Muslim students at the University of Houston gathered for an event hosted by their Muslim Student Association. Someone had been watching their social media. A group arrived — not students, not affiliated with the university — and burned a Quran.

It was not an isolated incident. Over the past several weeks, United Voices and Muslim Student Associations across the country — particularly in Texas and Florida — have documented a sharp and apparently coordinated surge in harassment targeting MSA campus events. Non-university actors, many aligned with organized anti-Muslim networks, have been monitoring public MSA social media posts to identify event locations. They show up uninvited. They film students without consent. They mock students while they pray. They approach students aggressively. And in Houston, they brought fire.

See: Hate Crime Probes Called for After Harassment of Muslim Students in Tampa and Hollywood, FL

See: Hate Crime Probe Called for After Islamophobic Incident Targeting Students at Prayer in Houston

These students are not doing anything controversial. They are praying. They are gathering in their student organizations. They are exercising rights — to religious practice, to free assembly, to campus life — that every other student takes for granted. And they are being hunted for it by people with cameras and an agenda.

“What we saw at the University of South Florida is a clear example of how hate and discrimination lead to a hostile environment on campus as institutions fail to educate their communities about Islamophobia and anti-Muslim harassment,” said United Voices. “When Muslim students are targeted for exercising their constitutionally protected right to pray, it reveals serious gaps in campus training, policy, and leadership.”

United Voices has written to more than 2,000 university leaders across the country — read the full letter here — demanding immediate action: direct campus security to protect MSA events from outside agitators, condemn anti-Muslim harassment publicly, and affirm the rights of Muslim students to gather, fellowship, and pray without interference.

“Across the country, Muslim students have been met with intimidation tactics — both physical and verbal — meant to silence and dehumanize them,” said Nimrah Riaz, Chair of the Muslim Students Association of the U.S. and Canada. “Our community refuses to accept the normalization of any form of Islamophobia. We call on campus administrators and all members of the American community to demand real accountability.”

University leaders have a legal and moral obligation to provide a safe learning environment for every student. Allowing organized anti-Muslim harassment groups to use public event listings as targeting intelligence — and then failing to act when those groups show up to intimidate students at prayer — is a failure of that obligation. The harassment will continue until campuses make clear that it carries consequences. United Voices is calling on university presidents, provosts, and trustees to make that clarity unmistakable.