Academic Repression Update: ‘We Shall Rise’: the Persecution of Dr. Sami Al-Arian
Dr. Sami Al-Arian
Since the attacks of September 11th, the climate for Arab Americans and Muslims has changed dramatically. Directly following the attacks, hundreds of immigrants were held for months at a time with no charges brought against them. According to Human Rights Watch, hate crimes directly following the attacks increased by 1700% and many Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent are still being held without writ of habeas corpus in the interest of national security. According to a 2004 article in the L.A. Times, FBI agents have complained about physical and mental abuse of detainees as well as humiliation of prisoners. Some detainees, said the article, were draped in Israeli flags and others had lit cigarettes placed in their ears. Other atrocities, such as those at Abu-Ghraib and the killing of 24 civilians at Haditha are not a far stretch from being considered U.S. sponsored terrorism.
Our government has begun playing with semantics as the definition of torture has been retooled to fit their needs. The definitions of terrorism and terrorist have likewise been changed to suit the administration. According to a White House document, terrorism is aided by “subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation.” So now even your friendly neighborhood conspiracy theorist could be accused of threatening the freedom of the nation.
Al-Arian’s daughter, Leena,
and wife, Nahla
Even before 9/11, many detainees were being held, often on secret evidence, classified material used as evidence that cannot be cross-examined and which is not available to either the public nor plaintiffs. This policy is, of course, counter to the Constitution that our government has been charged to protect, and in troubled times such as these, activists are necessary to speak out and raise public awareness. Activism can make strange bedfellows though.
In 2000, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, professor of Engineering and a political and social activist at the University of South Florida rallied the Muslim population behind, of all people, George W. Bush. Dr. Al-Arian had actually met with the Gore camp in regards to the continued problems of secret evidence, but was not offered support on the issue. Bush however did express interest and after meeting with Al-Arian actually brought up the issues of secret evidence and racial profiling in the presidential debates. Based on this key issue, Al-Arian used his political power to encourage the Florida Muslim population to vote for Bush. After Bush’s election, Al-Arian even met with Karl Rove as a delegate of the American Muslim Council (AMC) in regards to President Bush’s faith-based agenda and other social and political issues. The group was also scheduled to speak with Vice President Dick Cheney, who, not surprisingly, cancelled after Al-Arian’s character was called into question by the Jerusalem Post, which that very morning had included a front-page article titled “Cheney to host pro-terrorist Muslim group.” Al-Arian’s oldest son, sometimes referred to by Bush as “Big Dude,” was also politically active as a congressional intern. When he was mistakenly ejected from a White House meeting, several other Muslims walked out in solidarity.
Dr. Sami Al-Arian was born Jan. 14, 1958, in Kuwait, the son of Palestinian refugees. Sami’s father, Amin Al-Arian, worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza before moving to Kuwait. In 1966, the family was forced to move to Egypt when Al-Arian’s father refused to become an informant. Here, Al-Arian dreamed of studying medicine and amassed a vast library. It was also in Egypt that Al-Arian met his wife Nahla. In 1975, at the age of 17, Al-Arian pursued his education in the U.S. In 1978, the Palestinian-American got his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, graduating with honors. Al-Arian obtained his Ph.D. in 1985, from North Carolina State University, and in 1986 he became a professor at the University of South Florida.
Al-Arian was heavily involved in community activism and served on the board of the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality (HOPE), a religious organization involved in community service. HOPE included members of several churches and one mosque. Dr. Al-Arian was also key in the creation of several Arab and Muslim groups, including the Arab Muslim Youth League, Tampa’s Islamic Community Center, and the Florida Islamic Academy, a private Islamic school that is still in operation under the name, American Youth Academy. He was considered one of the most active lecturers in America and at one point in time was a member of a coalition that visited Washington on a nearly weekly basis in regards to the issues of secret evidence. Al-Arian and others met with members of Congress to argue the unconstitutionality of using classified evidence, which so clearly endangers a plaintiff’s right to due process. Legislation was eventually passed through the Judiciary committee, chaired by Henry Hyde at the time. Al-Arian also held weekly seminars for Muslim youth. Speakers at these seminars would include, for instance, judges, politicians or reporters. Not just politically and socially active, Al-Arian also served as imam of his mosque, and in the Muslim community he was known for encouraging political activity. He also had his mosque’s constitution changed to allow women to serve on the board and now, out of 25 members, at least five must be women.
