Mayzer Muhammad, president of St. Thomas Undergraduate Student Government, has disavowed tweets he made three years ago and has denied that he is anti-Semitic.

Muhammad issued his disavowal in a Wednesday statement posted on Facebook and sent to undergraduate students.

“The tweets that resurfaced were from 3+ years ago and do not reflect what I meant at the time,” Muhammad wrote in his statement. “My words were poorly chosen and shared during a period of time where I was very emotional about Israel’s politics and the loss of life in Gaza.

“I regret my choice of words and apologize for any impact this may have had on people reading my tweets.”

The tweets resurface on Canary Mission, a database created “to document people and groups that are promoting hatred of the USA, Israel and the Jewish people, particularly on college campuses in North America.” The series of tweets from July 2014 and earlier were posted on a page listing Muhammad’s campus involvement.

According to the Canary Mission website, the first tweet said, “If you support Israel in anyway, shape, or form, please unfollow me right now cause those people are the scum of the earth.”

Subsequent tweets re-posted on Canary Mission included anti-Israeli sentiments and addressed Jews in derogatory terms.

“All my tweets were politically driven, not religiously driven,” Muhammad told TommieMedia.

He said that confusion in context, specifically in a tweet where he used the Arabic word for Jew, “yahood,” has led to much of the hate directed towards him. Muhammad said in the culture he grew up in, “yahood” was frequently meant to refer only to the Israeli government, not to all Jews. He said in that his use of “yahood” in the tweet was only intended to refer to the Israeli government, but he “100 percent” understands the misinterpretation.

“There’s a difference between intent and impact. My intent was not to go against these people, but the reality was it did impact these people regardless of what my intent was.” Muhammad said. “That’s why in my letter I wrote that my very, very poor choice of words were essentially the thing that skewed the whole meaning of what I meant.”

Muhammad deactivated his Twitter account after receiving the latest wave of angry and hateful tweets directed at him that have come off and on since last May, when he was elected as USG president and Canary Mission first targeted him.

In Wednesday’s statement, which went out on Facebook first and then through campus email, Muhammad denied claims that he was an anti-Semite and said the attacks on his image were a case of Islamophobia because he is a Muslim student leader.

“I am coming under attack for being a Muslim leader of the student government at a private Catholic institution,” he wrote.

St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan also released a statement on Thursday afternoon strongly denouncing the tweets.

“This is not who we are. Hate speech – whether shared out of ignorance, emotion or to advance an agenda – is unacceptable,” the statement read. “It is deeply disappointing that the president of our student government or any other member of the St. Thomas community would be accused of anti-Semitic discourse.”

Muhammad called for unity between Jews and Muslims and reaffirmed his stance against anti-Semitism.

“I want to reassure everyone that I am committed to serving and assisting each and every single student that I represent,” he wrote. “I also want to assure you all that I stand firmly against anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, divisiveness, and oppression that don’t create an inclusive campus for everyone.”

Creating an inclusive campus is something that Muhammad has worked to help create with other organizations on campus since he was elected as president, especially regarding interfaith dialogue. Now, he said his future is uncertain as administration members all the way up to St. Thomas President Sullivan have been receiving concerns and complaints about the tweets. In Sullivan’s statement, she said that the student government needs “to deliberate about their future leadership.”

Some of the complaints received and a petition created on Change.org call for Muhammad to resign, something he said he does not intend to do.

Instead, Muhammad said he first wants to address the concerns of community members that have been impacted and hurt, and then work to clear the claim that he is an anti-Semite.

“I would be more than happy to sit down and talk with Jewish students on campus who have been affected,” Muhammad said. “I know that at this time they may really be hurting from the comments that were perceived to be anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish. … Giving me a chance to really talk to them and have them understand, I love and respect your religion. I want to make amends whatever way possible.”