Hypocrisy.EDU

Decency demands more than neutrality when AUB itself is being threatened.

Recently, the IRGC issued a warning signaling its intention to target American universities in the region, ostensibly in response to the reported targeting of the University of Tehran. The irony is both tragic and revealing: if the American University of Beirut were to be struck, many of the very students who support Iran and the IRGC—particularly from Shiite communities—would be among the victims. They would lose not only their lives, but also their homes, their education, and their future.

Within AUB itself, this contradiction is not new. Groups such as the “Cultural Club of the South,” widely understood to function as a Hezbollah-aligned student body, have repeatedly accused the university of being a “Zionist entity.” At the same time, they have circulated propaganda glorifying militant figures, including the son of Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in southern Syria while engaged in Hezbollah’s military operations—operations that have devastated civilian populations.

AUB, for its part, has largely refrained from directly confronting these actors. This restraint stems partly from fear, and partly from a principled commitment to openness and decency. Yet this same restraint has also extended to a more troubling reality: faculty and staff members who continue to benefit from the institution while actively undermining it and, at times, the very values it represents.

Among some circles—particularly certain self-styled “critical” or “woke” academics—there exists a striking moral contradiction. They invoke the language of theorists like Foucault, speak endlessly of liberation and resistance, yet openly romanticize figures and movements associated with violence, coercion, and authoritarian control. Admiration for operatives like Wafic Safa is dressed up as intellectual dissent.

At a moment like this, silence is not neutrality. It is perhaps wise—indeed necessary—for those who are part of our community to clearly and publicly condemn such threats. Not because they are compelled to, but because it is the decent thing to do. A university cannot claim to stand for knowledge, humanity, and open inquiry while remaining ambiguous in the face of violence directed at its own existence.

Hypocrisy here is not abstract. It has a face, a voice, and often, an institutional email address ending in “.edu.”