Controversy is brewing in the Senate over President Biden’s nomination of Adeel Abdullah Mangi to a Third Circuit seat in New Jersey. I will highlight here the major points of controversy. (My post overlaps with Carrie Severino’s post on Friday, which I saw only after I had drafted this post.)
1. Mangi served on the board of advisors of Rutgers law school’s Center for Security, Race and Rights for four years, from 2019 to 2023, and he donated thousands of dollars to the Center.
On September 11, 2021—the 20th anniversary of 9/11—the Center co-sponsored an event (“Whose Narrative? 20 Years since September 11”) that featured “speakers with terrorist affiliations,” including an individual who pled guilty to conspiracy to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Congressman Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, condemned the Center for sponsoring the event:
At an event marking the twentieth anniversary of September 11, Rutgers’ Center for Security, Race and Rights held an event with several controversial speakers, including those who have ties to terrorist organizations.
It is unconscionable that a day meant to reflect on the deadliest attack on United States soil was used to provide a platform to those affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad — a foreign terrorist organization designated by the United States. There is simply no reason why those with ties to militant terrorist organizations, groups who have killed civilians, deserve a podium to students here at Rutgers. With domestic terrorists and homegrown violent extremists often being inspired by propaganda from foreign terrorists, we must castigate and alienate these groups and their associates wherever they are, especially at New Jersey’s flagship public university.
As Carrie spells out, the Center hosted other controversial events that ought to have put Mangi on notice of its nature.
At his recent confirmation hearing, Mangi testified that he had no knowledge of the 9/11 anniversary event. Republican senators were skeptical. Further investigation could provide clarity on the matter, one way or the other.
2. Rutgers law professor Sahar Aziz is the founding director of the Center. Mangi acknowledges that it was Aziz who invited him to join the Center’s advisory board.
In 2021, Aziz signed an open letter from Rutgers faculty members that stated: “We are in awe of the Palestinian struggle to resist violent occupation, removal, erasure, and the expansion of Israeli settler colonialism.”
At his confirmation hearing and in post-hearing written questions, senators repeatedly asked Mangi whether he repudiated the concept of “Israeli settler colonialism” that Aziz embraced. Mangi repeatedly declined to do so (as this exchange with Senator Hawley illustrates). Such matter, he said, is beyond his expertise.
To be clear: Mangi condemned terrorism and anti-semitism in general and the October 7 attacks in particular. But he would not reject the concept and rhetoric of “Israeli settler colonialism” that so often provides the predicate for terrorist attacks on Israel.
With the support of Senator Cory Booker, Mangi’s sponsor, various Jewish organizations that ally with Democrats, including the Anti-Defamation League, are supporting Mangi’s nomination (and even slamming Republican senators for supposed Islamophobia). We shall see if every Democratic senator falls in line.