SDSU disinvites speaker amid anti-Semitism charges
San Diego State University uninvites Ava Muhammad, spokesperson of the nation of islam after faculty pointed out accusations of anti-Semitism.
Muhammad as publicly said that Jews are “godless” and “blood-sucking parasites”
After backlash, San Diego State University disinvited from a university-funded event a speaker accused of making anti-Semitic comments.
In its Dec. 18 newsletter, obtained by the Los Angles Times, SDSU celebrated four grants awarded to graduate students for projects aimed at empowering black students. One such project was a summit proposed by SDSU graduate assistant Terry Siver, for which he had been granted $68,000 by the university.
The speaker list for the summit on slavery reparations included Nation of Islam representative Ava Muhammad until the school’s faculty pointed out that the figure had been accused of anti-Semitism.
Video of one of Muhammad’s alleged anti-Semitic rants shows her calling Jewish people “godless” and “blood-sucking parasites” that “sell us alcohol, drugs, depraved sex, and every other type of low-life thing.”
While the summit has not yet been confirmed, SDSU has revised the list of speakers to avoid hosting “those who have espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric in the past.”
“This shows that the committees, faculty, and administrators who approved this proposal either did so without vetting the summit’s speakers or they did the vetting and approved them anyway...at the very least, they were irresponsible,” SDSU literature professor Peter Herman said, according to the Times.
SDSU later put out a statement after previous ones saying that “the student’s proposed speaker list previously included those who have espoused anti-Semitic rhetoric in the past. We strongly reject anti-Semitic, and other disparaging messages and actions. SDSU will offer support to the student organizer to ensure that the original basis for the event — a critical exploration of slavery and reparations — can proceed.”
Campus Reform reached out to Sivers and Muhammad but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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