Police: U.Md. student arrested for hate crime after targeting Jewish student

A University of Maryland student has been arrested for sending anti-Semitic text messages to another student, campus police announced Saturday.

According to the University of Maryland Police Department, Muqarrab Ahmed Abdullah, 24, of La Plata, was arrested for sending hateful text messages and repeatedly calling a Jewish student.

On Dec. 12, 2019, the student reported that two days earlier, she had received anti-Semitic text messages from a number she didn’t recognize while she was studying in McKeldin Library on campus.

Investigators identified Abdullah as a suspect and acquired a warrant for his arrest Feb. 24.

On Feb. 29, a campus alert was sent out notifying students the incident had been upgraded to a hate crime and that Abdullah had been charged.

“Behavior like this is unacceptable, and when we have the ability to charge perpetrators, we will do so,” the university’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion said in a statement. “Hate has no place on our campus, and we thank UMPD for holding our community accountable.”

Zeke Hartner

Zeke Hartner is a digital writer/editor who has been with WTOP since 2017. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University’s Political Science program and an avid news junkie.

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