Slavoj Žižek, a Slovenian philosopher and bestselling author, drew the ire of participants at a left-wing conference in New York on Monday by suggesting that some refugees in Europe are "terrorists, rapists, criminals," according to RT.
Speaking at the Left Forum held at the the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Žižek discussed the current refugee crisis in Europe. "The obvious threat, that there are among refugees also terrorists, rapists, criminals, I mean this in a totally neutral way, of course there are but so what?" he said.
"Poverty does not make noble people," Žižek added.
Žižek's remarks were greeted with boos and heckling. His speech was also criticized on social media.
Not everyone loves Zizek pic.twitter.com/We12R7aMWt
— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) May 22, 2016
Žižek also compared fears about Muslim refugees to Nazism. "Even if most of the Nazi claims about the Jews were true ... their anti-Semitism would still be pathological," he said. "The true problem is not 'Is this true or not?' The true problem is 'Why do the Nazis, in order to sustain their world view, need the figure of the Jew?'. And I claim it’s exactly the same with the growing fears of refugees and immigrants all around Europe."
Before his speech, a sheet was handed to participants at the forum with advice for "opposing Žižek." The one-page leaflet asked those in attendance not to "believe this right-Hegelian nationalist when he claims to be a Marxist."
In 2014,Žižek was accused of plagiarizing a white nationalist magazine.