Palestinian columbia university protester mohsen mahdawi allowed to graduate after being freed from ice custody

Palestinian columbia university protester mohsen mahdawi allowed to graduate after being freed from ice custody


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From perp walk to grad walk. Freed Columbia University protester Mohsen Mahdawi was allowed to stride across the graduation stage Monday — just three weeks after being cut loose from an


immigration jail. The 34-year-old, who was draped in a keffiyeh, paused in the middle of the stage as he listened to some of his fellow grads cheer him on. Mahdawi, a legal permanent


resident for 10 years, was nabbed by the feds in Vermont on April 14 during an interview about finalizing his US citizenship. The Trump administration had accused Mahdawi of engaging in


“threatening rhetoric and intimidation” against Jewish students during Columbia’s anti-Israel protests. He ended up being released by a judge two weeks later — and used his graduation to


attack the current administration. EXPLORE MORE “The Trump administration wanted to rob me of this opportunity. They wanted me to be in a prison, in prison clothes, to not have education and


to not have joy or celebration,” a defiant Mahdawi said. “It’s very mixed emotions.” Mahdawi, who walked away with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Columbia’s School of General


Studies, went on to rip the Ivy League – accusing the school of betraying him and other students. “The senior administration is selling the soul of this university to the Trump


administration, participating in the destruction and the degradation of our democracy,” Mahdawi claimed. He also accused Columbia’s leadership of denying his pleas for protection prior to 


his arrest. While the feds haven’t accused Mahdawi of committing a crime, they’ve argued that he and other rabble-rousing students should be deported for beliefs that may undermine US


foreign policy. In court papers filed by the Trump admin amid their fight to keep Mahdawi locked up, the feds alleged Mahdawi was once accused of telling a Vermont gun store owner that he


used to “kill Jews while he was in Palestine” with modified automatic firearms that he built himself. In arguing their case, the Trump admin honed in on a visit Mahdawi made to the gun store


in the summer of 2015, which resulted in the owner alerting local cops, according to the court filing. “The gun shop owner told Windsor, Vermont, police officers that Mr. Mahdawi had


visited his store twice, expressing an interest in learning more about firearms and buying a sniper rifle and an automatic weapon and that he ‘had considerable firearm experience and used to


build modified 9mm submachine guns to kill Jews while he was in Palestine’,” the papers charged. Mahdawi, in his response, noted that he was interviewed by an FBI agent shortly after but


denied ever making the remarks, the court papers state. “Mahdawi confirmed that he had visited the gun shop and the Precision Museum but that he had never discussed buying weapons or killing


Jews,” the filing noted at the time. “Mr Mahdawi states that the FBI agent was satisfied with his explanation and closed the investigation,” the docs stated. Columbia University hasn’t


commented on Mahdawi’s graduation or his accusations. _With Post wires_