"We Are Students, Celebrating a Holiday": A Harvard Muslim Leader Answers the Word "Captured"

Every spring, Muslim student groups across Massachusetts pour weeks of work into Eid celebrations. This past April at Harvard, one of those celebrations turned into a campus controversy, and the student who helped lead it decided to answer in his own words.

On April 14, 2026, Moeen M. Razzaque, a senior in the Class of 2026 who studies Electrical Engineering and lives in Quincy House, published an opinion essay in The Harvard Crimson titled "I Am a Campus Muslim Leader. Has Harvard Been Captured?" Razzaque is one of the co-presidents of the Harvard Islamic Society. His essay is worth reading in full. Here is what happened, and why it struck a chord.

What happened

The Harvard Islamic Society held an Eid al-Fitr festival on April 4 in the courtyard of Quincy House. Razzaque describes Eid as a holiday that "invites joy, hospitality, and community across differences." The society brought in food trucks, dessert stalls, coffee carts and fashion vendors. He writes that the group spent months planning, secured every approval it needed, and that the day was "a massive success for the Harvard community."

The same day, the Harvard Republican Club posted about the event on X, with photos and video taken there. According to Crimson news reporting, the post said the courtyard had become "a bazaar selling Hijabs, Burqas and Qurans," that "large prayer mats covered the grass," and that "dozens of unvetted strangers" had roamed near student dorms. "Harvard has been captured," it said.

The Crimson reported that the event was actually limited to Harvard affiliates and their guests, who had to RSVP. There were no prayer mats; students sat on tarps. The music was cultural, not religious, and played at a moderate volume. Daniel Patel, the society's treasurer, wrote in the conservative campus paper The Salient that the "capture" was really "students, faculty, and families gathered around sizzling lamb kebabs and perusing trinkets." The Republican Club did not respond to The Crimson's request for comment.

A student's voice

Razzaque's essay reads like a student who is hurt and wants to be heard. He calls the post bigotry and says that, as far as he knows, the club never tried to talk to the society's leaders first. Then comes the line many readers have repeated: "Harvard Muslims are not a threat to be neutralized. We are students, celebrating a holiday, on a campus we belong to."

Calling a lawful gathering of Muslim students proof of "capture," he writes, suggests "that our visibility and existence itself is illegitimate." He voices the questions he says many Muslim students are now asking: "Is there room for my faith here? Is there room for me?"

Razzaque noted that a formal complaint had been filed, and he called for consequences. But he ends with an invitation more than an accusation: "I am not asking for sympathy, but rather engagement." He asks classmates to learn about Muslims and to "break bread with us," quoting the Quran's verse that humanity was made into "peoples and tribes so that you may get to know one another" (49:13).

Why it resonated

Others spoke up too. The Crimson reported that the College's Dean of Students Office was investigating the complaint against the club under its harassment and photography policies. The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked Harvard President Alan Garber to discipline the club. Harvard's Muslim chaplains, in an email to Muslim affiliates, called the post "abhorrent" and "Islamophobic," and praised the society's leaders for responding "with the decorum and forthrightness of seasoned leaders."

Not everyone agreed discipline was the answer. In May, The College Fix quoted a program officer from the free speech group FIRE, who argued that most offensive speech is protected and that students should generally be allowed to film in public campus spaces. As of this writing, the Mass Halal Journal could not find a public report of how Harvard's review ended.

The task force context

Razzaque tied the episode to Harvard's own numbers. In April 2025, Harvard's Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias released its final report, drawing on a 2024 survey of nearly 2,300 students, faculty and staff. In that survey, 72 percent of Muslim respondents did not agree that they felt comfortable expressing their religious beliefs or ethnic affiliation around campus, and 47 percent said they felt physically unsafe. "The HRC post leaves us with very little doubt as to why," Razzaque wrote.

What it means for students here

The questions in Razzaque's essay are familiar to Muslim students at colleges across Massachusetts. Can I pray, fast and celebrate in the open? Will classmates see me as a neighbor? His answer is that faith should "flourish visibly," for Muslims as for anyone hanging Christmas decorations or marking Yom Kippur or Holi.

Belonging also comes down to everyday things: a place to pray, a dining hall with halal food, a club that throws an Eid party. If you or your child is heading to college, our guide to halal dining at six Massachusetts colleges is a good place to start.

Share your story

Are you a Muslim student, or the parent of one, at a Massachusetts college? We would like to hear how your campus celebrated Eid, and where you have felt welcome or not. Write to the Mass Halal Journal through our contact page at masshalal.com/contact. Your story might help the next student find their place.