“First, They Came for Mahmoud Khalil”
Become a paid subscriber to gain access to our private Discord server, subscriber-only AMAs, chats, and invites to events. “First, They Came for Mahmoud Khalil” Those close to him tell the story of a man whose journey took him from being a "double refugee" to scholar to political prisoner. Meghnad Bose Mar 23 ∙ Guest post Suddenly thrust into the media limelight—surrounded by recrimination and praise—Mahmoud Khalil has become a symbol of the urgent threat to the First Amendment and free speech in the United States. Still, little has been reported about the life of Mahmoud Khalil, about who he was before the Trump administration treated him as a public enemy and scapegoat amid the crackdown on pro-Palestine advocacy. Drop Site News spoke to a dozen individuals close to the 30-year-old—including his friends, fellow protesters, classmates, former colleagues, and faculty—to paint a fuller picture of him and the scenes on Columbia’s campus. Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, has also...