Sahar Aziz

Sahar F. Aziz is the Distinguished Professor of Law and Chancellor's Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers Law School, where she founded and directs the Center for Security, Race and Rights. Her book The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom explains why Muslims experience discrimination that mirrors racism against racial minorities rather than religious freedom.

Aziz argued that following the 9/11 attacks, the Muslim community living in the U.S. was deprived of full legal protection and of the full benefit of their civil rights.

Biography Sahar F. Aziz was born in Cairo, Egypt and raised in the U.S. She earned a J.D. and an M.A. in Middle East Studies from the University of Texas, where she served as an associate editor of the Texas Law Review. After law school she clerked for Judge Andre M. Davis on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Aziz began her legal career as a litigation associate at WilmerHale, and subsequently practiced at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Washington, D.C. She then served as a senior policy advisor in the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the United States Department of Homeland Security, working on the intersection of national security and civil liberties, before entering legal academia. In the U.S., Aziz pointed out that the presidency of Donald Trump led to a backsliding of the rights of the Muslim community and to discrimination, such as for example bullying of Muslim children at schools.

In Europe, the situation of the Muslim community is worse in comparative terms according to Aziz because fewer people practice religion in Europe compared to the U.S. Therefore pointing to religion as an excuse for unwelcome behavior is less available to Muslims, because it is less central to the European legal tradition to start with.

In 2024, Aziz co-edited Global Islamophobia and the Rise of Populism with John Esposito, published by Oxford University Press. It examines the relationship between rising right-wing populist movements and anti-Muslim discrimination across multiple national contexts.

Awards and recognition Aziz received the Derrick A. Bell Award from the Association of American Law Schools. She was named a Middle Eastern and North African American National Security and Foreign Policy Next Generation Leader by New America in 2020, and a Soros Equality Fellow in 2021. In March, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by Virginia Foxx, announced a parallel investigation into Rutgers, citing the Center. The Middle East Studies Association's Committee on Academic Freedom condemned the Senate investigation as a threat to academic freedom, and 505 law professors signed a separate letter to the House committee describing its investigation as politically motivated and a threat to free speech.

Published works

Aziz, Sahar (ed.) and Esposito, John (ed.) (2024). Global Islamophobia and the Rise of Populism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197648995