A New York judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former Columbia University visiting professor Mohamed Abdou against the university and its former president, Minouche Shafik, over comments she made about him during congressional testimony.
Kathleen Waterman-Marshall, a New York State Supreme Court justice, dismissed the case on Aug. 13, finding that Abdou’s complaint failed to establish a defamation claim. The lawsuit, filed in August 2024, also alleged discrimination and a hostile work environment.
Abdou sued after Shafik testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in April 2024 about antisemitism at Columbia. During questioning by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Shafik was asked about Abdou, who had posted on social media days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel that he was “with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”
“I share with you your repugnance at those remarks,” Shafik told Stefanik, adding that faculty members whose remarks crossed the line into antisemitism would face consequences. She also said Abdou “will never teach at Columbia again.”
Abdou, who taught at Columbia during the spring 2024 semester, argued that Shafik’s testimony defamed him and damaged his career.
Waterman-Marshall rejected the claim, noting that Abdou’s lawsuit alleged Shafik had called him antisemitic but “does not actually point to a single instance” in which she did so. The judge further found that Shafik’s statements were opinions based on Abdou’s specific social-media posts, the substance of which he did not dispute.
“While the court takes seriously claims that a party’s career has been negatively impacted, Professor Abdou’s complaint, even as supplemented, does not state a cause of action for defamation,” Waterman-Marshall wrote. “The House Committee hearing transcript makes clear that Dr. Shafik’s opinion statements were in response to Professor Abdou’s specific social media posts highlighted by Congressperson Stefanik, the content of which Professor Abdou did not dispute.”
