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UPDATED: Spokesperson says seminary withdrew support after learning ‘violent nature of event’
An Islamic studies scholar told students to “be a threat” and praised the assassination of two “Zionists” during an online event Wednesday hosted by a student group at Union Theological Seminary, according to video clips of the talk.
Professor Muhammad Abdou spoke at the event “Death to the Akademy: How to be a thorn in their throat amidst snakes in the grass” co-hosted by the seminary chapter of Students for a Liberated Palestine and the group Queer Muslims of New York City, the Washington Free Beacon reports.
Abdou taught at Columbia University until recently when the institution banned him for “his public support for Hamas and Hezbollah,” according to the report.
In a video on X, Manhattan Institute investigative analyst Stu Smith shared clips of Abdou’s talk from the event Wednesday.
“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,” Abdou said.
The Muslim scholar also praised Elias Rodriguez for the “assassination of two Zionists,” according to Smith’s video.
“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,” Abdou said.
Rodriguez is facing numerous charges after he allegedly killed two Israeli Embassy employees in 2025 in Washington, D.C. Authorities allege his motivation was antisemitic, The Hill reports.
Regarding higher education, Abdou told students to “be a threat.”
“If you throw a wrench into that system, you’ll discombobulate. So be a threat, fulfill it,” he said, according to the video.
The seminary’s president condemned the remarks in a statement emailed to The Fix late Thursday, saying administrators were “not aware of the violent nature of the event” when they authorized it.
“When we became aware, we withdrew our support,” President Serene Jones stated. “The violent and hateful rhetoric expressed at the non-Union, off-campus event is in complete contradiction of UTS’s values, and we forcefully condemn it. To put it plainly, this is not who we are.”
Abdou’s talk originally was scheduled to be held in-person on the Union Theological Seminary campus.
However, organizers accused administrators of shutting down the event hours before it was scheduled to occur. In an Instagram post, Queer Muslims NYC accused the seminary of “flagrant Islamophobia and utter disregard for Muslim students.”
However, the group also posted what appeared to be a quote attributed to an unnamed seminary administrator that suggests Queer Muslims NYC and other organizers agreed to move the event off campus.
“In consultation with other offices, we support your offer to host the iftar at an off-site location,” the administrator was quoted as saying.
The administrator also stated that the group should not use the seminary-issued Zoom link for the event, adding, “Otherwise, I wish you a successful event and hope we can remain partners in better communication for future events you wish to hold on campus.”
The quote also suggests the seminary agreed to pay for the cost of food for the in-person event.
Queer Muslims NYC blamed pro-Israel groups for “blasting” the event on social media and threatening to call Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers to disrupt it.
“What does UTS do in response to flagrant Islamophobic and xenophobic attacks? They pull out their protection and support,” the group wrote on Instagram. It also urged supporters to contact the seminary to complain.
According to the Beacon:
A flyer advertising the event features the inverted red triangles used in Hamas propaganda videos to identify Israeli targets. Its cosponsor is Students for a Liberated Palestine at UTS, a radical campus group that has called for an “intifada revolution” at Columbia and protested alongside Columbia University Apartheid Divest, the anti-Semitic student organization behind the encampments that plagued Columbia in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack.
Prior to Columbia, Abdou formerly taught at Cornell University and the University of Toronto.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Fix through his website, asking about the X video of his remarks and the seminary’s decision to cancel the event.
Editor’s note: This article was updated to include a statement from the Union Theological Seminary.
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