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M aybe in the end it's a matter of this:
When it comes to selecting his friends, Sami Al-Arian has all the discretion of John Walker Lindh.
When it comes to watching his mouth, Al-Arian has all the circumspection of Don Rickles.
And when it comes to whining, the University of South Florida professor- in-limbo is without peer - if you don't count Sean Penn.
Al-Arian was in full pout-a-thon last week as he responded to reporting by the Tribune's Michael Fechter that Israeli intelligence officials had linked him to the board of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They consider him one of the terrorist group's fundraising operatives and deep thinkers.
Then again, when one of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's primary objectives is to murder innocent civilians, including women and children, how much deep thinking is really going on? What's to think about? Semtex? Or C4?
Through his mouthpiece, Al-Arian called the allegations ``pure nonsense,'' saying all he ever did was oversee a couple of reputable Islamic think tanks on the USF campus.
So there you are.
Either Sami Al-Arian is an innocent soul caught up in a nightmare of scurrilous accusations because of his purely academic interests, or he is a savvy, high-ranking operative aligned with a murderous international terrorist organization.
It would be lovely if life were simple: black and white.
Gray Hue
The feds bug John Gotti at his social club, and in no time the Mafia thug obliges by incriminating himself. Moments after bombing the Murrah Federal Building, moron Tim McVeigh is captured easily by a state trooper.
Goodness, in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the case against the suspects began to come together quickly when one of them attempted to get his deposit back on the rental truck used to transport the explosives.
But the story of Sami and the Jihads is one cast in the grayest of hues.
To be sure, no one has ever denied Al-Arian has every right to voice in vociferous terms his political views in support of a Palestinian homeland and his criticism of Israel's treatment of the Arab populace in the Middle East.
But while Al-Arian wallows in public self-pity, moaning that he's merely a humble man of scholarship innocently hounded by the media and shadowy intelligence officials bent on portraying him as a tool of international terror, the ol' professor all too conveniently forgets he invited the scrutiny upon himself.
After all, was it not Al-Arian - a man of peace, love and brotherhood - who brought Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, to the USF campus in the early 1990s as an adjunct history professor and later installed him as an official of one of his think tanks?
Sami? What were you thinking?
Love Sonnets
OK, fine. Let's assume Al-Arian had absolutely no idea his pal would emerge later as the head of a brutally violent group of thugs. Let's assume that whenever they got together, all Sami and Ramadan did was discuss the poetry of Billy Collins. Why would the FBI, the CIA and Mossad think something might be amiss?
Then there were the various Islam- sponsored conferences organized by Al-Arian, where at least one speaker described one of the USF think tanks as ``the active arm of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine,'' a claim dismissed by the professor with a tut-tut here and a tut-tut there.
Al-Arian has written fundraising solicitations so future ``martyrs'' can continue their work, and he has spoken publicly about ``Death to Israel'' and ``Damn America,'' language he subsequently has tried to parse as merely lyrical flights of linguistics.
Now Al-Arian rejects as ``pure nonsense'' the idea that these incredible coincidences of associations and behavior go just a tad beyond academic curiosity - and that Israeli intelligence might connect him to Palestinian Murder Inc.?
Perhaps Al-Arian never tossed a bomb, pulled a trigger, or even plotted an act of violence upon innocents. Fair enough.
But if we're judged by the company we keep, the words we speak, the roads we travel, Sami Al-Arian's prayer rug has some nasty red stains.
Columnist Daniel Ruth can be reached at (813) 259-7599.
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T his probably poses a vexing problem for Abdul-Maalik Freeman whenever he tries to find his wife's picture in her old school yearbook.
``Ah, there's Sultaana. No, wait a minute, there she is! Nope. Oh, that's her. Uh, maybe not. Oh yeah, there she is! I'd know those eyebrows anywhere.''
Do you suppose even Allah would have to agree that even though many strict interpreters of Islam regard women as walking pillars of salt, not to be gazed upon for fear of stirring up temptation, that this court flap is an intifada of foolishness?
It's certainly reasonable to assume the state of Florida had a slam-dunk case on its hands when it sought to force Sultaana Freeman, a 34-year-old Winter Park resident, to have her face fully on display for her - DRIVER'S LICENSE.
Really now, how onerous a government regulation is this?
After all, the state driver's license also serves as an official identification card presented when one votes, or writes a check or boards an airplane.
Privacy Violated?
But when Sultaana Freeman, apparently a by-the-book Muslim, presented herself for her license photo, she refused to remove her niqab, a veil that hides all of her face and head except for her eyes, arguing her religious beliefs require that only her husband Abdul-Maalik and family members are permitted to see her full countenance.
The state countered it was fine if she wanted to be the Greta Garbo of Winter Park for religious reasons. She just couldn't drive, and her license was revoked.
Now the Freemans have sued the state under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, arguing Sultaana Freeman's rights to due process and privacy have been violated.
And Orange County Circuit Judge Ted Coleman, instead of laughing this case out of court faster than a Tampa Bay Devil Rays relief pitcher heading to the showers, refused a state attorney general's request to dismiss one of the dumbest legal moves since O.J.'s jury returned its verdict.
``We just want justice to prevail,'' Abdul-Maalik Freeman said. ``We're not looking for attention. We're just following the commandments of God.'' Oh? Is that so?
No Pressure
Since Sultaana Freeman already accepts Islamic thinking, which takes a strict view of women as second- class theological citizens, why does she want a driver's license, inasmuch as in many Arab countries females aren't permitted behind the wheel?
To be sure, the Koran is a respected religious tome. But it's pretty hard to imagine how even the most dedicated Islamic scholar could fail to see the absurdity, not to mention the comic relief, in using a state-issued identification card on which the subject can't be identified.
You could easily make a strong argument that not one iota of Sultaana Freeman's rights to due process or privacy have been infringed upon. Not one.
Obtaining a driver's license is not a constitutionally protected right. It is a privilege extended by the state to those who voluntarily wish to operate a motor vehicle on taxpayer-supported roadways.
Nobody is forced, or legally required, to drive.
And, certainly, no one was pressuring Sultaana Freeman to pose for her license photo wearing a T-back and pasties. All she was asked to do was have her face photographed solely for identification purposes, not to become an alluring seductress to reduce state troopers, or grocery cashiers, or security guards to a stammering pile of testosterone.
A question for the Freemans. In the state of Florida, there are any number of devout Islamic women who daily commit the Saudi Arabian sin of driving and who apparently have no religious problem adhering to the infidel Florida legal requirement to have their driver's license photos taken in full facial exposure. What happens to them when they die? Do they spend an eternity with 50 really ugly guys?
Earlier this year in a similar case, Najat Tamin-Mihamad agreed to reveal enough of her face to be photographed to obtain a state identification card. At last report, she has not been torn apart by wild beasts or stoned in Daytona Beach.
This country, this state, have all the tolerance in the world for religious expression and freedom of belief.
But when it comes to driving a car in Florida (again, a perfectly voluntary privilege), the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles trumps the Koran, and that includes all of Mohammed's wives, too.
Columnist Daniel Ruth can be reached at (813) 259-7599.
