Backlash as USC cancels valedictorian’s speech over support for Palestine

Asna Tabassum says university is succumbing to a campaign of hate meant to silence my voice' after decision to scrap speech

The University of Southern California is facing intense backlash for the decision to cancel the valedictorian speech of a Muslim student at the commencement ceremony in May, a decision which the student has criticized as being silenced by anti-Palestinian hatred for her views on human rights.

In a missive to the USC community, the university's provost, Andrew Guzman, wrote that the Los Angeles university took the unprecedented step of canceling Asna Tabassum's planned speech because the alarming tenor" of reactions to her selection as valedictorian - along with the intensity of feelings" surrounding Israel's ongoing military strikes in Gaza - had created substantial risks relating to security".