Julio Cesar Pino is a former tenured Associate Professor of History at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

Kent, Ohio Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County, Ohio, Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 28,215 at the 2020 United States ...

Biography

Julio Cesar Pino was born in

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

in 1960. He moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1968. Pino received his Ph.D. in

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

in 1991.

Political controversies

Pino has been involved in a series of controversies relating to American foreign policy, Islam, suicide bombing, jihad, and Israel. These include a 2012 newspaper column praising the actions of the terrorist who carried out the Kiryat Yovel supermarket bombing, and a letter critical of American policy that read, in part, "You attack, and continue to attack, us everywhere... The ill done to the Muslim nations must be requited." In 2011 he was investigated by the Secret Service after calling president Bush a "cocaine cowboy." In November 2007, Kent State demoted the chair of the history department for failing to follow procedure when it authorized a fully paid, mid-semester, 6-week trip to the United Arab Emirates where Pino wished to study Arabic. Pino was recalled to his teaching post before completing the 6 weeks. In 2011 a public controversy ensued after Pino shouted "

Death to Israel "Death to Israel" (also "Down with Israel") is a political slogan against Israel, which is most often used in Iran. Every year, Iranian pilgrims sing the slogan of "death to Israel" during the Hajj rituals and the ceremony of disavowal ...

" during a talk given at Kent State by

Ishmael Khaldi Ismail Khaldi (, ; born 1971)

, an Israeli diplomat. University President

Lester Lefton Lester A. Lefton (born July 27, 1946) is an American academic and higher education administrator. He was the President of Kent State University (2006–2014). He has 35 years of experience in higher education, having served for 25 years at a publi ...

condemned Pino's behavior as "reprehensible, and an embarrassment to our university," defending Pino's right to free speech but finding his behavior, "deplorable." Pino has been involved in a series of anti-Israel actions, writing an open letter in 2014 asserting of Israeli Jews that, "The Chosen drain the blood of innocents."

2016 FBI investigation

Julio Pino returned to the headlines in January 2016 when information surfaced that the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

was interviewing students and professors for possible ties between Pino and

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

. Pino denied the allegations against him in an email to Inside Higher Ed, saying, "My only commitment is to serve my students as guided by the light of knowledge. I have no ties to any political organization, nor do I recruit for any cause." A university spokesperson confirmed that he is still teaching at this time. Kent State said in a statement that it is cooperating with an ongoing investigation, and said the FBI had assured it there was no threat to the campus. Pino said neither the FBI nor Homeland Security has notified him of any sort of investigation.

2018 charges

Pino was charged in April 2018 by federal prosecutors with one count of making false statements to law enforcement, relative to a separate 2016 investigation into his connections with a man in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

who had threatened a family court judge. Pino plead guilty to the charges, and was sentenced to 5 months in prison followed by 5 months of house arrest and 3 years of probation. He stated that he had already planned to retire from the university at the conclusion of the Spring 2018 semester.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pino, Julio Cesar 1960 births Living people People from Van Nuys, Los Angeles People from Kent, Ohio Cuban emigrants to the United States University of California, Los Angeles alumni Bowdoin College faculty Kent State University faculty Converts to Islam Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government