(JTA) — A Binghamton University graduate student from Saudi Arabia was charged with killing an anthropology professor emeritus.
Abdulsalam al-Zahrani was charged Saturday with stabbing to death Richard Antoun last Friday in his office at the upstate New York university.
Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen said in a statement that there is no indication of a religious or ethnic motivation, according to reports.
Antoun, 77, had conducted research in Jordan, Lebanon and Iran, according to reports.
“He dedicated his life to trying to understand the people of the Middle East," Antoun’s sister Linda Miller, of Holden, Mass., told The New York Times.
Antoun’s wife of 17 years, Rosalyn, 63, is an employee of the local Jewish federation and is Jewish. Antoun was not Jewish.
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