Academic freedom dead in Fla

[Khoder bin Hakkin]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011219/ts/attacks_professor_1.html

Wednesday December 19 12:19 PM ET

        South Fla. Professor May Be Fired

        By VICKIE CHACHERE, Associated Press Writer

        TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - University of South Florida's trustees agreed
Wednesday a
        Palestinian professor linked to known terrorists should be fired
for disrupting
        university operations.

        Sami al-Arian, a tenured computer science professor at the
public university, has
        been the subject of continuous death threats because of his
support for anti-Israeli
        interests. Al-Arian's appearance on a national television talk
show after the Sept. 11
        attacks prompted a stream of threats against him and the
university.

        Al-Arian has been on paid leave as a security risk since, but in
recent weeks his
        continued employment has prompted alumni and university donors
to withdraw their
        support, university President Judy Genshaft said.

        Genshaft has the power to dismiss Al-Arian and has advocated the
move, but she
        sought guidance from the trustees before proceeding. The next
step would be a letter
        of notice of the pending dismissal that would give him 10 days
to respond.

        Al-Arian, who has been at the school since 1986, was not
immediately available for
        comment, according to staffers at an Islamic school and
community center that he
        runs.

        The recommendation prompted concern that academic freedom was
being
        threatened and Al-Arian was being fired because of his unpopular
views.

        Al-Arian once headed an academic think tank on Islamic issues,
World and Islam
        Studies Enterprises, later connected to fund raising for the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
        His brother-in-law, Mazen al-Najjar was jailed for three years
on secret evidence as
        a threat to national security.

        The think tank was raided by the FBI (news - web sites) in 1995
and its assets were
        frozen. Another former head of the think tank, Ramadan Abdulah
Shallah, left it in
        1995 and resurfaced as the head of a terrorist organization, the
Palestinian Islamic
        Jihad.

        Al-Arian has never been detained or charged with a crime, but
the institute and a
        related charity for Palestinians had been accused by the FBI and
Immigration and
        Naturalization Service agents of being a fund-raising front for
terrorists.

        He was videotaped at some of the institute conferences a decade
ago rallying the
        crowd with shouts of ``death to Israel.'' He now says he was
making a political
        statement regarding the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and
what he considers
        Israeli oppression, not advocating deaths of people.

        Al-Arian appeared on a Sept. 26 segment of Fox News Channel's
``The O'Reilly
        Factor'' and was questioned about his links to known terrorists
as the television
        screen displayed the university's logo. A barrage of threats by
telephone and e-mail
        the next day forced university police to shut down the computer
science department
        where Al-Arian worked, a day later he was banned from campus.