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Religious Studies Scholars Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement

posted on: May 17, 2016

Official Statement

As scholars of religion, ethics, theology, and/or scriptures, we embrace diversity, democratic accountability, inclusivity, human equality, justice, non-violent social change, critical reflection, and equal educational and occupational opportunities for all.

Because of these values, we stand in solidarity with Palestinians who cry out for justice in Israel and Palestine. We condemn the illegal occupation of their landsviolations of their human rights, and discriminatory laws that deny them equal educational and economic opportunities in Israel and Palestine.

We take ethical responsibility for our own ethnographic, archaeological, and archival research in Israel and Palestine, and we do not condone the use of such research to justify or normalize the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

We pledge to defend freedom of expression, intellectual curiosity, engaged pedagogy, political commitment, and open scholarship for all, including Palestinian children and university students whose rights to an education are systematically violated. We embrace the right of all people, including those with whom we disagree, to make their voices known.

Affirming our own right to work for justice in Palestine, and remembering the power of non-violent social change in the U.S. civil rights movement and the international campaign against South African apartheid, we support the broad-based call of Palestinian civil society to boycott, divest from, and sanction the institutions–not the people–of the State of Israel until it meets its obligations under international law by:

  1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
  2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
  3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

If you are a religious studies scholar and would like to add your name, please click here.

Signatories to the Religious Studies Scholars Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement
Rebecca T. Alpert
Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs & Professor, Religion
Temple University
Khaled Abou El Fadl
Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor, Law
University of California Los Angeles School of Law
Ellen T Armour
Carpenter Associate Professor , Feminist Theology
Vanderbilt Divinity School
Hatem Bazian
Lecturer, University of California Berkeley and Professor , Islamic Law and Theology
Zaytuna College
Daniel Boyarin
Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor , Talmudic Culture
University of California, Berkeley
Edward Curtis
Millennium Chair of Liberal Arts & Professor, Religious Studies
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
James H. Cone
Charles Augustus Briggs Distinguished Professor , Systematic Theology
Union Theological Seminary
Elizabeth Corrie
Director of Youth Theological Initiative and Associate Professor, Candler School of Theology
Emory University
Farid Esack
Professor, Religious Studies
University of Johannesburg
John L. Esposito
University Professor of Religion and International Affairs, Georgetown University
Past President, American Academy of Religion
Zareena Grewal
Associate Professor, American Studies and Religious Studies
Yale University
Juliane Hammer
Kenan Rifai Scholar of Islamic Studies & Associate Professor , Religious Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sherman Jackson
King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture & Professor, Religion
University of Southern California
Tariq Ramadan
Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies, St. Antony’s College
Oxford University
Sylvester Johnson
Associate Professor, African American Studies and Religious Studies
Northwestern University
Nur Masalha
Editor, Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies, Associate, Centre for Palestine Studies
University of London
Rosemary Radford Ruether
Visiting Professor of Feminist Theory, Claremont School of Theology, Georgia Harkness Emerita Professor
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Emilie M. Townes
Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt Divinity School
Past President, American Academy of Religion
Chad Haines
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
Arizona State University
SherAli Tareen
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
Franklin and Marshall College
Mark LeVine
Professor, History
UC Irvine
Behrooz Ghamari
Associate Professor, History
University of Illinois
Omer Awass
Assistant Professor, Islamic Studies
American Islamic College
Ermin Sinanovic
Director of Research, IIIT
International Institute of Islamic Thought (US)
Bridget Blomfield
associate professor, Religious Studies
UNO – retired
Michael Muhammad Knight
Visiting Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
Kenyon College
Peter Wright
Associate Professor , Religion
Colorado College
Harvey Stark
Assistant Professor, Humanities and Religious Studies
California State University Sacramento
Irfana Hashmi 
Assistant Professor , Religious Studies
Whittier College
Ahmed Afzaal
Associate Professor, Religion
Concordia College
Maria Curtis
Associate Professor , Anthroplogy and Cross Cultural Studies
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Ata Anzali
Assistant professor, Religion
Middlebury
Hazem Ziada
Visiting Professor, Candler School of Theology
Emory University
Hunter Bandy
PhD Candidate, Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University
Torang Asadi
PhD Candidate, Graduate Program in Religion
Duke University
Sunera Thobani
Associate Professor, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice
University of British Columbia
Kambiz GhaneaBassiri
Professor of Religion and Humanities, Religion
Reed College
Mohammad Fadel
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law
University of Toronto
Marco Demichelis 
Research Fellow in Islamic Studies and History of Middle East, Religious Studies
Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Milan
Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Professorial Reseach Assocaite , Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Law
SOAS, Universityof London
Lance Laird
Assistant Professor, Family Medicine/Graduate Division of Religious Studies
Boston University
Barry Bryant
Associate Professor, Theology
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Vernon Schubel
Professor, Religious Studies
Kenyon College
Yvonne Chireau
Professor, Religion
Swarthmore College
Adam Gaiser
Associate Professor, Religion
Florida State University
Jawid Mojaddedi
Professor, Religion
Rutgers University
Mahdi Tourage
Associate Professor , Religion and Social Justice and Peace Studies
King’s University College @ Western University
Richard McGregor
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Vanderbilt University
Nancy Khalil
Doctoral Candidate, Anthropology
Harvard University
Naomi Goldenberg
Professor, Classics and Religious Studies
University of Ottawa
Cornel West
Professor, Philosophy and Christian Practice
Union Theological Seminary
Jonathan A. C. Brown
Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization, School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
Marian Ronan
Research Professor of Catholic Studies, Center for World Christianity
New York Theological Seminary
Mary E. Hunt
Dr., WATER
Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Kent Brintnall
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
University of North Carolina – Charlotte
David Warren
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
University of Edinburgh, UK
Nathan Hofer
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies
University of Missouri
Victoria Lang
B.A., Religious Studies
Georgia State University
David Johnston
Visiting Scholar, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
University of Pennsylvania