Brian Cohen

🚨 UTS Pushed “Death to the Akademy” Online. Former Columbia Professor Muhammad Abdou Used the Event to Call for Jihad and Praise Elias Rodriguez Union Theological Seminary, a Columbia affiliate, canceled the in-person portion of “Death to the Akademy” at the eleventh hour, with organizers later indicating the event would continue online. Organizers, Queer Muslims of NYC and Students for a Liberated Palestine at UTS, blamed “Zionist reactions” and accused the seminary of “flagrant Islamophobia.” At the online event itself, Muhammad Abdou told students to engage in jihad. “Let us fulfill that threat, and you know what I mean, with all the details , with the full blunt force. 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.” He also praised Elias Rodriguez for the “assassination of two Zionists.” “God bless him. He took action. He took action. Elias, 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.” Elsewhere in the same event, he urged students to use their leverage in academia, arguing that without students, higher education would grind to a halt. “If you throw a wrench into that system, you’ll discombobulate. So be a threat, fulfill it.” The strongest argument for the seminary’s intervention may have been Abdou’s own words. This is not a fringe figure, but an individual who has taught at multiple universities, including Columbia, Cornell, the American University in Cairo, the University of Toronto, and Queen’s University.