Pictured: NYU Professor Amin Husain at a pro-Palestine rally. Photo courtesy of the NY Post
On Tuesday, February 18th, Kristen Gourrier, the President of NYU College Republicans, and I, the Vice President of College Republicans, were asked to appear on “Fox and Friends First” to discuss NYU Professor Amin Husain, who recently was discovered to have been the brainchild of an anarchist rampage through the NYC subway system last month, in which turnstiles were destroyed, thousands of commuters were stranded, and “F–k Cops” was spray-painted on station walls. On the Fox program, I said that “The professor is really just a far-left extremist. He has no business impressing his reprehensible views on the minds of young adults in a classroom setting.” Allow me to clarify these remarks.
Husain is indeed a radical with a long history of violence. He regularly engages in anti-Semitic speech when talking about the Jewish State. Husain has spoken publicly about attacking Israeli soldiers as a teenager during the first Palestinian Intifada during the 1980s, in a July 2016 video captured at a rally in Times Square. Husain founded Decolonize This Place, which describes itself as a grass-roots social justice organization that seeks to raise awareness of the struggles of marginalized groups peacefully. However, the web site also features an “Operations Manual,” which includes a diagram entitled “How to Shut Down the City” with a step-by-step guide on how to violently overpower an opponent, including kicking in the face and groin. Thought bubbles feature words such as “nails,” “glass bottles,” and “masks.” The rampage through the subways last month is just the latest in a long line of delinquent acts committed by Decolonize This Place.
Husain also supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which aims to weaken Israel through political, economic, and social isolation, defaming the county’s reputation through libelous comparisons to apartheid South Africa. Rather than advocating for bilateral negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority, BDS undercuts the chances for peace by stripping the Palestinians of the obligation to negotiate with Israel and by advocating for untenable demands. These stipulations include a full Right of Return for all Palestinian Refugees, which is unworkable because the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) classifies refugees of the 1948 War as all descendants of Palestine refugee males, regardless of their citizenship or adoption status. This classification is inconsistent with how all other refugees in the world are classified. If implemented under the current UNRWA definition of Palestinian refugees, the Right of Return would allow millions of people, many without any connection to the 1948 War, to immigrate to the country, putting the state’s Jewish character, central to Israel’s national ethos, at risk. Additionally, BDS advocates for a full withdrawal from the West Bank, which would require the uprooting of thousands of civilians from their homes, even from areas like the Gush Etzion Bloc. The bloc is now home to about 70,000 civilians and was founded on land legally purchased in the 1920s and 1930s and destroyed by the Arab Legion in the Kfar Etzion massacre.
Later in the interview, I went on to say, “it’s disappointing that NYU hasn’t taken the necessary steps to make sure that this professor is nowhere near students in the future…NYU should make a statement by firing this professor, so they don’t condone violence.” The operative word here is “violence.” As Republicans, we hold civil discourse and the contest of ideas in the highest regard, and we would never advocate for anyone’s views to be stifled because they conflict with our own, regardless of how atrocious those views may be.
Let me be frank. Husain is a hard-left academic whose values are antithetical to my own. Nevertheless, I do not believe that Husain should be let go because of his convictions. He is just as entitled to express his opinion as much as any conservative on campus. That is what academic freedom is all about. However, the violence that Husain and Decolonize This Place incited and precipitated is beyond the pale. NYU should part ways with Husain to make it clear that while any form of speech and expression is encouraged in the spirit of the First Amendment, this must never devolve into property damage and violence.
I would also be remiss if I did not mention the fact that Husain’s far-left activism is indicative of the well-documented preponderance of leftwing academics at colleges and universities. The lack of ideological diversity in academia has done considerable damage to tolerance for freedom of speech on campus. This is why President Trump’s executive order that ensures that publicly funded universities will uphold the First Amendment, and obligates private schools to comply with their stated institutional policies regarding free speech is so helpful. Going forward, as NYU rethinks its hiring practices in the aftermath of this incident, the faculty recruitment staff should keep in mind that true intellectual diversity helps safeguard free speech.