An American professor was hounded out of Malaysia after he accused the leaders of the Southeast Asian nation of advocating a ‘second Holocaust’ against the Jewish people during a visiting lecture at the University of Malaya.
Malaysia, like many other Muslim-majority states, has strongly supported the Palestinian cause and criticised Israel’s military actions in Gaza. The government has faced criticism for its ongoing backing of Hamas, particularly following the group’s recent attack on Israel.
According to the TIME report, during a keynote address at the university on Tuesday, citing a now-deleted post on X, Bruce Gilley, a professor of political science at Portland State University, said, “A country whose political leaders advocate a second Holocaust against the Jewish people will never be a serious player in world affairs, and will certainly never be a friend or partner of the United States.”
The University of Malaya faced immediate backlash for hosting Gilley, prompting him to swiftly depart the country.
While the University of Malaya Student Union condemned Gilley’s remarks, expressing widespread student dissatisfaction, another student group demanded an explanation from the university or threatened to organise student protests. Moreover, the higher education ministry instructed the university to cease any further involvement with Gilley and initiated an investigation into the matter, added the report, citing local media reports.
Responding to the outcry, the University of Malaya issued a public apology on Thursday, promising to take action against those implicated in the controversy.
Meanwhile, in an email to the TIME, Gilley said that his talk, during one of several during a 10-day visiting professorship, was on Malaysian foreign policy.
“I argued that FP (foreign policy) is constrained by Malaysia government antisemitism,” he wrote in the mail to TIME. “The whole event proves the point of my paper: Malaysia is not fit to be a responsible actor in global governance,” he added.
Gilley said he was “very disappointed” that Malaysia’s government “joined the witch-hunt rather than defending academic freedom.”
Gilley has since deleted his post on X, citing the “safety and well-being of my colleagues at the University of Malaya,” though he reposted a screenshot of it.
“I have removed the post below for the safety and well-being of my colleagues at the University of Malaya, whose leadership has responded to a student outcry. The quote from my keynote address reflects my views alone. I regret the harms I have caused to my academic colleagues,” he wrote.
I have removed the post below for the safety and well-being of my colleagues at the University of Malaya, whose leadership has responded to a student outcry. The quote from my keynote address reflects my views alone. I regret the harms I have caused to my academic colleagues. pic.twitter.com/XZrg7nDOjN
— Bruce Gilley (@BruceDGilley) April 24, 2024
In a separate post on Wednesday, Gilley wrote that Malaysian politicians were “going back to [former Malaysian Prime Minister] Mahathir’s advice to learn from the Germans on how to kill Jews.” He went on to slam television broadcasts in Malaysia that feature the pro-Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea,” which some argue can be construed as an antisemitic call for the destruction of Israel.
Amid the uproar over his inflammatory statements, Gilley announced on Thursday that he had “safely departed from Malaysia, one step ahead of the Islamo-fascist mob whipped up by the government there.”
With inputs from agencies
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