[alloysteel]

If you have a list of all the defenders who have spoken in favor of the good professor, you will have a list of most of his co-conspirators. Pleasure doing business with this crowd, they are the most accommodating villains we have come up against in this century or the last.

[Lexington Green]

Professor Roy Weatherford, President of the Faculty Union, rushed to defend this murdering terrorist, alArian. Professors like these should be fired.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

If that professor is found guilty, I would imprison every single individual who defended him. If Chavez can take over a country for evil motives, then we can stop evil people here by good motives...to protect our nation and our people. It is time.

[William McKinley]

Here is a five page article from Salon in defense of him.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/847567/posts

[William McKinley]

Never mind- I see you linked to the same thing I posted before. :-)

[cynicom]

I think old Jack Stephens looks under his bunk every night, afeared there might be a nasty ole Conservative American under there. Ole Jack has never been told that Americans have kept this country together for a long time, so that anti-Americans like ole Jack would have a good life.

[TLBSHOW]

BOOKMARKED

[TLBSHOW]

PING

[pabianice]

Palestinian supporters seek his release

From the National Desk

Published 1/14/2002 5:32 PM

TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 14, 2002 (UPI) -- A University of South Florida professor said Monday he intends to fight school administration attempts to fire him for his alleged ties to Palestinian terrorists.

Sami al Arian asked University President Judith Genshaft to reconsider her intent to dismiss him. She said she would study his response but did not back down on her stand.

Al-Arian, a Palestinian-born computer science professor, has taught at South Florida for 16 years.

"This is a unique case of how one person's activities outside the scope of his employment have resulted in harm to the legitimate interests of the university," she said.

"Our primary concern is the safety of the learning environment for students, faculty and staff," she said. "A safe campus is essential for academic freedom, learning and teaching to flourish."

Florida's college faculty union said it supports Al Arian and will lead the fight for his position if he asks for the support.

"What people need to understand about the culture of academic life is that the intellectual freedom in this environment is more important than whether you like any individuals who exercise that freedom," said Tom Auxter, president of the state faculty union (www.uwire.com).

Al Arian in the past has made anti-Israeli comments and has had documented associations with people linked to terrorism. The union said he has never been charged with a crime and the reasons for firing him were "trumped up" so he could be dismissed.

[Rummyfan]

If Mr Al Arian is convicted I hope they lock him up and throw away the key, followed quickly by the expulsion of Little Abdullah from Duke and his deportation!

In the name of PC these are the types of people in our universities!

[Lizard_King]

1. Al Arian had been spouting his anti-American "Orientalist" garbage for a long time before he was hired and given tenure by USF.

2. Many would argue that it was precisely out of a PC, multi-culti agenda embracing his viewpoint that he was hired at USF.

3. All of a sudden, USF leadership decided to feign patriotism after 9/11 and wash its hands of this scumbag.

4. They then focused on an article he published in a third party newspaper (not whatever crap he was teaching in class) saying the standard leftist "America has no one to blame but herself for 9/11" b.s. USF had no evidence that he was an actual terrorist of any sort (beyond what a decent person would have used as a reason not to hire him in the first place); they were looking to cover their asses, pure and simple.

5. Although Al Arian had not violated any of his contract, they sought to fire him irrespective of the guarantee of free inquiry and thought that the tenure system is supposed to provide professors.

6. That made it a question of principle automatically with those who are concerned about academic liberty. There is no doubt that many, if not most of those who defended Al Arian were doing so because of their sympathies to his opinions. But there is also no doubt that many were simply adhering to principle. That same adherence to the principle of tenure is often the only thing that keeps conservative professors employed at all in most universities. Violating that principle might get Al Arian fired, but it would certainly get a whole lot more conservatives fired.

7. All along, every single Al Arian defender who was doing so out of principle would make the following explicit allowance: UNTIL AN ACTUAL CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY IS REASONABLY SUSPECTED, there are no grounds whatsoever for firing Al Arian simply because the administration has suddenly decided that his ideas are unpalatable after 9/11. They should have thought of that before public opinion pressured them; they should have thought of that when they first encountered this sniveling worm of a man and his hateful opinions.

