Under political pressure, Farrakan demoted the aide on Thursday--two months after the speech. While calling Muhammad's remarks "mean spirited" and "against the spirit of Islam," Farrakan defended the "truths that he spoke."

Kean College, where the speech was given, has a history of racial tension, including an alleged incident in which students screamed "Kill Whites."

The chair of Kean's board of trustees, Larry Lockhart, praised Farrakan's action in demoting the aide. And the leader of the group that initially invited Muhammad said he was glad the aide had been rebuked.

Even Harvard could be pulled into the fray with Wellesley and Kean. An advertisement that ran in yesterday's Crimson hints at criticism of the chair of Harvard's Afro-American Studies department for his tolerance of Jews.

The advertisement was titled "Blacks, Jews and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: A Response."

The advertisement, for a journal of Black culture, reads "Renowned Black scholars and writers, look at the new `star' of Black studies, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., not just as a scholar but as a political and cultural commentator."

Tony Martin, the Wellesley professor, is listed as a contributor.

Dispatches from the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education were used in compiling this report.