 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Firestorm leaves professor uncowed
By GRAHAM BRINK
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Professor Sami Al-Arian hasn't had much trouble keeping busy after the University of South Florida put him on paid leave. In fact, Al-Arian says, he's busier now than when he was teaching his computer engineering classes. His constantly buzzing cell phone supports the claim. Churches and religious groups call to have him speak about the Muslim faith. Academics want him to talk about politics in the Middle East. Reporters want him to clarify his beliefs or act as a talking head for the Palestinian movement. A producer from 60 Minutes called for the umpteenth time Thursday afternoon. "They've been trying to get me all day," Al-Arian said, deciding not to answer. Nine days ago, Al-Arian's bosses at USF put him on paid leave, citing safety concerns for Al-Arian and the USF community after his appearance on the Fox News talk show The O'Reilly Factor. Fallout from the show was swift and unrestrained. More than 1,000 e-mails and phone calls poured in to the university. They demanded investigations. Some asked how the university could possibly employ Al-Arian. Why hasn't Al-Arian been deported, others asked. At least two threatened Al-Arian's life. "Wake up and smell the jet fuel, folks," one e-mailer wrote. "This is war. Get rid of him now!" The allegations of terrorist ties and controversial speeches raised on Bill O'Reilly's show aren't new. Several have been investigated by the FBI and an independent investigator retained by the university. No charges were filed. "Every time some sort of terrorism takes place, the university and myself become a target of innuendo and unsubstantiated allegations," Al-Arian said. "I don't have enough time to correct all the inaccuracies." He shakes his head to think that some people are calling for his assassination after seeing nothing more than a five-minute segment of a TV talk show. "It's an attempt to intimidate us, to silence us, to marginalize us," he said. "I will continue to speak my beliefs." Al-Arian, 43, was born in Kuwait and educated in Egypt. He came to North Carolina in 1975 and studied engineering. He earned a Ph.D. and went to work for USF. He is now a tenured professor with a $66,175 annual salary. His wife and five children -- and his dad, who lives in Egypt -- are all American citizens. Al-Arian's citizenship application remains in limbo. Al-Arian is an intellectual and a determined advocate for the Palestinian cause. He can speak in the reasoned tones of academia, displaying a wide-ranging and thorough grasp of the issues facing the Middle East and where the Muslim faith fits in. He can also deliver fiery speeches denouncing Israel as a racist state. He has hobnobbed with the who's who of this country's Islamic and Middle Eastern studies professors. He also has known several people who later were charged in terrorist activities. In the early 1990s, he incorporated the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, or WISE, in Tampa, a companion group to the Islamic Committee for Palestine he helped found. WISE was set up as a research center to bring diverse voices to the Middle East debate, he said. In 1994, WISE came under pressure after allegations that it was a front for terrorism and its members had sent money to militant groups such as Hamas. WISE's first director was Khalil Shikaki, a political moderate who publicly denounced violence and fanaticism. His brother, however, was Fathi Shikaki, head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group. Fathi Shikaki was not a member of WISE, but the connection raised eyebrows. Perhaps the biggest blow came in 1995, when director Ramadan Abdullah Shallah left WISE, only to reappear months later as Fathi Shikaki's replacement as the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The revelations triggered FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service investigations of Al-Arian and WISE. The university also investigated. Al-Arian was on paid leave for two years. Al-Arian said Shallah's intentions came as a "complete surprise." Other professors and experts on the Middle East were also caught off guard. Al-Arian was never charged with a crime, and USF's investigator found no indications that USF was a terrorist hotbed or that WISE was a terrorist front. Recently, a judge said there was no evidence that showed WISE involved in terrorist activity. "To the contrary, there is evidence in the record to support the conclusion that WISE was a reputable and scholarly research center," wrote immigration Judge R. Kevin McHugh. The judge's comment has done little to quell Al-Arian's opponents. "He has sponsored terrorists. He has given money to terrorist groups," said Norman Gross, president of Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting. Gross has written to politicians and university officials calling for Al-Arian to be fired. Gross, like others, questions Al-Arian's ties to Tarik Hamdi, a journalist who helped arrange an interview in 1998 for ABC News with Osama bin Laden. Gross also points to Al-Arian's brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, whom an INS agent once called a mid-level operative for terrorist-linked groups. Al-Najjar was jailed for more than three years on secret evidence as a threat to America. And then there was the comment Al-Arian made more than a decade ago. "Victory to Islam. Death to Israel," Al-Arian said in a speech given in Arabic. Al-Arian says he never called for killing anyone. What he wanted was an end to the Israeli occupation, he said, an end to an oppressive system that discriminated against Palestinians. "It reminded me of the early American revolutionary patriots such as Patrick Henry, Joseph Warren, and poet John Trumbull among many others," he wrote in a recent e-mail. "They called for the burial of the British Empire, and wished for the empire's everlasting grave. I'm sure that these early American patriots did not mean to bury the citizens of the British Empire but to end the brutal British occupation of America." In hindsight, Al-Arian said he shouldn't have gone on The O'Reilly Factor. He will not, however, stop talking about the Palestinian cause, the Muslim faith or what he thinks of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks. Al-Arian knows that some of his detractors have said he hasn't been strong enough in denouncing the attacks. He calls the allegations baseless. He points out that he gave blood after the attacks and encouraged others from his mosque to do the same. He helped take out a full-page newspaper ad that denounced the violence. He spoke at many interfaith functions saying how much the attacks pained him and his family. He called bin Laden a "twisted" person with a skewed understanding of the religion. He said the violence was intolerable and believes bin Laden should be arrested, tried and sentenced. "If that means death, then death," he said. -- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times |
