The writers are Azra Ali Hyder, president of the GW Muslim Students’ Association, Deena Elmaghrabi, vice’ president of GW Muslim Students’ Association, Nouf Bazaz, president of the Islamic Alliance for Justice, Tarek al-Hariri, president of the GW Peace Forum, and Christina Hawatmeh, representative of the Arab Student Association.

Earlier this week, the George Washington campus was shaken by posters and a growing awareness over the upcoming Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. A town meeting entitled “Tolerance on Our Campus and in Our Society” was held Wednesday night. A common thread of the forum was that the Muslim community will have partners in handling related issues that may arise so as to prevent any escalations. As examples of the growing number of expressions of hate on school campuses around the country and what the GW community wants to avoid, panelists spoke of swastikas at the University of Maryland, a noose at Columbia University, assaults on homosexuals at Georgetown and the Jena Six case at Jena High School in Louisiana.

President Ronald Reagan once said “If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.” We, as Americans, in echoing that same noble sentiment, firmly believe that it is our collective duty to uphold the tenets of peace and compassion.

In this spirit, the GW chapter of the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) in close conjunction with the GW PeaceFORUM , Islamic Alliance for Justice and the Arab Students Association, has launched a “Peace.not Prejudice” campaign. This campaign is not intended to stifle free speech in any form, including the upcoming Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week on our campus. Rather, we will firmly meet free speech with free speech. Through building and strengthening interfaith and cross-cultural bridges, we aim to advance campus dialogue and provide a venue for constructive academic discourse.

Whether it is in combating anti-civil rights, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamic sentiments or any other form of racism or bigotry, we are all driven by our firm commitment to mutual understanding and peace. We will not allow the strong unity of our diverse American society to be undermined.

We are reaching out to student organizations across campus to join us in addressing issues of prejudice and discrimination. Together we can, and we must, preserve the dignity of our American ideals of pluralism, embracing all faiths, races, genders, political affiliations, sexual orientations and backgrounds.