Some excerpts from Judge Kathleen Waterman-Marshall's longish decision filed Monday in Abdou v. Columbia Univ. (an appeal appears imminent):
Plaintiff Mohamed Abdou … is a North African-Egyptian Muslim scholar in the field of Cultural Studies, who was employed as a visiting professor at Columbia for the Spring 2024 academic term; his employment term end date was May 31, 2024. On April 17, 2024, Dr. Shafik, the former Columbia President, testified before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce … During the House Committee hearing, members of Congress questioned university presidents, including Dr. Shafik, about pro-Palestinian activism on campuses…. According to the complaint:
During the hearing, [Rep. Elise] Stefanik referenced pro-Palestinian tweets posted by [Professor Abdou] on X, and asked [Dr.] Shafik whether [Professor Abdou] will face consequences for his First Amendment protected speech, which occurred wholly outside the University setting.
Specifically, [Dr.] Shafik stated, "he will never work at Columbia again," referring to [Professor Abdou], and further stated, "he has been terminated and not just terminated, but his files will show that he will never work at Columbia again.… [H]e is grading his students' papers and will never teach at Columbia again and that will be on his permanent record."
The complaint alleges that Dr. Shafik's statement "was in direct violation of Columbia's own process for faculty suspension and dismissal as listed in the University Statutes"; and that, following Dr. Shafik's testimony at the hearing, Professor Abdou has been subjected to "harassment, death threats, and racially motivated hate mail". The complaint also alleges that Shai Davidai …, a business professor at Columbia, doxed Professor Abdou, targeted him to receive threats by third persons, and otherwise harassed him:
[Professor] Davidai, in targeting and doxxing [Professor Abdou], intends to encourage his social media followers to target [Professor Abdou] with threats of murder and violence against him, to obtain harassment against Columbia administrators, including [Dr.] Shafik, and pressure [Professor Abdou] and administrators to resign.
[Professor] Davidai weaponizes the false assertion that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic to target [Professor Abdou] and other pro-Palestine advocates, including Columbia students.
The complaint further alleges that:
[Professor] Davidai has posted on social media that "Professors like Dr. Abdou are extremists whose only role at @Columbia is to radicalize students", with the intention of inviting his followers to target, harass, and threaten [Professor Abdou], which they have done.
[Professor] Davidai accused [Professor Abdou] of "indoctrination" and of [Professor Abdou]'s department, the Middle East Institute at Columbia, of being "a real who's-who of the most rabid antisemites at @Columbia."
[Professor] Davidai referred to [Professor Abdou] on social media as "Dr. Mohamed 'praise to Hamas' Abdou," further attempting to garner and direct hate against [Professor Abdou] all because of [Professor Abdou]'s criticisms of Israel.
