Every university must build a sanctuary - Oklahoma's hate law for Charlie Kirk and the dangerous proximity to violence

It sounds like a macabre joke, but it is political bitter seriousness: In Oklahoma a bill is on the table that forces every public university to redesignate a campus area as "Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza". With sign, with solemn dedication, with statue - and not just any. Prescribed are either a larger-than-life Kirk at a table with an empty chair opposite or a family scene in which he is cast in bronze with his wife and the children in his arms. By 2028 all this is supposed to become reality. Whoever refuses must expect sanctions. That is what Senate Bill 1187 says, submitted by Republican legislators - and in the logic of today's American right frighteningly consistent.

What is happening here is more than grotesque symbolic politics. It is the attempt to engrave ideologues like Charlie Kirk - founder of Turning Point USA, Trump intimate, aggressive fighter against equality and social progress - as martyrs into the stone of the institutions. Universities, which should be places of critical thinking, are turned into pilgrimage sites for a man whom Republicans now declare a "voice of a generation" and "civil rights leader". Civil rights leader - of all people Kirk, whose politics are directed against migrants, against women's rights, against minorities. The falsification of history is so brazen that it almost seems totalitarian.

Our research proves how far this bill actually goes. Literally, the text of the law states that Charlie Kirk is a "fearless defender of free speech, martyr for truth, faith, and the First Amendment". Therefore, every university must "erect a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza to ensure that future generations remember his courage, his faith, his sacrifice, and his contributions to American freedom". Whoever does not meet the deadlines will be penalized with fines: "one percent of the budget per month of noncompliance".

Even more drastic are the penalties for any form of criticism: "Any student, employee, or faculty member caught vandalizing the Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza or a statue of Charlie Kirk shall be immediately expelled from study or employment" - in addition to possible fines. This not only enforces a monument obligation, but also the threat of academic destruction against anyone who dares to resist.

And it is not a one-off: Already now Oklahoma is celebrating this staged martyr figure in mass events. "What an amazing time to be in Oklahoma. This past weekend, the ORU Mabee Center was almost filled with Oklahomans worshiping Jesus & taking time to honor the legacy of Charlie Kirk", exulted Gabe Woolley on September 15. The merging of religious fervor and political veneration has long been reality - and it serves as a model for the planned monumentalization on the campuses.

But Oklahoma provides not only in legislation a preview of how a democracy can be hollowed out. Not long ago another story shook the country: In McCurtain County local officials - sheriff, commissioners, investigators - were recorded on tape talking about fantasies of violence against journalists. They talked about beating journalists, killing them, burying their bodies. In addition came racist outbursts and nostalgic talk about lynchings of Black people. It was a glimpse into the abyss of a political culture in which hate and violence no longer circulate only on the net, but are spoken out at the table of officials. The governor, himself a hardliner Kevin Stitt, saw himself reluctantly forced to demand resignations. But the scandal was more than an isolated case - it was a symptom. The parallels are obvious: In a state where elected officials blithely fantasize about lynch justice and murder, at the same time a law is being pushed through that forces universities to clear space for the veneration of a right-wing agitator. Whoever sees the big picture recognizes a sinister dynamic: fantasies of violence against critical voices on the one hand, state-imposed hero worship on the other. This is no coincidence, this is strategy.

Oklahoma, the state that has long considered itself a testing ground for post-democratic America, is showing the world where the journey is going. Whoever has the power rewrites history, determines who is considered a martyr, and equates the press with the enemy. A campus that must in the future bear a Charlie Kirk statue is no longer a place of debate, but a stage for authoritarian myth-making. The question remains: How many universities, how many students, how many faculty members will silently accept this cynicism? And how long will a country look on when democracy and freedom of expression are destroyed step by step from within - with laws, with agitation, with fantasies of violence from the mouths of the powerful?

Oklahoma is already giving the answer. It is: The authoritarian transformation is no longer a vision of the future. It is the present. And it advances, statue by statue, law by law, threat by threat.