In 1981 he was a founding member of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and also helped co-found World and Islamic Studies Enterprise (WISE) and the Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP). WISE and ICP held conferences, published a journal, entitled Political Reason, and also released several books. Both of these groups despite their legitimate political and social activities were labeled terror fronts by government investigators. ICP featured as a guest speaker, blind cleric Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman who is purported to be Bin Laden’s spiritual leader and conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. WISE, which sponsored dialogue and understanding between East and West was considered a reputable source of information about Middle Eastern affairs, but was disbanded after being raided in 1995. According to Al-Arian’s wife Nahla, “that’s exactly what is wrong about this case. This was for the benefit of the society here and overseas and this center should have been supported by our government and our society because they didn’t do anything that was wrong. It was focusing on intellectual activities and leading scholarly work. Opening up a dialogue, that was the main objective of our center.”
In 1993, the College of Engineering at USF named Al-Arian Teacher of the Year. This was two years before the FBI raid on his home, which followed a series in the Tampa Tribune on possible terror ties in the Tampa community. This same year, a colleague of Dr. Al-Arian, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, left USF for the Middle East. In 1995, the FBI listed Shallah as a wanted terrorist. FBI investigators sought him on alleged connections to PIJ. Investigators believed that Al-Arian was the financial manager and fund-raiser for PIJ and was using ICP, WISE and related Islamic charities as fronts for funding Islamic Jihad. This led to a two-year suspension with pay, but Sami’s troubles with USF had only just begun.
The attack of September 11th was a turning point for Al-Arian. According to a quote from The St. Petersburg Times, “Whoever did this is not a Muslim, is not a religious person.” He was worried that at any moment authorities would barge in the door. Another member of the Al-Arian household affected strongly by the attacks was his wife Nahla. “I remember after September 11th, we took the kids to a stadium where we took part in singing the national anthem and to participate in the mourning. A lot of kids from our school went with their teachers, my husband, me and we were all so sad at what happened. I was crying that day also because this is going to affect us forever. The whole Muslim community was very affected by it.”
After the 9/11 attacks, Dr. Al-Arian was invited to be a guest on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel program, “The O’Reilly Factor.” O’Reilly questioned his connection to Shallah as well as Tariq Hamdi, a journalist who coordinated an ABC interview with Osama bin Laden. O’Reilly also questioned him about a speech he had given in 1988 in Cleveland that, at face value, could be construed as a call to violence: “Jihad is our path. Victory to Islam. Death to Israel. Revolution. Revolution until victory. Rolling to Jerusalem.” The quotations were taken from a video of the 1988 rally. Dr. Al-Arian claims the passage was taken out of context and that he uses the term “jihad” in the same manner as Bush uses the word “crusade.” According to Dr. Al-Arian, “When you say ‘Death to Israel,’ you mean death to occupation, death to apartheid, death to oppression.” O’Reilly asked about the upcoming deportation of Al-Arian’s brother-in-law who had been released after being held for three and a half years on secret evidence. Mazen al-Najjar, brother of Al-Arian’s wife Nahla, was arrested for his involvement with WISE and ICP. After insisting that al-Najjar was unconnected to Shallah and the others mentioned previously, O’Reilly quipped that “…with all due respect, if I was the CIA, I’d follow you wherever you went. I’d follow you 24 hours…” The Wall Street Journal released a story five days later entitled “Palestinian Professor Tests Limits of Liberty in U.S. During a Decade of Islamic Activism.” In the article Al-Arian is quoted saying, “No other country would allow me to do what we did. In Israel I would be in jail. In Syria I would be dead. But this is America.”
