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.
Shabbat shalom everyone 🎉🥳🎈🎊🍾
Have a peaceful sabbath ☺️
What got us here is the question. Affirmative Action DEI, It allowed incompetence in high places.
Multiculturalism allowed American history to become ignored.
Foundations of morality and ethics fell to 1A errors.
Booming social welfare construction led to a disregard for self reliance and breakdown of marriage.
Popular media was seen as education and not fanciful entertainment.
Economics, government became the largest employer domestically.
Drugs from Latin America caused death and desperation, increasing crime.
Offshore labor abandoned the American worker.
Look a little deeper and think a little harder for that answer. Start with WW1 and the Red Terror and work forward. You re a smart guy, you can figure it out. War translates to business and money, division and hate necessary for war. Tear it down, build it up, spin wash repeat…
War isn’t new. The United States has survived war. Selling arms? Sure, that added to it.
The sanctuary States is a euphemism for States that have seceded. Total failure.
Stephen Miller posted that ‘KAMALA WILL SEND YOUR SONS TO WAR’ if she won.
Who sent our boys to war and had a bunch of killed?
Who bombed a school filled with teenage school girls?
That would be Donald J Trump. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
ANON thinks the U.S. should wait until Nuclear Bombs destroy millions of us!!! STUPID ANON!!!
I nominate Donald J Trump for a peace prize for the killing of teenage girls in a school.
I nominate ANON as a number 1 DF!!
No way, the Mullah killed 30,000 in the streets of Tehran last month and Bibi of Israel is still up that by 20,000, last tally was 50,000 Gazans. Don’t give up though, Im sure we can do better…
50,000 Gazans?? Phony numbers you love to quote!!
HAMAS LOVING 8 BALL!!
So what’s the latest tally, am I high or low? Just reporting numbers I am seeing on various news outlets.
No one knows. EU has no immigration migration data anymore. They just wander around now.
Didn’t DJT “Obliterate” all the nuclear research last June? Was DJT Telling a lie then or now?
NO CURE FOR TDS!! SLOW PAINFUL DEATH!!
Islam is not a religion; it is an unconstitutional form of government enforced by Sharia law.
It’s proselytizers should be summarily deported for insurrection and treason.
I think you are confused. The Jan 6 rioters were mostly not practicing Islam. They were for the most part white nationalists. But your idea of deporting them is a good idea.
Bravo
Consider the fatwa about Salman Rushdie as cult v. Religion. Rushdie was stabbed in upstate NY. The Japanese translator was murdered. Rushdie has lived in hiding since 1989? Guess it’s difficult to get out of the cult.
Ya, some religion and Abdou was just joking.
Adieu
1989? If I were ti tell you that with a simple google search, I found Rushdie? In NYC no less. Shall I tell yo the street address?
He was stabbed, unsuccessfully. Several million dollars for his death, dimwitted, still out there.
Good God you’re an idiot 😂
Stabbed? So what, he lives and thrives, and lives in NYC.
Bounty? Lay of the drugs you simpleton.
Good god you’re a moron.
Yes, Salman Rushdie is lucky to have lived. I believe he lost an eye in the attack called for by the Mullahs. They were after him for years, right around the time the Muslims killed the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in France.
Ignorance is bliss
Watch the video of abdou PT provided as –>view on X.
Ya, picture that madman on Oct 7th in a frenzy.
Good thing you posted a link. Otherwise I can’t see it. Folks, another example of idiotic conservatives. Please, put a bullet in your empty head.
😂 do to others what you’d have done to you. Oops, boomerang. I accept your apology.
This narative is a distraction and only benefits the Zionist Gangsters in Israel on their mission to create the “Greater Israel” project in the Middle East. The average Non-Zionist jew unfortunately pays the price for the antisemitic language that takes place today. The war in Iran that is going on right now benefits only the Zionist government of Israel and not the USA.
If you want peace, don’t rape and murder jews. Don’t behead Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists. Don’t assassinate every Muslim who disagrees with you. And don’t post all of it on the internet like a sicko. To commit murder is a sin. To blame God for your actions is blasphemy.
Jihadists like you have kept Islam in the wilderness for 500 years.
Quite the non-philosophical screed.
Just like Americans have been doing for decades in foreign counters?
You are a liar.
If you want peace, don’t bomb a school building filled with teenage girls.
If you want peace don’t bomb first and then whinge about the payback on CNN. The girl’s school was an accident. The rapes, tortures, and murders on October 7th were intentional. No comparison.
Another no comparison: how many Latinos, Asians, and Muslims want to immigrate to the U.S.? Millions.
How many want to immigrate to Iran or Gaza? None, because people like you run those places.
Is that you, Professor Muhammad Abdou? Dreaming about another holocaust, are you? Stewing in a toxic brew of hate, ignorance, and bitterness, are you? Thanks for dropping by and dropping a smelly turd on us all.
-Your friendly neighborhood Jewish Zionist Gangster
“Death To America?”
What’s that mean from someone a week away from possessing nuclear weapons?
Hatred is bad for your health. Try a walk or some music when overwhelmed.
Or slice some veins…