8. Now that said criminal conspiracy has been established, by all means throw the book at him. Now his firing is absolutely justified if even half of what he is being charged with is true (which I think it is).

9. Firing Al Arian would not have made America one bit safer. Imprisoning Al Arian (as they are seeking to do now) is what it is all about; I refused to allow USF to cleanse itself with a symbolic academic lynching when they should be eating crow for the rest of their miserable lives.

Thank God for Ashcroft and his men and women, using real evidence instead of demagoguery to enforce the laws of our nation.

[Beck_isright]

Salon? The penny stock news service? Wow, that is an old quote..

[Chancellor Palpatine]

ping

[Eva]

Here's some of the background (I found references dating to 1998 that refer to FBI suspicions of this guy) on Sami:

Other representatives of the founding leadership of Islamic Jihad also found a safe haven in the United States during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. They include Sami Al-'Arian,85 currently a professor of engineering at the University of South Florida,86 who is presently under investigation for his ties to Islamic Jihad.87 The investigation is focused on determining whether funds that were raised by Al-'Arian in the United States were used to carry out Islamic Jihad terrorist attacks in Israel, especially the April 9, 1995, IJMP suicide bombing in which an American college student, Alisa Flatow, was murdered.88

In addition to being one of the founders of the movements, Al-'Arian is reported to be the organizer and a member of Islamic Jihad's Majlis Al-Shura, or Consultative Council, the organization's governing body.89 Al-'Arian also incorporated the Islamic Concern Project, the umbrella organization for the Islamic Committee for Palestine in 1988, as well as the World Islam and Studies Enterprise, which was incorporated in 1991.90 On November 20, 1995, Al-'Arian's home and office at the University of South Florida were searched by Federal agents who were investigating WISE and the ICP as front organizations for Islamic Jihad.91 After September 11, Al-Arian was suspended from his teaching position at USF.92

At one of the Islamic Committee for Palestine rallies from the early 1990s that was recorded on videotape, Al-'Arian declared, "Death to Israel," and referred to the "sons of Israel," i.e., Jews, as "monkeys and pigs."93 According to an FBI affidavit, in another videotape Al-'Arian was introduced at another conference by Fawaz Al-Damra, the imam of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, as the head of the International Committee for Palestine, which he described as an "active arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement of Palestine." According to the transcript, Al-Damra told a crowd of supporters as he introduced Al-'Arian, "We like to call it the Islamic Committee for Palestine here for security reasons."94

At still another conference Al-'Arian called for God to have mercy on the souls of Islamic Jihad operatives, whom he referred to as "the martyrs." At another event, Al-'Arian stood by as Al-Damra engaged in a fund-raising effort on behalf of Islamic Jihad. Al-Damra appealed to the audience invoking the name of an Islamic Jihad terrorist who had murdered four Israelis: "Donate to the Islamic Jihad. Nidal Zalum from the Islamic Jihad held a dagger and stabbed four of the Jews in the courtyard of Al-Haram Al-Qudsi."95 According to the transcript, Damra later added, "One of them would leave his house with a knife to stab the Jews-twelve Jews-after the events of the Gulf War. Brothers, the intifada calls you. Five hundred dollars! Who would add to five hundred dollars?"96

On February 1, 1995, Al-'Arian wrote a letter to an individual as a representative of the ICP requesting funds on behalf of the families of two Islamic Jihad suicide bombers. The two had carried out a double suicide bombing at Beit Lid in central Israel on January 22, 1995.

