Professor's Facebook Comments Draw Protests from Students

For the second day in a row, students at Purdue University Calumet protested over one of their professors and what he posted on his personal Facebook page

For the second day in a row, students at Purdue University Calumet protested over one of their professors and what he posted on his personal Facebook page.

The posting was made Sunday night by political science professor Maurice Eisenstein.

"This all came about because I posted a picture of dead Christians by radical Muslims and asked where the moderate ones were," he explained Thursday.

But students say it was his own comments that led to a firestorm of responses.

"We're not protesting the link. We're protesting the comments that were made regarding the link, and the fact that he was called multiple people ignorant. He has called other students "Jew-haters," and he has been just blatantly disrespectful to the student body," explained student Jessica Tabor.

Many of the students taking part in Thursday's protest claimed Eisenstein has demonstrated racism in the past, both online and in the classroom, and especially toward Muslims.

"He's made racial comments about everybody. It's just not Muslims," said student Wala Issa.

Eisenstein, however, said he's just exercising his freedom of speech, and says he's become a target because of his own Jewish faith.

"I was a Jew who dared speak out. I dared speak out and say, very emphatically, that there seems to be people who are killing Christians in Africa, in Nigeria, in the name of Muhammad," he said.

Christopher Ramirez, a former student who organized the protest, said the post and comments were made on the first day of Eid, a traditional Muslim holiday.

Eisenstein told The Times of Northwest Indiana that he wasn't aware of the holiday and said that had he known the importance of the day, he would have withheld his remarks.

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