Zohran Mamdani’s Father Says Columbia Students Are ‘Terrified’ by Antisemitism Crackdown

As Columbia University continues to grapple with the fallout from months of campus protests, a longtime faculty member is accusing school leadership of fostering fear rather than healing.

According to Fox News, 👤Mahmood Mamdani, a prominent scholar and the father of New York City Mayor-elect 👤Zohran Mamdani, said student activists opposed to Israel are increasingly alarmed by how the university is handling allegations of antisemitism.

Mamdani made the remarks during a conversation published Friday on journalist Peter Beinart’s Substack.

Mamdani, who served as Columbia’s Herbert Lehman Professor of Government before taking leave in September, said the administration’s approach has created an atmosphere of intimidation on campus.

“Well, students are terrified,” Mamdani said. “They are terrorized. In the smallest move they make, they are targeted. They are expelled. They are suspended. They are warned. Which means we have less and less of an idea of what they think and how they might respond to their situation. The administration is in a vindictive mood.”

He argued that the university’s focus on antisemitism has gone beyond addressing discrimination and instead has become a mechanism to suppress dissent.

Mamdani took particular issue with Columbia’s decision to establish a task force dedicated to antisemitism without forming similar groups for other forms of bias.