In the letter, Al-'Arian lauded the attack, saying, "The latest operation carried out by the two mujahideen [holy warriors], who were martyred for the sake of God, is the best evidence of what the believing few can do in the face of Arab and Islamic collapse before the Zionist enemy and of the still-burning firebrand of faith, steadfastness, and challenge." He went on to make an appeal for funds to assist "the jihad effort in Palestine," and specifically mentioned the Islamic Jihad Movement and Hamas as representing that effort. The letter described the families of the mujahideen as having left behind large families in need of financial assistance, and went on to describe Islamic Jihad as being "in a state of great misfortune and has nothing." Al-'Arian further explained that as a consequence of the situation, the IJMP "cannot fulfill its responsibilities toward the martyrs and prisoners." He concluded, "I call upon you to try to extend true support to the jihad effort in Palestine so that operations such as these can continue."97

Another of the founding leaders of the movement, Bashir Al-Nafi',98 worked for WISE99 and was a researcher at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Virginia. In 1996, Al-Nafi' was named in an INS investigator's affidavit as being linked to Islamic Jihad. The affidavit stated that an unidentified "confidential informant" had identified Al-Nafi' as a "significant leading member" of the Islamic Jihad and quoted a Jordanian newspaper as listing him among those considered to succeed the founding leader of the movement, Fat'hi Al-Shiqaqi.100 Al-Nafi' was denied political asylum and deported from the United States to the United Kingdom for visa violations in 1996, where he resides today.101

Another individual reportedly linked to Islamic Jihad activities in the United States is Mazen Al-Najjár. Al-Najjár was a founding member of the ICP and the executive director of WISE after the departure of Ramadan 'Abdallah Shallah. Agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in sworn testimony have described al-Najjár as "a mid-level operative of a terrorist front group."102 According to an Israeli intelligence official, Al-Najjár allegedly served as a conduit for communications between IJMP terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza and the organization's headquarters in Damascus, Syria. In 1994, a year before WISE and the ICP were closed, Islamic Jihad terrorists captured by Israel were carrying slips of paper with Al-Najjár's telephone number written on them. They were instructed to call Al-Najjár's telephone number to report on Islamic Jihad attacks.103 Al-Najjár and other leaders of Islamic Jihad remain the focus of an ongoing federal investigation into the activities of Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations in the United States.

Following the suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, additional scrutiny has been applied to terror activities that reportedly took place in the United States during the past decade. On March 21, 2002, the FBI raided sixteen offices and homes104 in Northern Virginia as part of Operation Green Quest, a federal counterterrorism investigation geared toward cutting off funds to terrorist organizations. The search warrant names: "PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), Hamas, Al-Qa'ida, WISE, ICP, Sami Al-'Arian, Basheer Nafi, Mazen Al-Najar [sic], Ramallah Shallah [sic] [i.e., Ramadan 'Abdallah Shallah], Khalil Skikaki [sic] [i.e, Al-Shiqaqi], Sheikh Odeh [Al-'Awda], Sheikh Rahman [i.e., 'Umar Abd Al-Rahman], Usama Bin Ladin, and any other individual or entity designated as a terrorist by the President of the United States, the United States Department of Treasury, or the Secretary of State."105 Included among the organizations is the International Institute for Islamic Thought (IIIT) in Herndon, Virginia, one of a number of charitable organizations and businesses that were established in Virginia by the Al-Rajhi banking family of Saudi Arabia.106 Several of the organizations, including the IIIT, are also linked to a financier named M. Yaqub Mirza.107

Through its activities in Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the Islamic Jihad demonstrated its versatility to adapt and compartmentalize itself by operating the second tier of its leadership outside of its declared theater of operations in the West Bank and Gaza. By operating in Western countries, the organization was able to protect its leadership and establish a communications system that took advantage of the freedoms that Western nations guarantee to their citizens. From the United States and the United Kingdom, the leadership of the organization was able to direct the activities of the IJMP from afar by communicating via telephone, fax machine, and computers, and allegedly was able to raise funds for the terrorist activities of the organization as well.

Conclusion

The historical significance of the Islamic Jihad was its establishment of the first Palestinian Islamist militant movement in Gaza. The movement was the first to bring pro-Khomeini Islamist militancy to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but the repercussions of its establishment and existence over the past twenty-two years have caused a ripple effect that goes far beyond the actual numbers and political power of Islamic Jihad itself.

