Less than a week after that event, two Army agents came to campus to ask the organizers for a video of the proceedings, and a list of those who had taken part in it. Aziz told the press conference that organizers refused to hand over to the Army the information demanded by the agents. “We believe that it is inappropriate for us to invite the public and the student body to come and freely exchange ideas and then to turn around and relay their personal information to the intelligence community,” she said.

The two agents who arrived on campus February 9 to knock on doors for more information claimed they were following up on reports by the two agents, Army lawyers, who had attended the “Islam and the Law” event. The agents said they wanted the details about the participants because the lawyers had stated that they’d been approached by “suspicious” Middle Eastern men, said Aziz.

“Why would three Middle Eastern men come up to these men and ask what’s up with the military?” stated Maunica Sthanki, student vice president of the National Lawyers Guild. “That’s absurd.” The guild was one of the organizations that sponsored the academic conference—others included the university’s law school, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Texas Journal of Women and the Law, and the Muslim Law Students Association.

Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project said at the press conference that the agents’ tactics were calculated to “intimidate and scare people from using the First Amendment.”

He added, “We’re going to make the Army back off—and all the other intelligence operations—in the name of the First Amendment, or we’re going to see them in court.”  
 
 
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