Brown University prof. deported for attending Hezbollah chief's funeral allegedly praised his sermons

An assistant professor at Brown College was deported to Lebanon final weekend after she traveled overseas to attend the funeral of former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and reportedly expressed reward for the slain terrorist chief, referring to him as a “non secular individual.” 

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen and kidney physician who labored as an assistant professor of medication on the Rhode Island-based Ivy League analysis college. 

In response to an inquiry from The Christian Submit, the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety confirmed that Alawieh’s elimination was prompted by her attending Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut, Lebanon, final month.

The company described Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike final 12 months, as a “brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, answerable for killing tons of of People over a four-decade terror spree.” 

“Alawieh brazenly admitted to this to CBP officers, in addition to her assist of Nasrallah,” a spokesperson for the DHS informed CP. 

“A visa is a privilege not a proper — glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill People is grounds for visa issuance to be denied,” the company spokesperson added. “That is commonsense safety.”

Alawieh arrived at Boston Logan Worldwide Airport on Thursday after getting back from Lebanon, in line with a Friday grievance filed by the lady’s cousin, Yara Chehab, within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Massachusetts. She was granted an H1B visa on March 11 and had beforehand lived within the U.S. 

In response to courtroom filings obtained by WCVB, U.S. Customs and Border Safety brokers at Logan questioned Alawieh in regards to the images of Nasrallah that she had on her telephone. 

“In explaining why these a number of images had been deleted by her one to 2 days earlier than she arrived at Logan Airport, Dr. Alawieh said that she didn’t need to give authorities the notion that she helps Hezbollah and the Ayatollah politically or militarily,” the paperwork said. 

Alawieh additionally allegedly inspired customs officers to take heed to Nasrallah’s sermons, in line with the report. The Brown College worker reportedly described the Hezbollah chief as “a non secular, non secular individual” of “very excessive worth,” claiming that Nasrallah’s “teachings are about spirituality and morality.”

On Friday, U.S. District Decide Leo Sorokin, an appointee of President Barack Obama, issued an order that barred Alawieh’s elimination from Massachusetts with out 48 hours’ discover to the courtroom, as CNN reported. 

Nonetheless, Alawieh was deported anyway, as customs officers had not been made conscious of the decide’s order till after her departure from the U.S., in line with legal professionals for the federal government. The decide has since put the assistant professor’s case on maintain. 

In response to the deportation of its worker, Brown College despatched a campus-wide e-mail this week to worldwide staffers and college students, advising them in opposition to touring exterior of the U.S. 

“Out of an abundance of warning, we encourage worldwide college students, employees, school and students — together with U.S. visa holders and everlasting residents (or ‘inexperienced card holders’) — to think about suspending or delaying private journey exterior the US till extra data is offered from the U.S. Division of State,” Russell Carey, Brown’s govt vp for planning and coverage, wrote within the e-mail. 

Brown College didn’t instantly reply to The Christian Submit’s request for remark. 

The deportation case of Columbia College graduate scholar Mahmoud Khalil has additionally made headlines this month. Khalil, a inexperienced card holder from Syria, was detained and faces doable deportation for his position in organizing anti-Israel protests. 

Anti-Israel activists on faculty campuses all through the nation final 12 months arrange protest encampments and arranged demonstrations in opposition to Israel’s navy response to Hamas’ terrorist assault on Oct. 7, 2023. Jewish college students at varied educational establishments, together with Columbia College, reported that they skilled antisemitic harassment from the protesters. 

Canary Mission, a bunch that works to reveal antisemitism, shared a video to its social media web page on March 6 that confirmed Khalil among the many activists who took over a library at Barnard Faculty, a Columbia affiliate.

Activists on the protest handed out pamphlets from the “Hamas Media Workplace” that reportedly justified the fear group’s 2023 invasion in southern Israel, which resulted within the massacres of over 1,200 individuals in southern Israel and sparked Israel’s navy operation in Gaza.