Siraj Ahmed is a City University of New York professor who publicly expressed support for the Hamas terrorist organization during a November 2023 panel hosted at the CUNY Graduate Center, weeks after Hamas carried out the October 7 mass-casualty attacks in Israel.
Ahmed’s remarks were made following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians, which included mass murder, rape, torture, kidnappings, and other war crimes. More than 1,200 people were killed, thousands were wounded, and hundreds were taken hostage.
Expressing Support for Hamas
On November 16, 2023, Ahmed appeared as a speaker at a panel titled “CUNY for Palestine Teach-In Series / Contexts and Histories of Palestinian Resistance.”
Among anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” is frequently used as a euphemism to justify or legitimize terrorist violence.
During the panel, Ahmed stated that liberation would not occur without the actions of “resistance groups in Palestine,” explicitly naming Hamas. He framed solidarity with Hamas as necessary for progress and criticized the criminalization of such groups.
During the panel, Ahmed said: “Thinking about Palestinian resistance, which is the need for all of us, particularly those of us in positions of privilege, to express our solidarity with Palestinian resistance, particularly because it’s criminalized. But unless we have solidarity with people on the ground in Palestine, there’s really no way forward towards liberation. Liberation isn’t going to happen except for the actions of resistance groups in Palestine, Hamas, in particular, but not only.”
The remarks amounted to a public endorsement of Hamas as a vehicle for liberation, despite its record of terrorism against civilians.
Institutional Affiliations
As of December 2023, Ahmed was listed as an executive officer and professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center, where his research interests included Enlightenment studies, postcolonial studies, critical theory, and comparative literature.
He was also listed as a professor in the English Department at Lehman College, another CUNY institution.
Ahmed’s LinkedIn profile stated that he had been teaching at the CUNY Graduate Center since 2014 and at Lehman College since 2011.
He received a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
Activist Associations
In July 2023, Ahmed was affiliated with Within Our Lifetime, an anti-Israel activist group that has been involved in repeated street demonstrations and disruptions in New York City.
