{"id":2675954,"date":"2025-10-22T09:58:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/2675954\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T09:58:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:58:25","slug":"antifa-expert-flees-us-for-europe-after-death-threats-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/2675954\/","title":{"rendered":"Antifa expert flees US for Europe after death threats&#8211; interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AFP048016_00.pre.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t      Mark Bray, a US university professor and expert on the loosely organized left-wing Antifa movement says he has fled the country after receiving death threats, amid President Donald Trump&#8217;s crackdown on opponents.<br \/>  Bray, 43, has written several books on the nebulous, self-described anti-fascist movement, which the Trump administration has classified as a terrorist group.<br \/>  The whole thing has been very stressful, even more stressful having small children &#8212; my whole life has been turned on its head, Bray, a history professor at New Jersey&#8217;s Rutgers University, told AFP in an interview.<br \/>  Fearing for their safety, Bray and his family flew to Spain on Thursday evening.<br \/>  Trump and his supporters are trying to expand this term &#8216;Antifa&#8217;&#8230; and they&#8217;re trying to apply this to basically anyone they don&#8217;t like, Bray said.<br \/>  It is particularly easy to try and label me&#8230; the guy who wrote the book about it.<br \/>  &#8211; &#8216;I&#8217;m a researcher&#8217; &#8211;<br \/>  Bray acknowledged his history with the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City in 2011, but stressed that he had never been part of an anti-fascist group.<br \/>  I&#8217;m not now, and I don&#8217;t intend to be. I support anti-fascism, broadly construed, I detest fascism, but in this capacity, I&#8217;m a researcher, he said.<br \/>      Bray said he was first targeted on X following the September 10 murder of pro-Trump conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.<br \/>  Far-right activist Jack Posobiec labeled him online a domestic terrorist professor, while Andy Ngo, a conservative content creator, accused him of being a militant anti-fascist activist. Both took part in a White House round table discussion on the Antifa threat this week.<br \/>  After those social media posts, Bray began receiving death threats, he said, including one saying that someone was going to kill me in front of my students, and a threatening email with his home address.<br \/>  At that point, I decided I wanted to leave the country for the safety of my family, he said.<br \/>  &#8211; &#8216;Without fear&#8217; &#8211;<br \/>  A petition calling for Bray&#8217;s dismissal was launched last week by the Rutgers University chapter of Turning Point USA, the right-wing organization founded by Kirk, and has gained more than 1,000 signatures.<br \/>  Bray also appears on a watch list of professors maintained by Turning Point USA.<br \/>  In a statement, a Rutgers University spokesperson said the institution is committed to providing a secure environment &#8212; to learn, teach, work, and research, where all members of our community can share their opinions without fear of intimidation or harassment.<br \/>  Turning Point USA and the student behind the petition have not responded to AFP&#8217;s request for comment.<br \/>  Since his return to power in January, Trump has launched an offensive against universities, with a series of shock decisions that have unsettled the scientific and academic community, pushing some professors to announce plans to move abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Bray, a US university professor and expert on the loosely organized left-wing Antifa movement says he has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2675955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[389806],"tags":[188914,98706,528524,32077,939,1670,98751,73191,11802,200,125020,78392,6798,17757,7293,812,4817,3687,4313,31168,1712,345531,6330,784979,2722,11034,784980,1668,3843,13633,11786,3577,16899,21135,302851,2482,482,14115,577,1669],"class_list":{"0":"post-2675954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-europe","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-jiji","10":"tag-topics","11":"tag-topix","12":"tag-939","13":"tag-1670","14":"tag-98751","15":"tag-73191","16":"tag-11802","17":"tag-200","18":"tag-125020","19":"tag-78392","20":"tag-6798","21":"tag-17757","22":"tag-7293","23":"tag-812","24":"tag-4817","25":"tag-3687","26":"tag-4313","27":"tag-31168","28":"tag-1712","29":"tag-345531","30":"tag-6330","31":"tag-784979","32":"tag-2722","33":"tag-11034","34":"tag-784980","35":"tag-1668","36":"tag-3843","37":"tag-13633","38":"tag-11786","39":"tag-3577","40":"tag-16899","41":"tag-21135","42":"tag-302851","43":"tag-2482","44":"tag-482","45":"tag-14115","46":"tag-577","47":"tag-1669"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2675954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2675954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2675955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2675954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2675954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wacoca.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2675954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}