Middle East studies in the News

Muslim and Anti-Semitic Attacks in NY-NJ Area [incl. Richard Antoun]

by Hillel Fendel
Arutz Sheva
December 6, 2009

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/134821

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/8789

(IsraelNN.com) A Saudi Arabian graduate student murdered a Middle Eastern Studies professor on Friday in the latter's Binghamton University office in New York State. The victim, Richard T. Antoun, 77, was stabbed four times by 46-year-old Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, a Muslim cultural anthropology student working on his dissertation.

Prof. Antoun's widow, Roz, is an employee of the Jewish Federation. Al-Zahranis' two apartment-mates said he was "argumentative, confrontational and threatened one of them in the three weeks they" lived in the same home, IthacaJournal.com reported.

A few hours after the murder, and further to the south in the same state (New York), three vandals were caught on video knocking down an 11-foot Chanukah menorah (candelabrum). The anti-Semitic attack occurred shortly before midnight on Friday outside a pharmacy in Suffolk County, Long Island.

About a dozen such menorahs are "protected" by cameras around the county, as they have frequently been targeted by anti-Semitic vandals in recent years.

Some nine weeks ago, three anti-Semitic attacks hit New Jersey. A youth was charged with juvenile delinquency for calling out "Heil Hitler" and giving a Nazi salute to three Jewish citizens on their way home from Yom Kippur prayers in Highland Park. The same week, three large swastikas were painted on the Congregation Beth-El synagogue building in Edison.

Days earlier in the same city, a 19-year-old Jewish male was beaten near the Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva by a 16-year-old youth.

Note: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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