“The O’Reilly Factor” appearance also led to a storm of complaints and death threats following the September 26th airing of the interview. After this USF put Dr. Al-Arian on paid suspension while attorney and former president of the American Bar Association, William Reese Smith, investigated. Dr. Al-Arian was a tenured professor and his suspension provoked a considerable amount of controversy. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the United Faculty of Florida (UFF), the state’s faculty union, both spoke out against the suspension of a tenured professor for his beliefs. At first USF administration claimed that his suspension was due to threats of violence and was intended for the safety of Dr. Al-Arian and others at the university. However, Al-Arian was nonetheless turned down when he offered to continue to teach via e-mail, Internet, and video-conferencing. On Dec. 19, 2001, the board of trustees held a meeting and in a 12-1 vote agreed to fire Al-Arian. The next day Governor Jeb Bush explained in a statement that “the taxpayers have no obligation to continue paying a teacher whose own actions have made it impossible for him to teach.” The controversy didn’t die there, however. Betty Castor, former USF president, was attacked during her Florida Senate race for not firing Dr. Al-Arian soon enough.
The UFF took part in Al-Arian’s confrontation with the board of trustees in 2001, when Judy Genshaft, then president of the University of South Florida, announced that he would be terminated. According to the UFF web site they were protecting Al-Arian’s freedom to believe and speak on unpopular subjects. “An attack on academic freedom is in fact at attack on the public interest,” according to the site. UFF also argued that USF had violated Dr. Al-Arian’s contract and had violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech, even if that speech was not popular. USF was the first university to attempt to fire a professor based on actions or speech regarding September 11th. President Genshaft was candid about the reasons for the attempted dismissal of a tenured professor, “When we examine the case of Dr. Al-Arian, it is clear that academic freedom is not an issue…the issue before us is how much disruption the university must endure because of the manner in which a professor exercises his right to express political and social views that are outside the scope of his employment.” Pressure came from as high as Governor Bush who, according to Richard Leiby’s article in The Washington Post, believed the university should fire Al-Arian. The high profile nature of the case and the involvement of the AAUP and UFF made firing Al-Arian seem like a less than prudent measure.
After an eight-year investigation from 1995 to 2003, Al-Arian and seven other men were arrested on over 50 counts of terrorism. Al-Arian was being tried as a leader of PIJ and as a fund-raiser for the group’s terrorist activities. On Feb. 20, 2003, Al-Arian began a hunger strike to protest what he claimed was a case of political persecution. A week later, he was finally fired by USF, in part due to pressure after the release of the 121-page federal indictment. The indictment never names Al-Arian as actually taking part in violent activities; rather it claims that he was a financial planner and fund-raiser for PIJ.
In July, Amnesty International became involved claiming the conditions of Dr. Al-Arian’s imprisonment were inhumane. Dr. Al-Arian had been chained and shackled, denied religious services and kept in 23-hour lockdown in solitary confinement. The trial itself didn’t begin until 2005 and evidence included thousands of pages of documents, excerpts from hours of wiretaps ranging back from 1993 and over 80 witnesses, several from Israel. Charges against Al-Arian and the others included conspiracy to murder or maim and providing support to terrorist organizations. From March of 2003 until early 2005, Al-Arian was held in Coleman Federal Penitentiary in the Special Housing Unit, which is usually used as additional punishment for prisoners who misbehave.
While at Coleman, Dr. Al-Arian was allowed only one 15 minute phone call per month and allowed to see his family rarely and only from behind glass. According to Amnesty International and the Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace web site, jumpsuits were changed every two weeks, and undergarments only once a week. He was confined in a small cell with no clock for 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. His access to doctors to treat him for his asthma and diabetes was limited, as well as access to his attorneys. He slept with no cot or pillow in extremely low temperatures and was strip-searched three times a day. This harsh form of punishment took place even before his first day in court.
