Imam at NYC college interfaith event blames Jewish speaker for Gaza, leads walkout

NEW YORK — A Muslim leader at a New York City college interfaith event last week accosted the Jewish representative as a “Zionist” responsible for deaths in Gaza and led Muslim students out of the room.

The college said it was aware of the incident and investigating.

The event on Thursday brought together students from different faiths, including Muslims, Jews and Christians, at Manhattan’s City College of New York, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) public system.

The imam delivered a 15-minute speech extolling Islam, saying that Allah was responsible for students’ grades and paychecks.

“He is the ultimate decision-maker, and so Muslims, we are encouraged not to humiliate ourselves to anybody,” the imam said, according to an audio recording of the meeting shared with The Times of Israel. “We sent you a prophet to all of mankind.”

The Jewish representative at the event, Ilya Bratman, said the imam had identified himself as Abdullah, but his full name and affiliation with the university were not clear. The college did not answer questions about the imam and his connection to the university.

The imam interspersed his speech with chanted prayers in Arabic, and promoted sharia law, saying its harsh punishments, such as executions for serious offenses and amputating the “tips of the hands of a thief,” were an effective deterrent against crime.

“I’m talking about the elite, the filthy rich, the ones that continue to steal from people as we speak today. Those are the ones that deserve their tips to be cut off,” he said.

“Sharia, it stands against the oppressor. When shariah is implemented, pornography — gone. Alcohol industry — gone. Gambling system — gone. Interest is gone, which is what they use to enslave you,” he said.

He finished by attacking Bratman, who leads the campus chapter of the Hillel student group and was on the panel.

“I came here to this event not knowing that I would be sitting next to a Zionist and this is something I’m not going to accept. My people are being killed right now in Gaza,” the imam said, to cheers and applause from the students.

“If you’re a Muslim, out of strength and dignity, I ask you to exit this room immediately,” he shouted. Bratman said that all of the roughly 100 Muslim students at the meeting walked out, leaving behind mostly Christians and a handful of Jews.

The moderator of the event, a campus chaplain, is heard on the recording telling the remaining audience, “I’m so surprised. I want to apologize for that. This group was supposed to be, to remain respectful, and unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”

“So sorry, I’m in shock right now,” he says.

“You’re in shock? We’re not, we’re used to it,” a Jewish student says in the recording. “That’s how interfaith goes at CCNY.”

Most of the Hillel chapter’s Jewish students were in a different room in the building at an event with a Holocaust survivor who survived Kristallnacht at a gathering marking the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Hillel had not been able to reschedule the event with the Holocaust survivor, so Bratman and a few students attended the interfaith event to represent the Jewish community and as a show of respect. The walkout did not interfere with the Holocaust survivor event.

The interfaith event was organized by the college, held on campus and billed as an “interfaith workshop” aimed at discussing, “How are we different and what are our commonalities?”

The meeting continued after the Muslim students left and when it finished, campus safety officers escorted the participants out of the building.

Bratman said that, given the heated atmosphere, he feared that if the imam had told students to “attack this Zionist,” some would have likely done so.

He added that he was concerned about indoctrination and that Muslim students were compelled to either walk out of the event, aligning with the hardline rhetoric, or risk ostracization by their peers.

“You can have your views of your religion, but this was an interfaith event,” he said. “It should be light and fun and love. This was about bridges, not about isolationism and superiority.”

A spokesperson for the college said, “We were made aware of this incident and are working with our teams to investigate claims of possible discrimination.”

“The City College of New York has zero tolerance for acts of hate or bigotry of any kind and will promptly take all necessary and appropriate actions to address any such discrimination and remedy its effects,” the spokesperson said.

After the event, City College’s Hillel sent out an email to members, calling the event “deeply troubling,” and saying, “Our concern is with one individual’s extremist rhetoric—not with Islam, not with Muslim students, and not with interfaith engagement itself.”

“We remain committed to building bridges across communities and to creating spaces where all students feel respected and safe,” the email said.

CUNY is the largest urban college network in the US, with more than 240,000 students at 26 colleges spread around the city. The experience of Jewish students varies widely between the different campuses, and each college has significant autonomy from the central CUNY administration.

Some campuses have seen vitriolic protests against Israel since the October 2023 Hamas attack, including students targeting Hillel chapters with terrorist symbols and a disruptive protest encampment at City College. Other campuses have been relatively quiet.

The CUNY system has contended with instances of antisemitism on its campuses for years, and taken steps to counter anti-Jewish discrimination. A third-party review of antisemitism and discrimination at CUNY last year called for an overhaul of the system’s policies related to antisemitism. The report noted that tensions were highest at schools with large populations of both Jewish and Muslim students.

An attempted interfaith event between Muslim and Jewish students weeks after the October 2023 Hamas attack, at CUNY’s Queens College, also broke down amid protests by Muslim students, who denounced the imam for hosting the event with the rabbi and stormed out of the meeting.