A Message to 5C Activists: Mohamed Abdou Detests You
5C activists should not negotiate with terrorists.
Today, on the the third anniversary of the October 7th massacre, the Claremont Colleges People’s Fund — an unregistered mutual aid group — invited Dr. Mohamed Abdou, a self-described “Muslim anarchist” fired from his position at Columbia University after expressing that he was “with the muqawamah [the resistance] be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”
Facing opposition from the 5C administration to organize in-person, the People’s Fund and their audience assembled virtually on Jitsi Meet around 7 p.m. Dr. Abdou delivered a talk on “Re-Igniting Student Organizing against Settler-Colonial Amerika on the 3rd Anniversary of Al Aqsa Flood” — Hamas’s name for the Oct. 7 attack. Throughout the talk, Dr. Abdou detailed a sweeping history of settler colonialism, tying resistance against Israel and the United States as part of the same fight against Western constructs: “Human rights, international law — none of these really matter. All of these terms were created in 1492.”
With religious praise of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas's architect of the Oct. 7 attack, and Gaza’s mujahideen [holy warriors], Dr. Abdou concluded with gratitude for the People’s Fund. He thanked them for sending fraudulent locations and meeting links to administrators — “Gestapo Nazis” — and student reporters. “You were able to outsmart, you were able to out-organize,” Dr. Abdou said. “I am deeply, deeply proud of you,” comparing the students’ “secretiveness” and “deception” to the mujahideen. The People’s Fund will mark this event as a success in their books. To 5C progressives and pro-Palestinian activists, I’m here to tell you that Dr. Abdou is not on your side. He detests you.
Dr. Abdou’s talk illustrates a more malignant ideology’s presence on campus than in previous years. Consider last year, when we saw a disruption of Claremont Hillel’s memorial with an October 7th survivor. My assumption — and, uncoincidentally, my hope — is that those students were motivated by outrage at the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the devastating amount of life lost. Where they had erred was directing this anger at American Jewish students like myself mourning a tragedy, and at an Israeli civilian who was a victim of terrorism. Although upsetting for those in attendance, this disruption was a familiar case of overzealous student activism, not prompted by malintent.
Dr. Abou’s talk is different. He has previously instructed people to “pick up arms where [you] are” and be willing to die in the process: “If we are to meet Muhammad, then our blood serves as a testimony. We do not fear death.” Tonight, he told students, “We are all caretakers of Hamas.” Rejecting what he calls “the scam of non-violence,” Dr. Abdou believes that the only effective form of resistance is to kill and be killed.
Just consider Dr. Abdou’s oft-expressed contempt for even the most progressive advocates who opt to work within democratic institutions rather than tearing them down. He refers to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, one of the most outspoken pro-Palestine advocates in Washington and a Palestinian herself, as an “immigrant settler of color on stolen land [the U.S.]” investing in “useless electoralism.” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is yet another “Muslim settler of color” — a line Dr. Abdou repeated at tonight’s talk. Greg Stoker, an Army veteran arrested by the Israeli government for sailing to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, should be “teaching his tactical weapons skills to wage war against Amerikkka” instead of running as a Green Party candidate. Dr. Abdou’s paradigm of effective resistance is instead Elias Rodriguez, the man who murdered two Israeli embassy employees last year: “G-d bless him, he took action.”
This talk is fundamentally different from last year’s demonstrations: It is a less-than-subtle way of encouraging students on American college campuses to use terrorism as the blueprint for their activism. It is an explicit celebration of the massacre of civilians and their murderers. I would like to give my peers the benefit of the doubt and say that their motivation for activism is that they simply don’t want Palestinian children to go hungry. They don’t want to see schools and houses of worship erupt in flames from airstrikes. They don’t want to see mothers sifting through rubble to find their sons and daughters. They want all peoples to live freely and under humane conditions.
To these students: Dr. Abdou’s movement is not yours. This is not a more incensed version of your politics; this is its antithesis. Under your banner of liberation, he calls the murder of Israeli children and the rape of Israeli women on October 7th “the quintessential definition of a miracle” that “undresses all performative inconsequential actions and false hopes that merely reaffirm the status quo.” The “status quo” he describes is of “keffiyeh tote bags and dresses, [of] prestige and highbrow jobs. [Of] panel and plenary invites, [of] five-star hotel conference rooms in which you conjure weak demands to merely divest and boycott.” Dr. Abdou has sent a clear message to students whose activism focuses on social justice issues abroad: “Stay in your own lane & focus on destroying Amerika/Canada, there are conversations about our region & Islam that you simply don't have the range to engage on.”
In other words, Mohamed Abdou finds you all pathetic.
The “status quo” he detests is the sort of activism carried out by students at the 5Cs. This includes the very organization hosting him here; the People’s Fund is a self-described “collective of students and community members who aim to monetarily support people building power (through mutual aid) in Sudan, Gaza, and Eastern Congo.” Though the People’s Fund has raised over $75,000, this is not enough for Dr. Abdou, who would rather the donors put their money where their mouths are and crusade for jihad. But Dr. Abou needs bodies for his movement. You are an audience, and it is clear that this is a man with a flare for the theatrical, as evidenced by his melodramatic praise of martyred terrorist leaders and bizarre declaration that social media influencers without a “militant social movement organizing background” are a sign that the Qur’anic end-times are near.
Violent resistance is not just some abstract recommendation to be taken only by oppressed people in desperate conditions; this is his directive for you, the American college student. Endorsement of Dr. Abdou’s worldview without any intent to uphold his directive is hollow and, moreover, repugnant in his view. The violence in question is justified by the idea that fighting oppression leaves no forms of resistance off the table, including massacres. But do you actually intend to cause the destruction Dr. Abdou’s worldview requires of you?
A vast chasm separates those who condemn October 7th and yet do not believe Gaza should have been leveled, and those, like Dr. Abdou, who hail the attack as a “miracle.” As activists, it is your role to define your movement — the ideas that guide it and the voices that speak for it. If you value human life and wish to bring a lasting peace, you must vocally reject pro-terrorist sentiment within your ranks.
All social movements arrive at the crossroads where they must ask themselves: Who are we? Are you impassioned young people who want just treatment and prosperity for those who suffer, or are you bloodthirsty militants who cheer when the “enemy’s” homes are set ablaze with entire families still inside, their women are violated, and their children are stolen?
