Middle East studies in the News

Stabbing At Binghamton University Kills Professor [on Richard Antoun]

by Morgan Gard
The Daily (student newspaper of the University of Washington)
December 9, 2009

http://dailyuw.com/2009/12/9/campus-watch-gates-foundation-waves-philanthropy-w/

http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/8858

Richard Antoun, a professor of anthropology at Binghamton University in Vestal, N.Y., was fatally stabbed by a student on Dec. 4. He was 77.

Antoun was stabbed four times with a six-inch kitchen knife inside a science building on campus. He was immediately rushed to the Wilson Hospital in nearby Johnson City and died of his injuries shortly thereafter.

Police captured a suspect, a Binghamton graduate student named Abdulsalam al-Zahrani, who immediately confessed to the crime.

"Yeah, I just stabbed him," al-Zahrani is reported to have told police upon being questioned. Police do not yet know the motive but immediately dispelled the prevailing theory of the stabbing being a hate crime or religiously motivated.

"There is no indication of religious or ethnic motivation," said Gerald Mollen, the district attorney of Broome county. Both al-Zahrani and Antoun were scholars of Middle Eastern religions.

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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