NY imam calls to ‘take out’ pro-Israel Columbia professor

“This is a radical extremist who knows exactly what he’s saying,” says professor targeted by imam.

By World Israel News Staff

An imam from upstate New York publicly called for Muslims to target Shai Davidai, an Israel-born professor at Columbia University who has been outspoken about rampant antisemitism at the school.

Tom Faccine, an imam based in Utica, urged Columbia students to rally against Davidai in a webinar on Islamic Political Activism.

“That Shai Davidai guy: How do we get him in trouble? How do we create a situation in which he’s in jeopardy?” Facchine, 35, asked during the webinar, according to a New York Post report. “If you’re able to take out somebody like that and make an example, that might shut up a hundred more.”

Davidai responded to Faccine’s threats, telling the Post that he “will not be silenced – I know I’m speaking the truth.”

Being singled out by the imam “feels like they put a target on my back – with the explicit goal to take me down, to get me fired, to make up complaints about me,” he continued.

Davidai noted that Faccine is well aware that his statements could possibly result in violence.

“This is not some run of the mill, uninformed individual [riling] up students,” Davidai said. “This is a radical extremist who knows exactly what he’s saying.”

According to the Post, Faccine was born to a Christian family in New Jersey and converted to Islam as an adult.

His YouTube channel features a video with over 20,000 views, in which he claims to expose alleged falsehoods by the ADL – a watchdog group advocating for American Jews.

Shortly after the October 7th terror onslaught, Faccine said that he “100 percent supported” Hamas’ brutal attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers.

“No ifs, ands or buts,” Faccine stressed, adding that he offers “no equivocations, no apologies, no condemnations” for the murderous rampage.

Any criticism of Hamas’ sexual violence, abductions, and murder of babies and elderly people are equivalent to “criticiz[ing] the table manners of a starving person,” Faccine was quoted by the Post as saying.