PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Nearly 4,000 people have signed a petition in support of a Carnegie Mellon University professor whose tweet about Queen Elizabeth II's death drew backlash.

From her personal Twitter account, Uju Anya tweeted, "I heard the chief monarch of a thieving and raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating." Anya is a professor in CMU's Department of Modern Languages.

Twitter removed the tweet, saying the tweet "violated the Twitter Rules." Hours after the tweet, CMU posted a statement on Twitter. 

The petition calls the university's response unacceptable and touches on the Nigerian scholar's experience with the atrocities committed by the British empire.