NE Valley Times

Arizona Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-3) announced his official request for Arizona State University (ASU) to look into a professor for his actions regarding race on social media. This comes after a series of posts by the professor, which raised eyebrows concerning his views and possible manipulation of facts.

The controversy began when Rep. Kolodin made an alarming statement on Platform X. "Today, I issued a request that ASU Law investigate allegations that a professor lied about fake racial attacks for political purposes," Kolodin said in a post on Platform X. "If this is the kind of thing that is going on, no wonder our profession is so screwed up!" He posted the letter he sent to ASU law with the statement, which requested an investigation into Associate Professor of Law Khaled Beydoun.

In trying to understand the sequence of events, one has to consider previous actions by Beydoun. Beydoun had previously posted on Platform X, sharing a photo he said showed a user on Instagram sending hateful comments towards a Middle Eastern individual. The photo was exposed as fraud by other users, who pointed out that the message from Instagram was in blue, meaning it came from the complainant and not a separate user, according to Arizona Free News. The post has since been deleted.

Further scrutiny into Beydoun's past activities revealed more questionable conduct. Former Arizona assistant attorney general Jen Wright also pointed out that Beydoun had deleted previous posts under similar circumstances, including a post that shared photos from the war in Syria and claimed they were the fault of Israel’s government accusing them of committing war crimes, according to the Arizona Free Press article. Beydoun has over 1.4 million followers on Instagram and almost 300,000 followers on Platform X.

In light of these incidents, Rep. Kolodin made a strong appeal in his correspondence with the law school. "I hope you would agree that it is paramount of all law professors at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law to possess integrity and adhere to the university’s code of conduct," Kolodin’s letter to the department said. "Please confirm that you have undertaken an immediate investigation of Professor Beydoun’s reckless actions or that you intend to do so promptly."