Plutocrats, pundits and government officials have united in a racist smear campaign against a strange Palestinian student at Brown University.
Candles are lit over photographs of mass shooting victims Muhammad Aziz Amurzokov and Ella Cook at a makeshift memorial near Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on December 15, 2025.
(Bing Guan/AFP via Getty Images)
Surviving a school shooting is traumatic enough, but then facing a nationwide racist smear campaign that falsely accuses you of being a murderer is even worse. Such was the fate of Mustafa Kharbush, a strange Palestinian student at Brown University. While mourning his fellow students, Kharbush faced false accusations. On social media, the university's attempts to protect his privacy were seen as evidence of guilt.
Those who slandered Kharbush were not anonymous social media trolls, but some of the country's most powerful figures, including prominent plutocrats such as Sean Maguire and Bill Ackman, government officials such as US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, legislators such as Representative Anna Paulina Lunaand influencers like Laura Loomer (who famously President Donald Trump's ear). These figures used their significant megaphones to try to ruin the life of a private citizen. This racist mob acted with reckless disregard for the truth, likely because they knew that Islamophobia enjoys almost complete impunity in the United States. To date, this story has not been covered in mainstream media outlets such as New York Times. This in itself is evidence that vicious Islamophobia has become the norm.
Current number
To understand Kharbush's horrific experience, it is necessary to lay out the facts of two murder cases. best available evidence indicates that on Saturday, December 13, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente carried out a shooting that left two people dead and nine injured at Brown University. Two days later, while still at large, Valente killed MIT scientist Nuno Loureiro, whom Valente knew in his native Portugal. Valente committed suicide on December 16. His body was found two days later. The police and FBI appear to have been woefully incompetent in investigating this case and broke it just with a post on Reddit.
Law enforcement incompetence has allowed racist and Islamophobic conspiracy theories to proliferate. Two related conspiracy theories were that Harbush was the killer and Loureiro was killed because he was Jewish and an ardent Zionist. Daily mail reported that “Israeli officials” believe Loureiro was “killed in his home in [a] targeted attack from outside [an] Iranian operative. This report was nonsense. Eat no evidence that Loureiro was either a Jew or a Zionist. As far as can be understood, Valente's motive for the murders was personal and based on disappointment over his unsuccessful academic career.
An AFP fact check provides useful information about how the Karbouche smear was spread:
Accusations appeared To arise with anonymous account X”@0hour1“, which repeatedly published photographs and video Kharbusha December 15, sometimes near images of the person of interest released by the police. Student photos and email address were quickly received plastered via X, which prompted calls for them punishment or death.
Multiple reports highlighted the student's documented history of pro-Palestinian activism, while some tried compare individual body And gait person of interest shown in video footage released by police….
Right Podcaster Tim Poole and Assistant U.S. Attorney General Mother Dillon joined the narrative expansion that received further pulse like Brown University web pages mentioning Kharbush or indicating his contact information looked like remotegas station claims from cover up. Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also shared some posts floating That accusations.
To protect Harboch from doxxing, Brown University removed information about him from its website. Islamophobes took this as evidence of guilt.
How Fast Company reportsSequoia Capital partner Sean Maguire made false accusations against Harbush, as well as a flawed theory about the motivation for Loureiro's murder. On social network X, journalist Jasper Nathaniel posted a video of the killings filmed by McWhire, which was subsequently deleted. To sum up the video, Nathaniel marked:
[Maguire] argues that there is “very strong evidence” that Mustafa Kharbouh, a Palestinian student at Brown, “probably” committed the murders of two Brown students. He views Brown's deletion of pages about Harbush as evidence of guilt, completely missing that it was a response to doxxing like his. He also falsely claims that the slain MIT professor was Jewish and frames the killings as part of a history of “pro-Palestinian terrorism” that he says is supported by [Zohran] Mamdani.
In a statement released Friday, Kharbush spoke about his experience: “I woke up Tuesday morning to unfounded, vile, Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian accusations directed at me online. Instead of grieving with my community after the horrific shooting, I received non-stop death threats and hate speech.”
It is possible that Harbush will be able to obtain some compensation through the courts by filing libel suits against those who defamed him. But this remedy will not address the broader problem of out-of-control Islamophobia.
How Washington Post columnist Shadi Hamid notesrabid displays of anti-Muslim hatred have become the norm on the right in the Trump era. To give one example: December 14, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville tweeted“Islam is not a religion. It is a cult. Islamists are not here to assimilate. They are here to win.” Vile comments like these have become the norm among Republicans, while Democratic resistance has too often been superficial. The defamation campaign against Harbush could easily have resulted in him being harmed or killed. If we do not directly combat Islamophobia and other forms of racism, the United States faces a dark future.
Over the past year you have read Nation writers love Elie Mistal, Kaveh Akbar, John Nichols, Joan Walsh, Bryce Covert, Dave Zirin, My God Lord, Michael T. Clare, Kata Pollitt, Amy Littlefield, Gregg GonsalvesAnd Sasha Abramsky take on the corruption of the Trump family, set the record straight on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s disastrous Make America Healthy Again movement, examine the consequences and human cost of the DOGE wrecking ball, anticipate dangerous anti-democratic Supreme Court decisions, and amplify successful resistance tactics on the streets and in Congress.
We publish these stories because when members of our communities are kidnapped, household debts rise and artificial intelligence data centers cause water and electricity shortages. we as journalists have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep the public informed.
In 2026, our goal is to do more than ever before, but to do this we need your support.
Until December 31st, generous donors will match all donations up to $75,000. This means your contribution will be doubled, dollar for dollar. If we have reached full compliance, we will start 2026 with $150,000 invest in stories that impact the lives of real people—stories that aren't covered by the billionaire-owned, corporate-backed media.
With your support, our team will publish the important stories the president and his allies don't want you to read. We will cover the evolving military industrial complex and issues of war, peace and surveillance, as well as the affordability crisis, hunger, housing, health care, the environment, attacks on reproductive rights and more. At the same time, we will present alternatives to Trump's rule and intensify efforts to create a better world here and now.
Although your gift has a double impact, I ask you to support Nation with a donation today. you will Empower the journalists, editors and fact-checkers who are best equipped to hold this authoritarian administration accountable.
I hope you don't miss this moment – donate to Nation Today.
Forward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and publisher Nation
