A professor at City University of New York (CUNY) said that he hopes that Muslims will “erase this filth called Israel,” The Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday.
Mohammad Abbasi, an adjunct professor at CUNY’s School of Professional Studies and an imam, spoke at a June 25 sermon at the Islamic Center of Union City in New Jersey.
An imam who serves as an adjunct professor at @CUNY said in a sermon that Muslims will “erase this filth called Israel” after accusing Jews of creating a “colonial” settlement.
Via @alexnester2020 https://t.co/oRNOMzH2DU
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) July 29, 2021
During his remarks, Abbasi claimed that Israel was a “colonial project” and concluded with “good news” for his fellow Muslims. “I don’t want to leave you depressed, I want to give you the good news now. With the help of Allah, they [the Muslims] will erase this filth called Israel,” he said at the end of the speech.
“Why should we not at all be surprised that CUNY would be employing a vile, Jew-hating antisemite like this individual?” Kingsborough Community College adjunct business professor Michael Goldstein told the Free Beacon. (RELATED: Swastika Found In State Department Elevator Near Antisemitism Envoy Office)
Republican New York Rep. Lee Zeldin released a statement Wednesday calling for Abbasi to be fired. “At a time when antisemitic violence is on the rise throughout the United States, no one, especially someone charged with educating young adults, should be further fanning the flames of antisemitism like this and endorsing violence against Israel,” the Congressman said.
“As we saw last month, the CUNY faculty has an antisemitism problem, and this is just another example. Mohammad Abbasi and his hateful anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric have absolutely no place in any American classroom, and we cannot afford to have him brainwashing any students with his antisemitism. He must be fired immediately, and CUNY needs to take thorough measures to purge antisemitism from the ranks of its faculty,” Zeldin concluded.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of New York and New Jersey reported that 2019 had the highest amount of anti-Semitic crimes since the ADL began tracking anti-Semitic incidents in 1979. While 2020 saw a 4% decrease in anti-Semitic crimes, the ADL said it was still the third-highest year on record.
The organization said in May, during the height of the Israel/Hamas conflict, that it had seen “disturbing antisemitism” across social media platforms. An analysis of Twitter hashtags found more than 17,000 tweets used variations of the phrase “Hitler was right.”