Professor Muhammad Abdou, who until recently taught students at Columbia University, appeared online this week to spread calls for religious-based violence and glorify the murder of Jews. He did so as part of an event at the Union Theological Seminary, an institution associated with Columbia. While the university recently ended Abdou’s teaching, it is important to remember that this unhinged fanatic was previously chosen by Columbia faculty and administrators to teach their students. Those individuals remain at Columbia, and Abdou is just the latest example of the radical chic of higher education.
The Islamic studies scholar called on students to “be a threat” as part of the event titled “Death to the Akademy: How to be a thorn in their throat amidst snakes in the grass.” Teachers in higher education are often called “the academy.”
According to a video on X from Manhattan Institute investigative analyst Stu Smith, the talk involved deeply disturbing and hateful comments.
Abdou told the students: “Let us engage in jihad, and there are rules for jihad, and Muslims know that Allah has commanded rules. We don’t engage in wanton violence, but we don’t accept the negative peace either.”
One of the most chilling moments came when he praised Elias Rodriguez, the man facing multiple charges for the murder of a young Jewish couple. In what Abdou called the “assassination of two Zionists,” Rodriguez is accused of murdering Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, the two Israeli employees in 2025 in Washington.
Abdou does not discuss how this young couple dreamed of a life together or sought to bridge religious divides. They are just a couple of “Zionists” in his eyes. He then reportedly praised their accused killer: “God bless him. He took action. … Take action. Not only that kind of action, just to be very clear, because there’s also building. We need to destroy. We need to create alternatives.”
The seminary stopped his in-person appearance, which led to condemnations from student groups. In an Instagram post, Queer Muslims NYC accused the seminary of “flagrant Islamophobia and utter disregard for Muslim students.” However, they claimed that the union continued to support the event with a virtual component.
This video is reminiscent of the speech of other radical faculty like Cornell Professor Russell Rickford, who celebrated the massacre in Israel on Oct. 7th. Their extremism was not a barrier to being hired. It was likely an enhancement.
They are examples of why faculty members are unlikely to change the overwhelmingly liberal appointments. Conservatives and libertarians have been largely purged from most departments. While even a moderately conservative faculty candidate will often face organized opposition, radicals like Abdou and Rickford find an eager audience on faculties.
I encourage you to watch this video. This is the man who was interviewed and selected by faculty and administrators, not just at Columbia but at Cornell University and the University of Toronto. He was appointed as the Arcapita Visiting Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Middle-Eastern, South Asian and African Studies (MESAAS) Program at the Middle-East Institute. He was also a Postdoctoral Fellow/Visiting Scholar at Cornell.
According to his bio, “he is a self-identifying Muslim anarchist and diasporic settler of color.” His credentials include “his organizing towards BIPOC and Palestinian liberation and involvement with post-anti-Globalization Seattle 1999 movements.”
That appears to be the perfect resume for someone who wants to teach at leading universities. Those faculty and administrators are still at these institutions, and so is the radical culture that has taken hold of higher education in the United States.
What is most striking about this video is how Abdou offers just pure hate. There is no discernible intellectual content or insight. Just rage masquerading as scholarship.
Maybe I’m old fashioned but sounds like incitement to me.
“Death to the Akademy: How to be a thorn in their throat amidst snakes in the grass.” To borrow from Talleyrand, this is worse than a crime. It’s an embarrassment.
Yes! to ‘old fashioned’ and the behaviour it stands for! and on the negative side of that coin.. Yes! it is good ‘old fashioned’ Islamic Extemism which can’t let others live in peace.. especially in this Country and in Israel, and which believe in killing people who do not agree with their religion.
Hegseth is achieving levels of dipshittery in his press conferences that makes it more and more difficult for Colin Jost to parody.
At some point SNL will just play tapes of Hegseth’s actual pressers.
It almost seems like Hegseth is trying to play Colin Jost playing himself
If Colin Jost did one of the press conferences no one would see the difference at this point
In the future they’ll have a TV game show that plays Trump administration press briefings alongside SNL skits and ask if it is real life or parody.
Could be a good drinking game
Hegseth is on the brink of just coming out in press conferences and going “Kapow! Kaboooom! Hazingggggg! Smaaaaaash! Pow! Blaaaaam!……..”
..to the dimwat known as ‘Anon.’ your comments have nothing to do with Prof. Turley’s analysis here… you are a parasite here because you are too cheap to go fund your own forum where you can make your comments on subjects of your choosing………..
This Jihadi nutjob says “We don’t engage in wanton violence…”, then praises the nutjob who killed an innocent Jewish couple.
That tells you everything you need to know about these goat-banging Muslim terrorists, like Jihadi Mamdani, being embraced by Democrats, especially in education.
Also hilarious is the promotion of this religion by “Queer Muslims NYC” who are so ignorant, they don’t realize their heads would be slowly sawed off once those Muslims assumed any kind of power.
Thankfully, America is waking up to the presence of these POS murderers who Biden/Harris knowingly let into our country for 4 years with their open border.
“A rifle behind every blade of grass” wasn’t just the imagination of Yamamoto (allegedly).
More Americans than ever before are preparing for the inevitable, now that Democrats don’t even try to hide their support for these Jihadi terrorists anymore.
I just finished reading Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem. I do not say this lightly, but there are clear analogies between Nazi ideology and that of the Islamic Fascists terrorists. In no way do I attribute this to all Muslims many of whom I now and have no interest in destroying the Jewish people. This is a small minority with a base in Iran and this ideology needs to be eliminated.
(as an aside, Abdou was raised and schooled in Canada.
When I was in school, a car full of us went up into Canada to buy several bottles of Bailey’s Irish Cream for our graduation party (so much cheaper than in the U.S.)
I distinctly remember being surprised by the number of persons walking around in burkas, hijabs, the long thobes or jubbas (full length robe-like ) etc. (Maybe they were hiding some Bailey’s underneath to take home? just KIDDing!)
(as another aside, we were stopped by Customs on the way back, had to exit the vehicle and open the trunk; we were heavily fined; …not my most honorable memory…)
Prof. Turley…does the teaching of hate to young Americans qualify as protected free speech? Your position is that such indoctrination be only challenged through open criticism in the public square, but not legal action civil or criminal.
Of course, it matters WHO is the target of the hate speech, and who is spreading it. When American values of freedom and rule-of-law are being denounced in favor of a Sharia police state, there isn’t going to be a whole lot of “I’ll defend to the death their right….”. President Trump, when he was running in 2016, promised to use Immigration Law to weed out and deport fundamentalist Islamism. That process is finally being implemented.
That leaves the problem of Islamists who are US Citizens. All we have there is investigating if there was fraud in the Naturalization process (e.g., Ilhan Omar), as that can be grounds for revocation. Absent that, the next best is to deny positions of power and influence, starting with schools and universities.