List of known Sami Al-Arian defenders with direct quotes

Re-instate Sami Al-Arian Petition ^ | Thursday 02/20/03

[alisasny]

Salon.com "The prime-time smearing of Sami Al-Arian By pandering to anti-Arab hysteria, NBC, Fox News, Media General and Clear Channel radio disgraced themselves -- and ruined an innocent professor's life." Salon Eric Boehlert January 19, 2002

Please add all known defenders with quotes they made in defense of Sami AL-Arian that you can find so we have a record of all of them.

[mabelkitty]

Yes. You and Camachee go back to your Mosques and tell your peaceful friends that Americans just ain't buyin' it anymore.

[joebuck]

T"he people who signed that petition were defending Al-Arian's academic freedom. He was suspended for attracting bad press to the university"

I believe this guy was suspended for chanting "Death to Jews...Death to Isreal" during a speech at a public rally. To me that's the same as attending a Klan rally dressed in sheets and cheering while a cross burns. In either instance you are dealing with a villian who has crossed the line from academic freedom to inciting hated and violence.

[MamaLucci]

Hey, don't go away mad.
Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

[GirlShortstop]

Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

And *hugs* all around for everyone!!!   LOL

[COBOL2Java]

How anyone ever got the idea that academic freedom that fosters radicalism was desirable or good is beyond me. Where does this come from? And where did the idea come that professors should be immune from public scrutiny or accountability for their extremist views?

Probably a legacy of the 20th century. One of the most effective devices used by Marxist radicals associated with the Stalinist Soviet Union was to use "academic freedom" as a cover. This is one of the ways the Soviet Union acquired a bevy of "useful idiots" in the 30's, 40's and 50's...

[Lizard_King]

I work. In my place of business, I can't curse. Boy o boy. Do I sue for free speech infringement and get fired, or do I use both my brain cells and decide perhaps I should not curse?

A couple of major distinctions: 1. the problem with Al Arian was never what he taught in his "place of business". The sort of garbage he spouted continues to exist in virtually every "Middle Eastern Studies" department in virtually any university. The problem was with the opinions he expressed in editorials and such outside of the classroom.

2. You are not a university professor (I am assuming) with tenure, which is a contract that explicitly forbids firing you simply for your opinions. The purpose of that is to allow free expression of academics, which, as with all liberties, allows both the good and the evil to speak out.

3. Firing people for differences of opinion as to appropriate expression is perfectly acceptable in an everyday business (or at least ought to be, although I wager many a frivolous lawsuit has been waged). It is not acceptable in university, where freedom of inquiry and speech is supposed to be the central principle.

I guarantee you that whatever minority of professors like Al Arian that would actually express opinions that are reprehensible enough for leftist administrations to fire them, far more conservative and simply unconventional (ie not flamingly left wing) professors would be out on their asses if the tenure system or something like it did not exist. I don't even want to think of what that would do to conservative students.

[TLBSHOW]

That President Bush needs to get rid of Grover Norquist who is giving him very very bad advice bringing him the worst of the worst and who I call a enemy within and not allow muslim, Islam terrorist groups in or near the white house. Let alone having pictures taken with them. So stories like this don't happened at Newsweek or WND.

........
No, he doesn't. He needs to prove he's really against terrorism – by ceasing his engagement with Arab-Muslim terrorist frontmen on American soil, like Al-Arian, and those who support them, as many Muslim Arab-American leaders do. And Siblani's community needs to do a lot to prove it is truly against terrorism and the attacks that happened three weeks ago, like demoting the Al-Arian family from its revered status.

In "Jihad in America," Emerson stood in front of the New York skyline and the WTC was still there. But, unfortunately, no one listened to his documentary's message about Arab terrorist groups in America.

How many more documentaries will he have to make?
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24738

,,,,,,,
and listen to Frank J. Gaffney, Jr

Grover Norquist's intemperate and defamatory attack on me says much less about my behavior and character than it does about his own relationship to this Wahhabi political influence operation and the role of the Islamic Institute he formerly chaired in facilitating its access to the Bush team. Let us hope that his own conduct has not caused irreparable damage to either this President or the conservative movement.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/frankjgaffneyjr/fg20030211.shtml

[Shermy]

I was just thinking about Grover when reading cyn's post to me!

[MamaLucci]

Americans just ain't buyin' it anymore.

Bingo!

[Lizard_King]

YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT PRIVATE DEALINGS!! HE WAS DOING THIS AT A TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED JOB!!!

Which actually brings up another interesting point, which is that at state schools the 1st Amendment is supposed to be inviolate for tenured professors and students alike. The administration of USF should have thought of how disgusting his opinions were before they hired him.

Thank God Ashcroft got him.

[Fred Mertz]

Yeah, cyn sure is some kind of mind reader.

[Lizard_King]

YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT PRIVATE DEALINGS!! HE WAS DOING THIS AT A TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED JOB!!!

Which actually brings up another interesting point, which is that at state schools the 1st Amendment is supposed to be inviolate for tenured professors and students alike. The administration of USF should have thought of how disgusting his opinions were before they hired him.

Thank God Ashcroft got him.

[mhking]

Stop tarring defenders of academic freedom as "villains"!

"Defenders of academic freedom?"

Oh, please, spare me the hand-wringing. Al-Arian got caught red-handed with his hands in the cookie jar on national television. Concurrent with that, the Feds were quietly building their case against him.

He was anything but the "innocent" professor you paint him to be.

[TLBSHOW]

It's a gift!

[Petronski]

We have the connection on FR made today between the arrested suspected TERRORIST Dr. Sami and the A.N.S.W.E.R. anti-Bush/anti-American/pro-Saddam Hussein group that demonstrated in D.C. The arrested terrorist was a MAIN SPEAKER there!!!

Details or link please: that is devastating stuff.

[mhking]

He was suspended for attracting bad press to the university.

No, he was suspended for getting his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar. The University did the only thing they could to prevent getting caught up in the wash of charges themselves - distance themselves from him, and quickly. I don't blame them.

[cyncooper]

I was just thinking about Grover when reading cyn's post to me!

Are you going to expand upon the point you were trying to make?

My reading is that picture was taken in 2000 and speaks more about the professor's son, who was an aide to Bonior. Yes the father ended up being invited to the WH once way back when.

Your attempt to paint President Bush as a supporter of this professor and his terrorist ties fails.

Today's actions refute it completely.

[alisasny]

As of this moment he has not been fired. He is suspended. I think they were having a meeting today now that he was finally indicted.

[mhking]

Should university administrators be empowered to fire anyone they disagree with?

They do already.

In any event, it's not a matter of agreeing with him or not. He got caught red-handed in evidence broadcast on local and national radio and television. The University doesn't have to maintain the same standard of proof that the courts do. Ergo, they can summarily toss him, period.

Or in plainer English, he blew it, got caught and got tossed. Q.E.D.

[cyncooper]

Yeah, cyn sure is some kind of mind reader.

So do you contend that President Bush supports terrorism based on the picture, Fred?

How do you explain today's arrests?