A Kuwaiti exchange student has apologized for anti-American comments that sparked social media outrage and a campus police investigation.
The comments were made by Pennsylvania State University student Hussein Altarakmah on Nov. 1 in private messages to Laura Loomer, a right-wing journalist and former Project Veritas operative.
Altarakmah told The Daily Caller that he made the comments to Loomer because “I hate Laura,” and he “wanted to freak her out.” He said he now regrets what he said.
The comments appear to be reacting to Loomer’s anti-Islam tweets after the October terror attack in Manhattan.
“Leave it to Muslims to ruin everything. People can’t even enjoy #Halloween without those savages f**king everything up for everyone,” she tweeted Oct. 31.
In screenshots shared by Loomer, Altarakmah wrote, “Get the f**k out of my country you disgusting subhuman piece of garbage, death to America.”
“Not all Yanks are bad of course, here are some good ones,” he wrote, including a photo of caskets of dead American troops.
“Can’t wait for Trump to permanently cripple your country, 9/11 didn’t kill enough of you f**kers,” Altarakmah stated. “Hope Iran nukes your country.”
Loomer went on to tweet pictures of Altarakmah’s comments with the caption, “These are the pro-Islamic terror comments made by Hussein Altarakmah, one of @penn_state‘s Islamic exchange students. Your tax payer $ are paying for this dangerous anti-American student to endanger your children here in the US. Why is PSU REFUSING to address this?”
The Penn State Police Department was quick to react to the comments, tweeting, “We are aware of concerns over some recent controversial comments by a student. We take the safety of our campus community very seriously. This has been investigated jointly by PSU PD and federal authorities, and there are no threats to our campus at this time.”
Penn State echoed the police department in a tweet on Dec. 7, writing, “FYI – Penn State Police statement in regards to controversial comments last month between a student and a public media figure. The University responded immediately at the time of the incident and is not going to comment further. Any faculty or student matters are confidential.”
Loomer told The Daily Caller, “They seem to be more concerned about offending a Muslim student’s feelings than saving lives and possibly preventing [a] terrorist attack.”
TheDC reached out to Altarakmah, who apologized for the remarks.
“I’m not a Muslim and my family belongs to a religious minority that is often the target of groups like ISIS,” Altarakmah claimed. “I’ve never supported terrorist groups such as ISIS and I have no reason to. The truth is, and this isn’t a good excuse, I hate Laura, she’s made many disgusting and offensive comments that I saw and I wanted to freak her out but it got outta hand very quickly, unfortunately.”
“I have nothing against Americans, I’ve befriended and dated several of them in the past 4 years I’ve been here.”
He said he wants to get back to focusing on his studies and put the situation behind him.
“I do regrets the comments I made. And I apologize if they offended you,” Altarakmah continued. “There’s no excuse for them.”
