Following Professor Abeer Kayed’s remarks that the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was “not a hate crime,” Howard University was quick to say it no longer employs the woman.
By World Israel News Staff
After political science professor Abeer Kayed told U.K.-based Al-Araby TV on Sunday that last week’s brutal massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue was “not a hate crime,” Washington D.C.’s Howard University released a statement distancing itself from the controversial remarks.
According to Provost Anthony K. Wutoh, “Ms. Kayed is not currently a faculty member at Howard University, and has not been since January 2017.”
Wutoh added that “the University does not condone [Kayed’s] remarks,” which he deemed “not consistent with our values as an institution.”
The remarks to which Wutoh referred were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and included Kayed’s assertions that the Pittsburgh attack was “strictly political,” primarily related to “American public opinion” and “American Jews.”
‘Zionist lobby’
Kayed claimed the media was “distort[ing] the motive” due to “the power of the Zionist lobby” in the U.S.. She also alluded to the “the historical significance of the role of the Jews in American life,” claiming it is “as if [Jews] get the credit for the existence of the United States.”
“When U.S. President Donald Trump incites this hatred and delivers speeches that are hostile to everybody, he is definitely the reason for such crimes today,” Kayed concluded.
Kayed is the author of a book called (The Ongoing Nakba) 65 Years of Fragmentation, which is described as “a poetic look at the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.”
Wutoh concluded Howard’s statement in response to Kayed’s remarks by noting, “We mourn with our Jewish brothers and sisters in the aftermath of the horrific and unconscionable atrocity committed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.”