Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, Binghamton University Graduate Student, Charged with 2nd Degree Murder in the Stabbing Death of Professor Richard Antoun

Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, a 46 year old Binghamton University graduate student, has been charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of anthropology professor emeritus Richard T. Antoun. The professor knew Al-Zahrani, a Saudi national, through his work in BU's anthropology graduate program, according to a statement released by Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen. He did not reveal a motive for the killing. It's amazing that this incident received so little mainstream media coverage.

According to the university's web site, Al-Zahrani is working on his doctoral thesis, "Sacred Voice, Profane Sight: The Senses, Cosmology and Epistemology in Early Arabic Culture." He was arraigned in Town of Vestal Court and has been transferred to the Broome County Jail without bail.

According to the Press Connects, Antoun, 77, was attacked inside the university's Science I building Friday afternoon and was taken to Wilson Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. According to police radio transmissions, Antoun was stabbed four times with a six-inch kitchen blade while he was inside a campus office. It is ironic that this heinous act came nearly eight months to the day 13 people were massacred by a single gunman at the American Civic Association in Binghamton.

 Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, 46

I can only echo the statements released by Binghamton University that the incident was "an act of senseless violence." Antoun's biography on the university's web site shows he received a doctorate from Harvard in 1963 and joined the Binghamton faculty in 1976. It describes him as an emeritus professor, a “sociocultural anthropologist who has conducted research among peasants in Jordan, urbanites in Lebanon, peasant-farmers in Iran, and migrants in Texas and Greece.  He is survived by  his wife Rosalyn and a son.

UPDATE#1:  It is being reported by The New York Times that Mr. Zahrani's roommates recounted how the suspect, who spoke of financial problems, often mentioned death and said he was being persecuted because he was Muslim. One of his roommates, Souleymane Sakho, a graduate student from Senegal, said he was acting oddly, like a terrorist. He said he informed his academic adviser, who is overseeing his dissertation about Mr. Zahrani, and that the adviser referred him to the school’s counseling center. Mr. Sakho said that the head of the counseling center told him to avoid interaction with Mr. Zahrani and said he should look to move out of the apartment.

Photo credits:  Professor Antoun & Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, Press Connects