Brown University prof deported by Trump admin showed admiration for deceased terrorist leader Nasrallah
Alawieh ‘traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah— a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree,’ DHS wrote.
The professor said that Nasrallah is ‘a religious, spiritual person [and] he has very high value.’
A professor from Brown University in Rhode Island who was recently deported by President Donald Trump’s administration has expressed sympathy for Hassan Nasrallah, the deceased leader of the terror group Hezbollah.
Rasha Alawieh, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brown, was deported in mid-March.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced on X that, last month, Alaweih “traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah— a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree. Alawieh openly admitted to this to [Customs and Border Protection] officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah.”
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“A visa is a privilege not a right—glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security,” the post concluded.
Alaweih had “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders, according to Politico, and spoke positively of Nasrallah, as seen from a court transcript obtained by the outlet.
She stated that Nasrallah “has a lot of teachings and he is highly regarded in the Shia community,” and added: “I think if you listen to one of his sermons you would know what I mean. He is a religious, spiritual person, as I said, he has very high value. His teachings are about spirituality and morality.”
Though denying she supported Nasrallah at first, she then apparently backtracked and seemed to express her approval of Nasrallah “from a religious perspective,” Politico wrote.
Following Nasrallah’s death in 2024 in an Israeli airstrike, several student groups praised the fallen terrorist leader or expressed outrage at his death.
The group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has been banned from Columbia’s campus, wrote: “Hassan Nasrallah’s martyrdom occurred in service of the liberation of Palestine.”
Jewish Voice for Peace shared posts following Nasrallah’s death proclaiming: “‘death to israel’ is not just a threat. it is a moral imperative and the only acceptable solution. may the entire colony burn to the ground for good.”
The New York Times also drew controversy when it seemingly praised Nasrallah as a “powerful orator” who was “beloved among many Shiite Muslims” and refused to call him a terrorist.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) condemned the Times’s coverage, as well as that of other outlets, writing: “The moral depravity of failed mainstream media outlets is on full display in their disgustingly glorifying eulogies of Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah. It is beyond comprehension that outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, The New Yorker, and Associated Press would idolize Nasrallah’s reign of terror which was responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Americans, Israelis, and innocents around the world including Muslims.”
A Brown University spokesperson told Campus Reform: “We continue to seek to learn more about what has happened.”
Campus Reform has reached out to Brown Medicine and Professor Alawieh for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
