The City College of New York is facing scrutiny after a Muslim spiritual leader delivered an antisemitic tirade against a CUNY Hillel director during a university-sponsored interfaith dialogue program last week.   

The panel featured CUNY Student Chaplain Joshua Medina; Muslim spiritual leader Abdullah Mady, a 2024 graduate of CCNY; and Ilya Bratman, executive director of Hillel at Baruch College, who became the focus of Mady’s hostile remarks, including an accusation that he is “responsible for the murder of his brothers in Gaza” and “disgust that a Zionist is here.”  

Mady’s remarks were condemned on Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who called it “antisemitism, plain and simple” in a post on X. But the university has not issued a public statement regarding the event, which was held last Thursday, nearly a week ago, and organized by CCNY Division of Student Affairs and Student Life and Leadership Development Office. An Instagram flier advertising the event did not include names of the speakers. 

After several requests for comment from Jewish Insider, a university spokesperson said on Wednesday that the school “has zero tolerance for acts of hate or bigotry of any kind” and would “promptly take all necessary and appropriate actions to address any such discrimination and remedy its effects,” but did not respond to further questions, including the name of the Muslim speaker, which JI was able to confirm through sources familiar with the event. The school’s spokesperson also didn’t disclose whether there was any vetting process in the speaker selection. 

Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, which works to fight campus antisemitism, told JI that the event was particularly egregious because it was hosted by an office of the university, rather than a campus student group. 

“Universities can’t always control what comes out of a speaker’s mouth, but a university can distance itself from a guest speaker,” said Elman. “Here you have the university actually implicated in hosting the event. Why was it allowed to proceed with the speaker continuing to harangue and harass with his remarks? Why was that not handled better in the moment?” 

“The university should have stood up and removed the offending speaker, but they didn’t do that, and then there’s no acknowledgement of what happened. It’s a pile-on of errors.” 

“Speakers come and go but the issue is how university leadership responds,” Elman continued. “They should have immediately released a statement saying they were appalled. The process of this [is problematic] — the university didn’t want to share a name, didn’t want to admit this happened.” 

The choice to hide speaker names comes as the interfaith event also drew confusion around its attendance — with only two Jewish students taking part alongside nearly 100 Muslim students. 

Bratman, a faculty member of AEN who said he was unaware of Mady’s name during the panel, said the low turnout of Jewish students was due to another event at the university taking place at the same time to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht. 

“But why would you not ensure a diverse community of listeners?” said Elman. “This was supposed to be an interfaith workshop where people came together. It’s a shocking outcome for an event that should have been bringing people together.” 

According to an audio recording obtained by JI, Mady told attendees he “came to this event not knowing that I would be sitting next to a Zionist and this is something that I am not going to accept,” he said, referring to Bratman.

“My people are being killed right now,” Mady continued, as he went on to urge students, “If you are a good Muslim, I ask you to exit this room immediately.” According to Bratman, all of the  100 Muslim students in attendance, most wearing keffiyehs, cheered, stood up and exited the event at Mady’s instruction, before the other panelists spoke. The other attendees — about 20 Christians and two Jews, remained. Eventually, Bratman was escorted out by campus security as a safety precaution.  

Mady, who graduated in the spring with an undergraduate psychology degree from CCNY, was featured as an exemplary student on the university’s “Masters in Translational Medicine” Instagram page in May.  

Mady’s antisemitic statements came after he delivered a 15-minute speech at the start of the event, telling students that Allah was responsible for their grades. He also chanted Arabic prayers and spoke in support of Sharia law, arguing that its severe penalties — including executions for major crimes and amputating “the tips of the hands of a thief” — serve as effective deterrents. “I’m talking about the elite, the filthy rich — those who continue to steal from people today,” he said. “They’re the ones who deserve to have their tips cut off.” 

“That’s how interfaith goes at CCNY,” a student who remained in the room can be heard saying in the recording as Muslim students walked out at Mady’s request. 

The incident was “not only exclusionary and scary,” Bratman told JI, “but leads to a climate that is antithetical to any kind of education or growth.” 

“I am not a victim in this, I have no fear. The victims are the students of this university, and maybe the Muslim students even more than the Jewish students,” he said.