Cohen
State Rep. Mark Cohen has written a letter to Richard Green, interim president of Lincoln University, asking that he severely discipline or fire a professor who has made controversial posts on Facebook.
Kaukab Siddique is an English professor at the predominantly black college in Chester County. He has been on the faculty for 30 years.
In recent Facebook postings, he has referred to “dirty Jewish Zionist White Supremacist thugs.” After the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, he wrote of a “homo uprising.” In remarks on the Bill Cosby sex scandal, he wrote that “many women are sluts.”
Previously, he called for the defeat and dismantling of Israel in a video. In an email, he referred to the Holocaust as a “hoax.”
Cohen (D-202nd dist.), the only Jewish representative in the Philadelphia House delegation, said Lincoln has repeatedly given Siddique and other faculty members warning that outrageous behavior will not be tolerated.
“It is time for him either to be dismissed or to be severely disciplined,” he wrote in his letter.
Cohen said Siddique’s remarks do not have First Amendment protection nor are they protected by the doctrine of academic freedom. “Instead, they are hateful, and reek of disrespect and intolerance,” he wrote.
Cohen promised to help Lincoln find pro bono or low-cost legal counsel if Siddique sues the university upon dismissal or severe disciplinary action. ••
