University-sponsored 9/11 event features speakers with ties to terrorists

Rutgers University and San Francisco State University are sponsoring a virtual event today that includes speakers with ties to a hijacker and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The roundtable discussion is called 'Whose Narrative? 20 Years Since 9/11 2001' and is part of the 'Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice' series.

Rutgers University and San Francisco State University are sponsoring “Whose Narrative? 20 Years Since 9/11 2001,” a virtual “roundtable discussion” today, the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, that features speakers with ties to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Sami Al-Arian, a speaker and former professor at the University of  South Florida, pled guilty in 2006 to conspiring to provide amenities to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is recognized by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.  

Al-Arian was terminated from USF shortly after his arrest. Al-Arian was then deported to Turkey in 2015.  

Another speaker, San Francisco State University professor Rabab Abdulhadi, has participated in other events with known terrorist Leila Khaled

Campus Reform reported in May that  Abdulhadi was set to moderate the virtual event “Whose Narratives? What Free Speech for Palestine?” which featured Khaled. Zoom shut down the event due to Khaled’s terrorist background. 

[RELATED: Third time’s a charm? Zoom cancels a third university seminar for attempting to host a terrorist]

As Campus Reform reported in 2020, Khaled had previously “hijacked two airplanes as a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally recognized terrorist organization.” In September of that year, YouTube cut the live stream of an event with Abdulhadi and Khaled. 

That incident prompted the Department of Education to investigate SFSU to “determine whether any federal laws were violated when terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled was invited to speak at a virtual event in September.” 

[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE: YouTube, Facebook cut feed to SFSU event with terrorist hijacker, citing ‘terms of service’]

Today’s event description reads: 

Other speakers include Deepa Kumar, Fahd Ahmed, Hatem Banian, Jasmin Zine, Lisa Hajja, Rabab Abdulhadi, Rania Masri, Ronnie Kasrils, and Sami Al-Arian.

Campus Reform has reached out to SFSU, Rutgers University, and all of the panelists participating in the event; this article will be updated accordingly.