The provost of Seattle University snatched a Palestinian flag from a graduating Muslim student just as she was about to unfold it at her commencement ceremony.
Shane Martin suddenly grabbed the tricolor from Sumeyya Osman at last month’s ceremony, video shared by CAIR Washington shows – and she later claimed he was being aggressive.
Martin grabbed the flag trying to hide it out of shot before the pair wrestled over it and posed for a picture.
Then the provost held onto the student’s arm as he ushered her off the stage.
Osman then brandished the flag as she made her way off the stage.
The student said she thought Martin was going to shake her hand before their interaction. Muslim women tend not to shake hands with men outside of their family as part of their religion, KUOW reported.
“I told him that I don’t shake hands, obviously because he’s a man and I’m a Muslim,” she said at a press conference held by CAIR Washington days later.
“But then he just proceeded to try and take the flag away from me aggressively.
“I was shaking a bit. “I asked the person next to me, ‘Do you think anything is going to happen to me? I’m afraid. What if the ceremony ends and they pull me to the side and something happens to me?’”
CAIR Washington – a non-profit that focuses on challenging Islamophobia – claimed the student was “physically accosted” by the provost.
“We demand accountability, no faculty should ever put their hands on a student. This behavior is unacceptable, Muslim students deserve safety to practice their religious and identity expressions,” the group said.
An apologetic Martin said “he did not observe or hear any request from Ms. Osman that she wished to avoid physical contact as part of her Muslim faith.”
“As a leader of a faith-based institution, I have deep respect for the many religious traditions represented on our campus and in the world,” he said.
“If I had known Ms. Osman did not want to be touched, I would have honored the request just as I did for at least a dozen other graduating students who signaled clearly they did not wish to be touched.”
“I am sorry for the misunderstanding, and regret that this event has taken attention away from the overall commencement ceremony, the achievements of all of our graduates, and especially the moving benediction that closed the ceremony.”