How Iran’s Regime is Trying to Infiltrate American College Campuses

On Monday, National Review reported on the Islamic Republic of Iran's efforts to spread antisemitic and pro-Islamic Revolutionary propaganda in American universities.

In the United Kingdom (U.K.), Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) leaders have successfully spread antisemitic and pro-Islamic beliefs, calling the Holocaust "fake" and calling on followers to "join 'the beautiful list of soldiers' who would fight and kill Jews in a coming apocalyptic war."

While the IRGC has not officially established itself on American college campuses, the Review noted that the regime in Tehran enjoys unfettered access to college students across the U.S. local student groups and university departments, hosting such entities under the protections provided by "free expression" and "academic pursuit."

One organization that the regime in Tehran has relied on has been Students for Justice in Palestine, a radical college organization with chapters around the U.S., recruiting antisemitic figures to speak on college campuses, including Khader Adnan, the now-deceased spokesperson of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Rasmea Odeh, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who killed several Israeli students in a supermarket bombing in 1969.

Experts note the two organizations have been instrumental in working with the Islamic Republic of Iran in seeking the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

In 2020 and 2021, San Francisco State University (SFSU) department tried to host a convicted PFLP airplane hijacker, Leila Khaled, for an online conference. The event with the PFLP airplane hijacker was canceled following tech platforms refusing to air the event.

Watchdog organizations like United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) found that several American universities are working on "technical research" with Iranian entities sanctioned by the U.S.

The Alavi Foundation, a New York charity purportedly controlled by the Islamic government, installed several pro-regime professors and curricula at 41 American universities in past years.

At Oberlin College, students and Iranian activists have raised awareness of the college's decision to hire the Islamic Republic's former ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.), Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, for Islamic studies, who "played a critical role in denying and disseminating misinformation about the prison massacres of 1988, as part of a global cover-up of the mass killings orchestrated by the Iranian authorities,” according to Amnesty International.

In August, media outlets like the Washington Free Beacon reported that the Republican Study Committee (RSC) announced new efforts to initiate an oversight investigation into universities to root out pro-Iranian propaganda.

According to the Review, to prevent the mullahs from influencing American universities, "supplemental measures" must be enacted to stop the IRGC and proxy groups from exploiting the "freedoms offered by the academic establishment."