The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has banned a South Asian American grad student from campus and is threatening to boot him from the university for an article he published related to pro-Palestinian protesting, according to the student and his lawyer, who calls the punishment a threat to free speech.
MIT banned Prahlad Iyengar, a second-year electrical engineering doctoral student, earlier this month for an academic essay he penned in “Written Revolution,” a student publication of which he’s also a chief editor. The work, titled “On Pacifism,” is illustrated with and discusses historic examples of pacifism, including the self-immolation of a Buddhist monk in Vietnam, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and the pro-Palestinian protests. The article also includes reproduced imagery from the Popular Front for the Liberation for Palestine.
“This is a breath-takingly chilling attack on the First Amendment,” said an attorney for Iyengar, Eric Lee of Diamante Law Group. “This is aimed at chilling anti-genocide speech and pro-Palestinian speech.”