blur the boundary between scholarship and advocacy.

Political Activism at Taxpayers’ Cost

Rutgers receives more than a billion dollars annually in New Jersey state appropriations.[12] That dependence on taxpayer funding gives the public a stake in its behavior. Clearly, publicly funded universities have a special obligation to ensure that their classrooms and centers are never used to target any community or to legitimize terrorism in any form.

Yet, oversight appears practically nonexistent. Under Aziz’s leadership, CSRR has operated with little visible oversight, allowing programming choices to reflect her personal ideological leanings. The press release from Senator Lindsey Graham’s office highlighted this pattern:[13]

“Only three days after the brutal October 7th massacre, the Center hosted an event titled Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine. Center faculty affiliate Dr. Lara Sheehi opened by declaring that ‘Zionist settler colonialism is a structure that is the provocation.’”

“Two months later, CSRR hosted another event, The West, Israel and Settler Colonization of Palestine, featuring Professor Joseph Massad—the Columbia University academic who lauded the October 7 attacks as awesome scenes and celebrated ‘the capture of some of Israel’s colonial soldiers and officers in their underwear while sleeping’.”

These choices were not incidental; they reflect deliberate curation by the center’s leadership. Rutgers has not explained why its law school allowed such speakers to be platformed under its name—or whether any internal review was conducted before or after these events. When a publicly funded university permits such one-sided programming without oversight, it effectively subsidizes political activism under the banner of academia.

Company They Keep

If programming decisions reflect ideological loyalty, the university’s sponsorship policies reveal an equally troubling disregard for ethics. Among CSRR’s publicly listed sponsors is Lloyd & Mousilli LLP, a Houston-based law firm prominently featured on the center’s website.[14]

In September 2025, ABC 13 Houston reported that the firm’s co-founder, Feras Mousilli, had been arrested at Houston’s airport on charges of sexual performance by a child, after allegedly arranging to meet a 16-year-old through a dating app. [15] The case remains before the courts, but its implications for Rutgers are profound.

There is no public record suggesting that CSRR or Rutgers Law School reviewed the sponsorship after the arrest or evaluated whether the firm’s continued association with a state university was appropriate. As of October 2025, Lloyd & Mousilli still appears on the CSRR website under the “Supporters and Sponsors” section.

That silence raises many uncomfortable questions:

• Was the sponsorship ever vetted for ethical or reputational risks?
• Did Rutgers have a due diligence mechanism to screen donors or partners before public acknowledgment?
• Why has no public statement been issued, despite the serious nature of the allegations?

For a state-funded institution, such complacency is not a private matter—it is a breach of public trust. The pattern underscores a deeper structural problem—Rutgers’ unwillingness to apply consistent ethical scrutiny to its publicly funded centers.

Double Standards on Campus

Rutgers’ disciplinary record reveals a striking inconsistency in how the university responds to alleged racial discrimination.

In 2017, Rutgers swiftly punished Professor Michael Chikindas, a microbiologist who had posted antisemitic memes and Holocaust jokes on Facebook. The university condemned his behavior as “abhorrent to our community,” removed him from required courses, and publicly affirmed its “zero tolerance for antisemitism.”[16]

Yet when CSRR Director Sahar Aziz and her affiliates were accused in 2024 by congressional investigators of advancing “radical antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist activity,” [17] Rutgers responded not with an internal review but by invoking academic freedom.

Both cases involved public allegations of antisemitism. In one, Rutgers moved decisively; in the other, it remained silent. For critics, the message is unmistakable: Rutgers condemns antisemitism depending on who is accused. This inconsistency is not just academic—it strikes at the heart of institutional integrity.

Call for Action

Congressional oversight has made one fact unavoidable: public universities cannot afford opacity. Rutgers must now adopt reforms that ensure transparency and neutrality across all centers of research and advocacy—beginning with CSRR.

1. Comprehensive Federal Review – Request that the Departments of Justice and Education jointly review CSRR’s affiliations, sponsors, and leadership to ensure compliance with U.S. law and university ethics standards.
2. Independent Oversight Board – Establish an external oversight body composed solely of compliance professionals, ethics experts, and community representatives—excluding active academic faculty—to conduct annual audits of governance, funding, and programming. This exclusion is essential, as universities have repeatedly demonstrated an inability to hold their own colleagues accountable.
3. Mandatory Vetting Procedures – Require rigorous background and ethics screening for all sponsors, speakers, and partner organizations. Any entity or individual facing criminal or reputational scrutiny should be suspended pending review.
4. Balanced Programming Mandate – Mandate that publicly funded centers present diverse viewpoints on religion, national security, and foreign policy, ensuring that academic freedom does not become a cover for ideological partisanship.
5. Transparency and Training – Require annual public reports detailing funding sources, event themes, and compliance reviews, along with mandatory ethics and accountability training for all directors of publicly funded centers.

