Don't Believe A Word

Gerald F. Mollen, the district attorney in Broome County...said there was “no indication of religious or ethnic motivation” in the killing.

What killing?

This one:

A 46-year-old Binghamton University graduate student from Saudi Arabia was charged on Saturday with killing a retired anthropology professor, a specialist in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies with whom he had worked, the authorities said.

The student, Abdulsalam S. al-Zahrani, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of the professor, Richard T. Antoun, who was stabbed in his office

Antoun was a convert to Judaism. Or in the process. (see Update)

His killer was Wahabi Saudi Arabian.



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UPDATE

From an email received today from the Rev. David Miller, the brother in law of the slain Prof. Richard T. Antoun (his photo above), it appears that there are no Muslim links in the family, they are Christian Arabs.

Dear Bill,
“More recently I have been introduced to Judaism, particularly the Reform tradition, through my wife in a small city (Binghamton) in upstate New York”.
Dick meant this in the sense that he knew comparatively little about the Jewish religion before he married Roz, and she introduced him to Judaism in the sense of conveying information and understanding about her religion although he retained his own religion.
The correction is that there are no Muslims in the immediate family. The Antouns (father’s side) and the Haddad’s (mother’s side) are Christian Arabs with their roots in Lebanon. (Dick’s father was born in Lebanon.)
I will be conducting a funeral service for Dick at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Binghamton on Friday, December 11. Calling hours at 11:30 A.M. and funeral service at 12:30. Join us if you can.
Thanks for your good work.
Warmly,

David

(Rev. David J. Miller, Minister Emeritus, The Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, MA)