Palestinian professor speaks out against repression
By Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
On Sept. 7 an Atlanta audience of 150 or more listened
attentively to Dr. Sami Al-Arian describe the repression he and
his brother-in-law have endured because of their political
views in support of Palestine.
Al-Arian was the featured speaker at a Sept. 7 program
entitled "Voices for Palestine," which also included
International Action Center co-director Sara Flounders and
Rania Masri, Arab-American activist, researcher and writer.
For over 16 years, Al-Arian has been an award-winning
professor of computer engineering at the University of South
Florida in Tampa. During the same time, he has been a vocal
advocate for Palestinian rights, opposing the Israeli
occupation.
He and his brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, also a teacher
at USF, established an Islamic research center at the
university called The World and Islam Studies Enterprises, as
well as a charity named the Islamic Committee for
Palestine.
Since the late 1980s, their political activities have been
under scrutiny by federal authorities.
Anti-Arab frenzy swept the country after the bombing of the
Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. Right-wing journalists
with ties to Israeli intelligence pointed to Al-Arian as the
culprit despite the FBI's finding that the prime suspects were
white men.
The major Tampa newspaper repeatedly ran sensational stories
filled with unsubstantiated and false accusations charging
Al-Arian and Al-Najjar with being associated with
"terrorism."
Federal agents raided their offices in 1995 and froze the
assets of their organizations.
Mazen Al-Najjar was then imprisoned for three years in
solitary confinement without charges on "secret evidence."
During his brother-in-law's incarceration, Al-Arian
conducted a public campaign against the use of "secret
evidence." He won the support of constitutional experts and
civil-liberties advocates who successfully convinced Congress
members to legislate against its use.
Mazen Al-Najjar was finally released from prison after a
Florida judge reviewed the case. In a scathing 57-page
decision, he stated that not only had Al-Najjar's
constitutional rights been violated but that there was no
evidence to support any of the charges.
Meanwhile the university itself conducted an investigation
and found no evidence of terrorist activities.
As Al-Arian said on Sept. 7, "We thought we had won. We had
proven our innocence."
Then came Sept. 11. As an imam and respected Muslim leader
in the Tampa Bay area, Al-Arian mobilized blood drives and
donations, participated in interfaith memorials and counseled
the Arab and Muslim communities.
Two weeks after Sept. 11, Al-Arian was invited to appear on
the Fox news show hosted by Bill O'Reilly, supposedly to
discuss the ramifications on the community since several of the
hijackers had lived in Florida.
O'Reilly blindsided Al-Arian, repeatedly accusing him of
supporting terrorists. The show's producers were fed their
information by the Tampa journalists who had started the witch
hunt years before. They omitted the judge's findings, and the
university's.
What were Al-Arian's "crimes"? At a 1988 rally, he had said,
"Death to Israel." Years ago, he had been at an Islamic
conference also attended by Sheik Omar Abdu-Rahman, the
Egyptian cleric convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing. He knew members of Hamas and other Palestinian
organizations.
After the O'Reilly show aired, Al-Arian received death
threats. The Islamic school he founded in Tampa was
vandalized.
University President Judy Genshaft suspended him with pay.
She declared that his presence on campus endangered the safety
of the institution and its 37,000 students.
Days later, on Aug. 21, the University of Southern Florida
filed a lawsuit charging that Al-Arian, a tenured professor,
had violated his contract by creating "disruptions" at the
school with his public statements.
The American Association of University Professors has been
vocal in its support of Al-Arian as a matter of union rights
and academic freedom. Al-Arian's case has been compared to
Calif. Gov. Ronald Reagan's firing of Black activist Angela
Davis in the early 1970s.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has also weighed in on the matter.
It's no surprise that he agrees with the university president
and board of regents' actions to fire Al-Arian.
In the year since Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of Arabs,
Muslims and South Asians have been picked up by federal agents
and held incommunicado. They have been questioned endlessly and
moved from prison to prison without any charges filed against
them. Mazen Al-Najjar was one of them. After months of
detention, Al-Najjar was deported in mid-August 2002, for a
20-year-old visa violation.
Al-Arian warned the Sept. 7 audience of students, African
Americans, Arab, Muslim and Jewish community members, and
anti-war activists that the Bush administration does not only
want to suppress support for Palestine. He detailed the
provisions of the USA Patriot Act that infringe on Bill of
Rights freedoms--free speech, freedom of association and
assembly, protection from unreasonable search and
seizure--making opponents of government policy targets for
political repression.
Al-Arian concluded by expressing confidence that this
attempt at political repression will fail--not only because the
case against him has no merit, but because the cause of freedom
will not be suppressed.
For more information, go to www.academicfreedom.org.
Reprinted from the Sept. 19, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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