Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) this week called for the firing of City University of New York (CUNY) of Professional Studies professor Mohammad Abbasi, after a video of him preaching to a congregation in New Jersey showed him making anti-Semitic statements.
“With the help of Allah, [the Muslims] will erase this filth called Israel,” Abbasi concluded during his address to the Islamic Center of Union City, based on a video posted on YouTube on June 25.
Abbasi, an imam, claimed that the Quran predicted that Jews will have an advantage over Muslims in the future, and that Jews bring corruption, mischief and tumult throughout the world according to the Quran.
“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 anti-Semitism like this and endorsing violence against Israel,” Zeldin said in a news release. “As we saw last month, the CUNY faculty has an anti-Semitism 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 anti-Semitism. He must be fired immediately, and CUNY needs to take thorough measures to purge anti-Semitism from the ranks of its faculty.”
Last month, according to a release from Zeldin’s office, the congressman and a whistleblower helped expose the adoption of a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions resolution by the CUNY Professional Staff Congress.
He pointed out that the resolution was in violation of a 2016 New York executive order which would prohibit the state conducting business with institutions that promote BDS and that the Office of the General Services Commissioner is required to maintain and update a list of entities participating in BDS.
The action by the professors’ union representatives led to the resignation from the union of more than 50 professors at the university this week in protest of the one-sided resolution condemning Israel.
The resolution condemned Israel over its recent handling of the conflict against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, but omitted mention that Hamas was firing rockets at Israel’s civilian population centers.
According to the New York Post, the resolution instead called it a “massacre” of Palestinians during their struggle for self-determination.
The resolution also denounced what it called Israel’s “expansionism and violent incursions into occupied territories.”
