Aqdas Aftab
Overview
Aqdas Aftab has whitewashed terrorists, spread incitement and expressed hatred of America and the police. Aftab has also demonized Israel, endorsed anti-Israel agitators and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.As of May 2022, Aftab was an Assistant Professor at the Department of English at the Loyola University Chicago (Loyola).
As of May 2022, Aftab’s LinkedIn page said Aftab was a graduate assistant at the LGBTQ Equity Center at the University of Maryland (UMD) from June 2019 to May 2021.
As of May 2022, Aftab’s LinkedIn also said Aftab was the co-creator of the Transform Gender Collective (TGC), “a discussion and support space for transmasculine and masculine-of-center Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC),” since January 2020.
As of the same date, Aftab’s LinkedIn also said Aftab graduated from Smith College (Smith) with a bachelor’s degree in “English Language and Literature, General” in 2014, and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) with a master’s degree in “Literary and Cultural Studies” in 2015.
Aftab’s LinkedIn said Aftab graduated from UMD with a Ph.D. in “Postcolonial Literature, Trans of Color Studies, Queer of Color Studies, African Diaspora Studies” in 2021.
As of May 2022, Aftab’s LinkedIn said Aftab was located in Chicago, Illinois.
Whitewashing Terrorists
On August 23, 2018, Aftab tweeted: “Palestinian prisoners’ message of solidarity to U.S. National Prison Strike…@FreeAhmadSaadat.”Ahmad Sa’adat is the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He is currently serving in an Israeli prison for terror activities, including his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi. Under Sa’adat’s leadership, the PFLP perpetrated many suicide bombings against Israeli civilians during the second intifada.
Spreading Incitement
On May 9, 2021, Aftab shared a Facebook post that said: “End Zionist land theft #SaveSheikhJarrah.”In May 2021, calls to “save” Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel that month.
Hatred of America
On January 30, 2017, Aftab tweeted: “...America has never been a nation of immigrants, always one of colonizers.”On May 12, 2017, Aftab published an article in Bitchmedia titled: “The Trouble With the Model Muslim: Islamophobic Muslims and the War on Terror.” In the article, which discussed Islamophobia in America under President Donald Trump, Aftab described the United States as a nation “built on stolen land, founded on racial genocide.”
On August 23, 2018, Aftab tweeted a link to a statement issued by the Palestinian prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in support of the US National Prison Strikers. The statement said: “...U.S. settler colonialism and imperialism practices its vicious racism both internally and externally…”
Hatred of the Police
On November 11, 2020, Aftab tweeted: “just a reminder that the military is simply a global police force. It is in their job description to colonize, rape and kill in the name of ‘service’ and ‘security.’ #AbolishTheMilitary #AbolishThePolice #AbolishPolice.”On August 9, 2020, Aftab tweeted: “To my fellow international students, let's keep up the fight to abolish the police, abolish ICE [the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], and eventually abolish all borders. Let's also work to abolish ‘soft policing’ that takes place at universities…”
On the same thread, Aftab tweeted: “Keep asking your schools to divest from the police, from ICE, and from all carceral systems…”
On July 11, 2020, Aftab tweeted “Policing, incarceration and deportation are violent products of the same surveillance state. Like the police, ICE has no regard for human life…”
Demonizing Israel
On February 6, 2017, Aftab wrote an article in Bitchmedia titled: “Queering Islamophobia - The Homonationalism of the Muslim Ban.” In the article, Aftab alleged that: “...Israel has strategically washed itself clean of apartheid by promoting the country as a gay haven, even though it continues to colonize trans and queer Palestinians…”Aftab retweeted a June 6, 2017 tweet that said: “Guess what else breaks records every day? Israel's genocidal, settler colonialist slaughter of Palestinians, which Gal Gadot cheerleads.”
Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and model who served two years in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
On April 17, 2020, Aftab shared a post on Facebook by the anti-Israel organization Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) that said: “Prisoners in Palestine face an ongoing health crisis within Zionist jails that is being further exacerbated by COVID-19…their freedom is primarily encumbered not by the dangers of the novel disease, but rather, by the brutality and routine mistreatment they continue to suffer at the hands of a merciless occupier…”
On May 9, 2021, alluding to the “Deadly Exchange” campaign, Aftab tweeted: “‘The militarization of the police in the US, of police forces all over the country has been accomplished with the aid of the Israeli government, which has been sharing its training with police forces all over the country since the period in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.’”
In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange (DX)” campaign, which accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses. JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] U.S.-based Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.
Endorsing Anti-Israel Agitators
On May 11, 2021, Aftab tweeted a link to Steven Salaita’s article that said: “Israel systematically abuses millions of Palestinians…came into existence through a massive program of ethnic cleansing that continues into the present…Israel is a fundamentally racist entity—an ethnosupremacist settler colony…”In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Steven Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: “You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.”
On May 9, 2021, Aftab tweeted a photo of anti-Israel [00:11:26] agitator Angela Davis that said: “Palestine under Israeli occupation is the worst possible example of a carceral society.”
Aftab retweeted a January 14, 2017 tweet that said: “Jasbir Puar is under fire from the usual pro-Israel fanatics. Please sign and circulate this letter supporting her…”
Jasbir Puar is an anti-Israel professor at Rutgers University and a supporter of BDS. In her 2016 talk at Vassar College, Puar called for organized, armed resistance against Israel. In the same lecture, she alleged that Israel kills Palestinians to harvest their organs and employs “scientifically executed ‘maiming’...to permanently debilitate and disable the Palestinians.”
Supporting BDS
On August 23, 2018, Aftab tweeted a link that called on: “... people around the world to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel…”Aftab retweeted a January 14, 2017 tweet that said: “What is #BDS?...Everything You need To Know…” The tweet linked to an Al Jazeera article promoting BDS.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aqdas.aftab [Deleted]Twitter: https://twitter.com/aqdasaftab [Deleted]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aqdas-aftab-ph-d-49883337/ [Deleted]
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCft4AcKHVkM-9mV8c1Kzo4g/featured
Academia.edu: https://luc.academia.edu/AqdasAftab
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/aqdasaftab/
Photos & Screenshots
42 images
Infamous Quotes
“... America has never been a nation of immigrants, always one of colonizers.”
“just a reminder that the military is simply a global police force. It is in their job description to colonize, rape and kill in the name of ‘service" and "security.’ #AbolishTheMilitary #AbolishThePolice #AbolishPolice.”
“To my fellow international students, let's keep up the fight to abolish the police, abolish ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], and eventually abolish all borders. Let's also work to abolish ‘soft policing’ that takes place at universities…”