After six months in court, jurors finally acquitted Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including conspiracy to murder or maim, obstruction of justice, and providing support to a terrorist organization, the jury deadlocked, two jurors voting guilty on the remaining counts. Al-Arian then accepted a plea bargain agreement and pled guilty to one count of conspiracy. He admitted that he had provided services to people associated with PIJ, including helping with his brother-in-law’s legal defense and helping a colleague obtain a visa. According to the plea bargain agreement, Al-Arian was supposed to be freed and deported from the country. The U.S. Attorney recommended, “that the defendant receive a sentence at the low end of the applicable guideline.” Judge James Moody, however, sentenced Al-Arian to serve out the remainder of the maximum sentence under the plea bargain of 57 months, including time served since his arrest, stating that, “I find it interesting that here in public you praise this country, the same country that in private you refer to as the great Satan. But that’s just evidence of how you operate in the face of your friends and neighbors. You are a master manipulator. The evidence is clear in this case. You were a leader of the PIJ.” Supporters of the defendant stated, “There might as well have not been a jury.”
Dr. Al-Arian was recently placed in contempt and his sentence could be lengthened considerably every time he refuses to testify in court against the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). If he continues to refuse to provide witness, he could eventually be charged with criminal contempt and held nearly indefinitely. Though the juries have not returned a single guilty verdict, Dr. Al-Arian has spent years in deplorable conditions. Judge Gordon Kromberg asked the grand jury to subpoena Al-Arian. His attorney, Jack Fernandez, requested that Kromberg wait until after Ramadan to move Al-Arian, to which Kromberg replied: “If they can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before the grand jury, all they can’t do is eat before sunset. I believe Mr. Al-Arian’s request is part of the attempted Islamization of the American Justice system. I am not going to put off Dr. Al- Arian’s grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamization of America.”
Dr. Al-Arian could be held for up to 18 months for refusing to testify against think tanks and charities, some of which he has not been associated with since the 80′s and early 90′s. If the judge chooses, Al-Arian could then be held on criminal contempt charges and his sentence could be drawn out nearly indefinitely. In protest, Dr. Al-Arian began another hunger strike on Jan. 22, 2007, and spoke of the conditions in a phone interview with Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now!” “For two months, I had to carry my legal stuff on my back, because they would refuse to carry it, and I was handcuffed from the back, so I cannot carry it myself.” In the past nine months, according to Al-Arian in the interview, he has been held in nine different prisons. According to Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice’s (TBCJ) web site www.freesamialarian.com, Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a federal medical prison. Al-Arian collapsed on February 13th after refusing food and his diabetic medication for 23 days. Dr. Al-Arian’s oldest daughter commented on “Democracy Now!” “We’re very worried about his health. He’s a diabetic, as was stated before. And, you know, we’re just worried about how this is going to affect him, and at the same time we’re trying to support him and we’re fasting ourselves as much as we can. And there are now 75 people around the country that are also fasting in solidarity. So, it’s definitely a tough time for us.”
Line Halvorsen has directed a documentary that follows the Al-Arian family closely entitled USA vs. Al-Arian. The film was shown in Oslo at the Nobel Peace Center by the Norwegian Amnesty International, followed by a speech by Dr. Al-Arian read by his wife Nahla, imploring the Norwegian people to understand the Palestinian plight. “I deeply believe that the path to enduring peace in the holy land is in the establishment of a non-sectarian, democratic, and bi-national state that is inclusive, where Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims, Christians, and Jews live in a pluralistic society that guarantees freedom, equality and justice for all.” The end of the speech echoes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. “Deprived of my own freedom, and from my cell in a U.S. prison, I foresee the day when true fraternity and a bond of humanity will overcome the ugliness of exclusiveness, injustice, and occupation. When Palestinians and Israelis live side by side, celebrate their common traditions and heritage and rejoice with the peoples of the world in the spirit of universal peace and understanding.” While in Norway, Al-Arian’s wife Nahla also appeared on the popular Norwegian talk show “First and Last.”
Through degradation and persecution, Dr. Al-Arian continues to fight for his freedom with his hunger strike. As he has said himself, his freedom is more precious to him than his life. In a poem, dedicated to Maya Angelou and written near the end of his second year of detention, titled “We Shall Rise,” Al-Arian writes: “Like the dream of the slave/ You rise/ And with the scream of the brave/ I shall rise/ In honoring the memory of your ancestors/You rise/ With my stateless brothers and sisters/ I shall rise/ Like dust in the sunlight/ You rise/ And as ashes in a fiery night/ I shall rise.”
Leave a Reply
