A professor at Kent State University with a history of anti-Israel activity is under FBI investigation for ties to the Islamic State.
The FBI confirmed that Professor Julio Pino is being investigated, the Akron Beacon Journal reported Tuesday night.
The Cuban-born Pino, a convert to Islam who is also known as Assad Jibril Pino, has denied connections to the Islamist group.
“I can only imagine, given my past record at Kent State dealing with controversial issues about the Middle East, some people may be favorable or unfavorable. Rumors start, and that’s the only thing I can think would draw attention from a government agency,” Pino told the Beacon Journal.
The FBI has questioned Pino’s colleagues and students, according to the newspaper.
Pino, a tenured history professor, has courted controversy for years, writing an opinion column in 2002 in the Kent State student newspaper in which he praised a Palestinian suicide bomber.
In 2011, he shouted “Death To Israel” during a lecture at the university by Ishmael Khaldi, the former deputy consul general at the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco.
— JTA
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