UMASS AMHERST
Fight-back greets gov't harassment of professors
By Bryan G. Pfeifer
Amherst, Mass.
The USA Patriot Act and "Homeland Security" have found a
home at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst--at least
temporarily.
On Oct. 24 Associate Professor M.J. Alhabeeb of the
Department of Resource Economics, who is a naturalized U.S.
citizen from Iraq, was questioned by UMass police detective
Barry Flanders and an FBI agent from the Joint Terrorism Task
Force office in Springfield, Mass.
The interrogation came after the Boston FBI office
supposedly received a "tip" that Alhabeeb was "anti-American"
and opposed to U.S. policy toward Iraq. Flanders, who is paid
by the university, has been assigned as a "liaison" to the task
force and works two days a week in Springfield.
At Alhabeeb's office, the officers told him the tip came
from someone linked to Amherst Community Television where
Alhabeeb is on the board of directors. If in fact this is true,
Alhabeeb surmises that the informant may be someone disgruntled
with his votes against budget cuts at the station.
Alhabeeb told Workers World that since arriving in the
United States from Iraq in 1982 he has never publicly aired his
political views. He said conversations at ACTV were "all
internal, budgetary and administrative talk. I can't recall
once that I talked politics at ACTV."
Alhabeeb initially asked that his name not be publicized for
safety reasons--he is married and has two children--but three
local newspapers used his name in articles and the UMass
Amherst Daily Collegian published his picture on the front
page.
Besides sitting on ACTV's board of directors, Alhabeeb is a
former executive board member of the Massachusetts Society of
Professionals -- the UMass faculty union. He is also one of a
few original Arabic calligraphers in the West. In fact, four
days after he was interviewed, the art exhibition "Islamic Art:
Peace & Beauty, Islamic Calligraphy by M.J. Alhabeeb,"
began a month-long run in the Augusta Savage Gallery housed in
the New Africa house where the Afro American studies department
is located
People on campus first learned of the attack on Alhabeeb the
week of Nov. 10. Longtime U-Mass Sociology Professor Dan
Clawson circulated an email after Alhabeeb told him about the
"interview."
Calling for a meeting on Nov. 18 to address the issue,
Clawson said, "We need to organize to stop FBI interrogation of
UMass faculty (or students or staff), and UMass cooperation
with and assistance to that process.
"Police and FBI investigation of those with dissenting views
threatens the integrity of the university," added Clawson. "In
an all-too-typical pattern, such investigations are targeted
first at people of the 'wrong' race or ethnicity."
At the Nov. 18 meeting over 75 faculty, staff and students
packed a meeting room in Machmer Hall. They agreed to draft a
statement opposing "investigations" on campus and take other
actions to expose "investigations."
Alhabeeb has not been the only one under attack. At the
meeting Sri Lankan-born Yaju Dharmarajah, an organizer with
Service Employees Local 509 on campus, said his wife Pilar
Schiavo was visited at their home in Hadley, Mass., by Hadley
police and an FBI agent from UMass in September while
Dharmarajah was out of town. "They wanted to know if we were
terrorists," said Dharmarajah. He said they asked Schiavo about
his activities, his membership in various groups and his
political views.
By speaking out Dharmarajah showed great courage. Under the
Patriot Act he could be detained indefinitely as a foreign
national.
"It is very scary to be put in that situation, especially
when your husband is not a citizen yet," Schiavo told the Daily
Hampshire Gazette.
In the racist and terrorist climate fostered by the Bush
administration since Sept. 11, 2002, hundreds, if not
thousands, of faculty, staff and students have been
"interviewed" by the FBI and other U.S. agencies. This is
according to information posted by the American Association of
University Professors on its website.
The fight-back campaign being waged at UMass Amherst against
racist, terrorist state repression is one of many at
higher-education institutions nationwide. This movement is
growing.
Reprinted from the Dec. 5, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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