US professor's anti-Israel remarks concern lawmakers
Lincoln University's Kaukab Siddique said Israel must be destroyed, 'if possible by peaceful means'
Published: 10.23.10, 08:32 / Israel News
Two Pennsylvania lawmakers are questioning officials at a state-supported university after a professor publicly called for the destruction of Israel.
In a letter Wednesday to the president of Lincoln University, state Sens. Daylin Leach and Anthony Williams ask if the professor is expressing anti-Semitic views on campus.
Video of a Sept. 3 rally in Washington, D.C., shows tenured literature professor Kaukab Siddique saying Israel must be destroyed, "if possible by peaceful means."
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010
Call to Destroy Israel by Any Means – in Washington, DC
Lincoln University, a predominantly and historically Black institution in Pennsylvania
by Maayana Miskin
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American professor Kaukab Siddique recently called for Israel to be destroyed by any means necessary, and issued a warning to Jews as well. Siddique spoke over Labor Day weekend at an anti-Israel rally in Washington D.C., but received little notice at the time."We must stand united to defeat, to destroy, to dismantle Israel--if possible by peaceful means," Siddique said. His comments were captured on film by the Investigative Project on Terrorism that publicized them recently..
"Perhaps, like Saladin, we will give them enough food and water to travel back to the lands from where they came to occupy other people,” Siddique continued. He called on Muslims to “unite and rise up against this hydra-headed monster which calls itself Zionism."
He made it clear that he was talking about the entire state of Israel, and not only the regions such as Judea and Samaria that are the subject of negotiation. “Settlements are only the tentacles of the devil that resides in Tel Aviv,” he stated.
Siddique addressed Jews as well. “For the Jews, I would say see what could happen to you if the Muslims wake up," he warned.
Siddique is a professor of English at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He was not the only extremist at the Washington rally; other protesters carried Hizbullah flags. He defended his remarks under questioning from America's CBN news, saying that his references to “the Jews” were directed at Israeli leaders and their supporters, “not to the Jewish race as a whole.”
According to CBN Siddique has made past statements against “the Jews,” including accusations that Jews have taken over America. He has also denied that the Holocaust took place, and has spoken in defense of convicted terrorists, including one who was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
His employer, Lincoln University, has received significant state funding over the past decade. University administrators responded to Siddique's most recent rant by defending his right to free speech. The university does not support his views, but cannot control what he says outside the classroom, they said.