The first effect of its presence caused the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood to create its own Islamist militant organization, Hamas, in 1989. The metamorphosis of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood into Hamas proved to be a watershed event that foreshadowed the further Islamization of Palestinian society. The subsequent radicalization of the Muslim Brotherhood's network of mosques and social welfare institutions throughout Gaza and the West Bank provided Hamas with an unprecedented opportunity to indoctrinate its followers from kindergarten age through adulthood. As a result, in recent opinion polls Hamas enjoys a level of political support nearly equal to that of Yasir Arafat's Fatah organization.108

The Islamist indoctrination activities of Hamas, and, more recently, of the Palestinian Authority, have caused a far-reaching Islamization of Palestinian society, where Islamist terminology has now become part of mainstream Palestinian discourse. Responding to the Islamist challenge posed by Hamas, in 2001 Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority revisited its prepeace process history and created its own militant organization patterned after its two Islamist predecessors, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The Al-Aqsa Brigades, however, have added a new dimension to the competition between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority by introducing the use of female suicide bombers.

Islamic Jihad has also made a continuing impact on financial assistance for the Palestinian cause. Among Palestinians, Islamic Jihad is responsible for introducing the phenomenon of Iranian financial and military support for the Palestinian cause. Islamic Jihad, then Hamas, and now the Palestinian Authority are all recipients of Iran's financial support for their terrorist activities. While the phenomenon of Iranian military support for the Palestinian Authority via arms shipments would have been anathema several years ago, today the Palestinian Authority has been co-opted to the Iranian political camp. In summation, in spite of the fact that the Islamic Jihad's Khomeinist ideology has remained a peripheral factor in Palestinian politics, its introduction of Iranian influence has and will continue to have a lasting effect on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and on Palestinian society.

June 28, 2002

[Allan]

I don't have a quote
but the CAUT
(Canadian Association of University Teachers)
protested the Suspension of al-Arian
and there was a page one story
in their newspaper
supporting his cause.

(By the way,
my impression is that al-Arian was not fired
but suspended with full pay.
Does anyone know?)

[Jael]

bump

[Inyokern]

Bump

[Nick Danger]

Contributions to Political Committees

AL-ARIAN, NAHLA
TAMPA, FL 33617
HOMEMAKER

BONIOR, DAVID E     VIA BONIOR FOR CONGRESS
	10/26/1999	1000.00	20035261500

MCKINNEY, CYNTHIA A     VIA CYNTHIA MCKINNEY FOR CONGRESS
	04/17/2000	1000.00	20035730281

AL-ARIAN, NAHLA A
TAMPA, FL 33687
MEDICAL DOCTOR

HYDE, HENRY JOHN     VIA HENRY J HYDE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
	02/16/2000	1000.00	20035344007

AL-ARIAN, SAMI
TAMPA, FL 33617
CENTRAL FLORIDA UNIVERSITY

ARAB AMERICAN LEADERSHIP COUNCIL PAC
	09/11/1998	1000.00	98033750825

AL-ARIAN, SAMI
TAMPA, FL 33617
PHYSICIAN

MCKINNEY, CYNTHIA A     VIA CYNTHIA MCKINNEY FOR CONGRESS
	04/17/2000	1000.00	20035730281

AL-ARIAN, SAMI
TAMPA, FL 33617
UNIV OF SOUTH FLORIDA

BONIOR, DAVID E     VIA BONIOR FOR CONGRESS
	09/05/1999	200.00	20035261500
	10/26/1999	200.00	20035261500
	10/26/1999	800.00	20035261500

AL-ARIAN, SAMI
TAMPA, FL 33687

DAVIS, JAMES OSCAR III     VIA JIM DAVIS FOR CONGRESS
	10/28/1998	200.00	98034062684

AL-ARIAN, SAMI
TAMPA, FL 33687
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

CAMPBELL, TOM     VIA CAMPBELL FOR SENATE
	05/02/2000	300.00	20020230924
	05/02/2000	1000.00	20020230924

AL-ARIAN, SAMI
TAMPA, FL 33687
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA/PROFE

BONIOR, DAVID E     VIA BONIOR FOR CONGRESS
	01/24/2001	1000.00	21990372029

Total Contributions:    8700.00