The regents of the University of California confirmed its first Muslim American student regent over the objection of some Jewish organizations, reports the Huffington Post.
The vote to confirm Sadia Saifuddin was unanimous with one abstention.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, StandWithUs, conservative commentator David Horowitz and others from the Jewish American community asked that she be rejected because she co-sponsored a resolution calling for the University to divest from companies with economic ties to the Israeli military and to Jewish settlements.
She also condemned a UC Santa Cruz professor who linked the Muslim Student Association with terrorism and anti-semitic views.
“When you’re going be the student representative, you have to represent all the students and you don’t want to alienate a lot of people,” said regent Richard Blum who abstained from voting.
To that, Saifuddin responded “My capacity was to represent that specific community and the views of that community,” she said. “My capacity as student regent is very different.”
You can read more about this controversy in the Huffington Post.
