Professor linked to alleged terrorists vows to fight dismissal

By The Associated Press

01.15.02

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TAMPA, Fla. — A University of South Florida professor set to be fired because of his links to accused terrorists said yesterday he will fight his dismissal and asked the university's president to reconsider.

Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian who once headed an academic think tank that the U.S. government later linked to Islamic extremists, intends to take his impending dismissal to binding arbitration. His case has drawn nationwide attention as a matter of academic freedom.

Al-Arian, a tenured computer science professor, yesterday formally answered the university's December notice it intends to fire him. USF President Judy Genshaft has said she considers Al-Arian a security risk whose anti-Israel views have cost the university financial support.

"I am not the culprit here," Al-Arian said at a news conference yesterday attended by supporters from national Muslim and civil rights organizations.

Al-Arian supporters called his firing "bigotry" and a violation of his academic and free-speech rights.

"(Genshaft) has allowed the calls of anonymous people and their anonymous threats left on answering machines to dictate a policy that says speech is only free if it's not controversial," said Mike Pheneger of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Ray Busch, an attorney for the Washington-based American Muslim Council, said he recognized the political pressure Genshaft was under to remove Al-Arian from the campus, but called the action modern day "McCarthyism."

"What we are seeing is vigilantism," he said. "We are seeing a media circus. We are seeing people singled out."

Genshaft issued a brief statement yesterday saying she is reviewing Al-Arian's letter and will make a final determination later. She did not say when.

"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," Genshaft said.

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

Al-Arian, 44, has been on paid leave since September when his appearance on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" prompted a series of death threats against him. University benefactors also objected, dozens of them withdrawing their financial gifts to USF until Al-Arian was fired.

Genshaft moved to fire Al-Arian in December, notifying him that he continued to be a security risk, did not make it clear his political views were not those of the university and returned to campus after being told to stay away.

Al-Arian's attorney, Robert McKee, said the USF Board of Trustees is also being asked to reconsider its support for the professor's dismissal.

McKee and Al-Arian criticized the board saying the professor was not given an opportunity to present his side of the story during a hastily called December meeting where the board recommended Al-Arian's firing.

Al-Arian will seek a hearing before an arbitrator where the university must prove it was right in firing him. That arbitrator's decision is binding.

Also lining up behind Al-Arian is the union that represents professors, United Faculty of Florida, which has pledged financial support of Al-Arian's legal battle.

Roy Weatherford, who heads the union's USF chapter, said Genshaft told him in September, when Al-Arian was put on paid leave, that she intended for Al-Arian to return to the classroom once the investigation of the death threats against him was complete.

Al-Arian, a USF professor for 16 years, has never been charged with a crime and has consistently denied any connection to terrorists.

Al-Arian is the founder of an academic think tank once headquartered at USF that has been connected to men later identified by the U.S. government as terrorists. The FBI also accused a charity Al-Arian once ran as being a fund-raiser for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Those connections prompted the university to put him on paid leave from 1996 to 1998 while the FBI investigated.

His brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, who also worked for the think tank, spent more than three years being detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as a threat to national security and is currently being held in solitary confinement while he awaits deportation.

Update

Palestinian prof: Pending dismissal result of post-Sept. 11 mania
Sami Al-Arian, who is accused of having terrorist ties, says University of South Florida wouldn't be considering firing him if he 'were of any other nationality or any other color.'  08.03.02

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