The journalism conference that pulled a Daily Wire reporter and another conservative journalist off a panel on faith and reporting replaced the canceled speakers with an anti-Israel panelist.
MediaFest has come under fire for scrapping Daily Wire White House Correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan and The Daily Signal’s Virginia Allen from its “Faith Central” panel without cause. The group replaced Olohan and Allen with Erum Ikramullah, a Senior Research Project Manager at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, the Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross reported Friday.
Ikramullah petitioned the Howard County Council and County Executive Calvin Ball in Maryland to back a council member’s resolution for an “immediate ceasefire in Gaza” in January 2024.
“I also urge the inclusion of a demand in CR22-2024 for the immediate release of the thousands of Palestinians unjustly detained by Apartheid Israel, reaffirming our commitment to human rights and international law,” Ikramullah wrote.
“Lastly, I call upon the council to advocate for the immediate cessation of all political, diplomatic, and military support for Israel. Our community should not be complicit in the perpetuation of these conflicts,” the email added.
In her role at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, Ikramullah has worked to advance the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. Her colleagues include Dalia Mogahed, a scholar who called Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel an act of legal “resistance.”
Ikramullah was featured in a September 2024 Newsweek article titled “How Kamala Harris Could Win Back Muslim Voters.”
“Any candidate wishing to win over Muslim voters would do well to distance themselves from Biden’s Gaza policy in favor of one that secures a permanent ceasefire and reduces military aid to Israel,” Erum Ikramullah, senior research project manager at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, told the publication at the time.
Olohan and Allen were reportedly told they were no longer allowed to participate in the event following a complaint from Oregon State University faculty member Steven Sandberg about their reporting on LGBTQ issues.
“LGBTQ students are feeling targeted by our administration, by the government, and by society. So I was disappointed to see them bring in people who espoused anti-LGBT views,” Sandberg said, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.
The Daily Wire editors criticized the decision to remove the journalists from the event.
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