Anti-Defamation League: Professor's statements 'offensive and outrageous'

The Anti-Defamation League says a Lincoln University professor's recent comments about Jews, women and gays are "deeply offensive and outrageous" and "reflect bigoted stereotypes."

Kaukab Siddique, a 72-year-old English professor at the historically black college in Chester County, has come under fire for statements he posted on Facebook in recent months.

One post described "dirty Jewish Zionist White Supremacist thugs." Another, after the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, said, "The servants of Allah, will oppose Obama's homo uprising." And one about Bill Cosby's accusers said "many women are sluts."

In a statement Thursday, ADL regional director Nancy Baron-Baer said the comments were "deeply offensive and outrageous, especially coming from a professor whose statements reflect bigoted stereotypes."

She added: "Although individuals have a right to free speech, it is incumbent upon us as a community to counter hate speech and bigotry whenever they surface."

The group, which fights anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, said it commended the university administration "for using its own voice to denounce and distance itself from Siddique's reported misogynistic statements and to make clear that those posts are inconsistent with the values of the university."

The group urged the school "to do the same for the anti-Semitic and anti-LGBT posts."

A statement from the university said Siddique's "latest activities, like his earlier writings, statements and activities, are an insult to women and other groups singled out. Like all faculty members, he is entitled to express his personal views in conversation or in public forums, as long as he does not present such opinions as the views of the university."

The university has said it isn't planning to take action against the professor, who has tenure and has taught there since 1985.

He defended his Facebook posts in a recent interview with the Daily Beast, telling the news outlet that he made the comments as a private citizen.

Siddique previously drew attention for controversial statements in 2010, when he called for the destruction of Israel and questioned whether the Holocaust happened.

His recent attention-garnering statements come less than a year after Lincoln's president, Robert R. Jennings, resigned after making remarks that some said blamed women for sexual assault.