Students Rally Against Hate Crimes at Cal Berkeley

September 30, 2004

Source: The Daily Californian

[dailycal.org/article.php?id=16292]

On September 30, 2004 The Daily Californian reported, "senior Dena Rifahie, a victim of an alleged hate crime against her and seven other Muslim females two weeks ago, and dozens of other students and faculty members gathered in Lower Sproul Plaza to bring to light the recent surge of alleged hate crimes on campus and to rally the students who were victims of the crimes. Organized by the Chancellor’s Task Force on Hate and Bias and the Office of Student Life, the vigil’s message was to 'educate and create visibility about hate crimes,' said Camille Pannu, a student representative to the task force. Students from groups who have recently been targets of hate crimes on campus—the Muslim Student Association, the Chicano/Latino Agenda Office, the Sikh Students Association, the Queer Resource Center, and the president of the Graduate Theological Union—spoke to the crowd to show other communities that hate crimes are not simply isolated incidents."