Closing Remarks

The facts speak for themselves. CSRR invited a man convicted of aiding a terrorist organization to talk about the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. It continues to list a law firm as a sponsor, even though its co-founder faces serious criminal charges. Congress has accused the center of “radical antisemitic, anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-terrorist activity,” yet Rutgers has offered no public explanation.

Invoking academic freedom can no longer serve as a shield for negligence. Rutgers must face a thorough investigation by state and federal authorities, followed by independent oversight of its centers and leadership. A university sustained by public funds owes the public transparency, not deflection. If Rutgers cannot uphold neutrality and ethics, it forfeits the legitimacy that academic freedom was meant to defend.

Citations

[1] Rutgers Law School – Center for Security, Race, and Rights, Mission Statement. https://csrr.rutgers.edu/about/our-mission/

[2] U.S. Department of Justice, Apr 17, 2006; Sami Al-Arian Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide

Services To Palestinian Islamic Jihad; https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2006/April/06_crm_221.html

[3] The Jerusalem Post, Sept 11, 2021, September 11 event to feature speakers affiliated with terrorists; https://www.jpost.com/international/islamic-terrorism/september-11-event-to-feature-speakers-affiliated-with-terrorists-679147

[4] Committee on Education and the Workforce – US House of Representatives; March 27, 2024; https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/rutgers_letter_final.pdf

[5] Office of Senator Lindsey Graham, February 7, 2024, Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans Probe Rutgers University Center that Promotes Terrorist Sympathizers and Anti-Semitism;  https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2024/2/senate-judiciary-committee-republicans-probe-rutgers-university-center-that-promotes-terrorist-sympathizers-and-anti-semitism

[6] U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, April 4, 2024, ICYMI: House Committee Joins Senate Judiciary GOP In Investigating Rutgers Center that Promotes Terrorist Sympathizers and Anti-Semitism;  https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/icymi-house-committee-joins-senate-judiciary-gop-in-investigating-rutgers-center-that-promotes-terrorist-sympathizers-and-anti-semitism

[7] Sahar Aziz, The Racial Muslim (Harvard University Press, 2022).

[8] Open Society Foundations, Nov 20 2021, Open Society Foundations Announce 2021 Soros Equality Fellows;   https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/newsroom/open-society-foundations-announce-2021-soros-equality-fellows

[9] CSRR Event Archive, 2023. https://csrr.rutgers.edu/events/lectures-2/

[10] U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, April 4, 2024, ICYMI: House Committee Joins Senate Judiciary GOP In Investigating Rutgers Center that Promotes Terrorist Sympathizers and Anti-Semitism; https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/icymi-house-committee-joins-senate-judiciary-gop-in-investigating-rutgers-center-that-promotes-terrorist-sympathizers-and-anti-semitism

[11] DAWN – Challenging Impunity: 2024 Annual Report; https://dawnmena.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/DAWN-2024-Annual-Report-Final-Online.pdf

[12] Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey – Annual Report 2022-23; RUAnnualFinancialReport_FINAL_2.09.24.pdf

[13] Office of Senator Lindsey Graham, February 7, 2024, Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans Probe Rutgers University Center that Promotes Terrorist Sympathizers and Anti-Semitism;  https://www.lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2024/2/senate-judiciary-committee-republicans-probe-rutgers-university-center-that-promotes-terrorist-sympathizers-and-anti-semitism

[14] CSRR Sponsor List, Rutgers Website, Oct 13 2025. https://csrr.rutgers.edu/about/staff/

[15] ABC 13 Houston, Sept 24, 2025, Houston lawyer arrested after allegedly meeting a 16-year-old on Bumble and having sexual relations;  https://abc13.com/post/houston-lawyer-feras-mousilli-arrested-iah-after-allegedly-meeting-16-year-old-bumble-having-sexual-relations/15570305/

[16] New York Post, December 11, 2017, Professor accused of anti-Semitic posts gets punished;  https://nypost.com/2017/12/11/professor-accused-of-anti-semitic-posts-gets-punished/

[17] Committee on Education and the Workforce – US House of Representatives; March 27, 2024; https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/rutgers_letter_final.pdf