NYU professor denied that Hamas raped women: ‘We know it’s not true’
A New York University adjunct professor was suspended after he denied that Hamas raped women and beheaded babies during the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.
An adjunct professor at New York University denied that Hamas raped women and beheaded babies during the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack.
The comments were made by NYU Adjunct Professor Amin Husain while speaking at an event hosted by The New School Students for Justice in Palestine on December 5, 2023, and can be seen on video obtained by The Free Press.
“Don’t take what the media says,” Husain said in a video obtained by The Free Press. “It’s really important. . . . Because these kind of questions try to put you on the defensive. They try to say. . . ‘Oh my God, you’re supporting rapists and people that behead babies,’ both of which, you know, whatever, we know it’s not true.”
According to an archived faculty page for Husain at NYU, which is no longer on its website, his teaching and research interests included “debt and financialization, globalization and political economy, social movements and cultures of resistance, race, class and ethnicity in the media, and postcolonial theory.”
The outlet reported that Husain has been invited to speak to The New School’s SJP chapter multiple times, including an appearance on November 17, 2023, where he discussed his time in Palestine months before Hamas committed its terrorist attack.
“This land isn’t for the Jews, I’m sorry,” Husain said. “This land is for a lot of other things that has to do with profit, that has to do with imperialism, that has to do with interests, geopolitical interests, so that’s something also to keep in mind.”
“There is no perfect f--king victim,”
Husain added. “You’re either on the side of the colonizer or the colonized.”
“The best thing we can do right now is think of ungovernability as a strategy,” he said. “When you take the streets, when you break windows, when you care for each other, when money doesn’t mean what they want it to mean, when you figure out how to set different values, when you know how to say to a Zionist ‘no,’ when you take a position even though you know it’ll make your life a little bit more difficult, trust me, it’s worth it. It’s worth it, and it scares the shit out of them.”
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NYU Spokesman John Beckman said in a statement posted to the university’s website that Husain was suspended.
”To be clear, Mr. Husain has been suspended and is not currently teaching any classes at NYU,” Beckman wrote. “All members of our community must adhere to the University’s discrimination and anti-harassment policies; we investigate all complaints we receive and take appropriate action, which may include taking measures such as suspension.”
