Sami Al-Arian
Sami Amin Al-Arian is a Kuwaiti-born political activist of Palestinian origin who was a computer engineering professor at University of South Florida. During the Clinton administration and Bush administration, he was invited to the White House. He actively campaigned for the Bush presidential campaign in the United States presidential election in 2000.
After a contentious interview with Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor following the September 11 attacks, Al-Arian's tenure at University of South Florida came under public scrutiny.
He was indicted in February 2003 on 17 counts under the Patriot Act. A jury acquitted him on 8 counts and deadlocked on the remaining 9 counts. He later struck a plea bargain and admitted to one of the remaining charges in exchange for being released and deported by April 2007. However, as his release date approached, a federal prosecutor in Virginia demanded he testify before a grand jury in a separate case, which he refused to do, claiming it would violate his plea deal. He was held under house arrest in Northern Virginia from 2008 until 2014 when federal prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss charges against him.
Al-Arian's activities and connections became a factor in multiple political campaigns, including the 2004 United States Senate election in Florida and the 2010 United States Senate election in California.
He was deported to Turkey on February 4, 2015.
Early life and education
Kuwait and Egypt
Al-Arian was born on January 14, 1958, in Kuwait. His parents, Amin and Laila Al-Arian, were Palestinian refugees who left after the creation of Israel in 1948. After the 1948 Palestine war, Amin had to leave behind the family soap factory in Jaffa and flee towards the Gaza Strip's refugee camps. Amin's family migrated to Kuwait in 1957 where Sami Al-Arian was born. Under Kuwaiti law, his parents had legal resident status but he was not eligible for citizenship. In 1966, his family left Kuwait and went back to Egypt. He received his primary and secondary education at Cairo, Egypt. He left Egypt in 1975, and returned in 1979 for a visit when he married Nahla Al-Najjar.United States
Sponsored by his father, Sami went to America for education. In 1975, Al-Arian came to the United States to study engineering at Southern Illinois University. In 1978, he graduated with a major in Electrical Sciences and Systems Engineering. At North Carolina State University, he earned his master's degree in 1980 and doctorate in 1985. He worked with Professor Dharma P. Agrawal on physical failures and fault models of CMOS circuits.Tenured at University of South Florida
He moved to Temple Terrace after he was hired as an assistant professor to teach computer engineering at University of South Florida on January 22, 1986. He was granted permanent resident status for United States in March 1989. He was promoted from an assistant professor to an associate professor with tenure. He received many accolades relating to teaching including the Jerome Krivanek Distinguished Teacher Award in 1993 and a salary raise based on merit grades via the Teaching Incentive Program in 1994.Activism
Community involvement and WISE
He was very involved in the local community. He served as an imam for a local mosque and as a charter officer for the local religious school. In 1992, he hosted a local cable-access show — Peace be upon you.Al-Arian criticized the peace process led by Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat and advocated support for the Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation during the 1980s and early 1990s. On October 20, 1988, Al-Arian established the Islamic Concern Project, which included a committee devoted to raising charity for Palestine. In 1990–91, his continued involvement in promoting dialogue between the West and Middle East led to the creation of World and Islam Studies Enterprise, which served as a think tank that promoted public policy initiatives. WISE and University of South Florida formally agreed to cooperate on March 11, 1992. WISE published journals, supported graduate student education, and held seminars between American and Middle Eastern scholars.
Emerson film and investigation
published a film in November 1994 that accused WISE as a terrorist front organization which Al-Arian vehemently denied. In May 1995, Michael Fechter of the Tampa Tribune expanded on Emerson's film. Sami Al-Arian's daughter, Laila Al-Arian, lambasted Emerson and the Tribune for publishing photographs of their home, school, and family car. In November 1995, federal agents investigating "violations of perjury and immigration laws" searched Sami Al-Arian's home for six hours to seize bank statements dating as far back as 1986, airline passes, telephone bills, AAA travel maps, family videotapes, audiotapes, and computer disks. A three-month independent inquiry was led by prominent Tampa lawyer and former USF President William Reece Smith that involved hundreds of documents and 59 interviews. The investigation reported in May 1996 that there was "no evidence" to support the allegation that Al-Arian or WISE supported terrorism. The report went on to conclude that University of South Florida officials acted appropriately in collaborating with WISE. The 99-page report was lauded by USF President Betty Castor for its "comprehensive, thoughtful, and detailed analysis". In June 1996, Florida universities Chancellor Charles Reed also said their investigation found no links between WISE and terror organizations.In May 1996, Villanova University canceled a seminar that involved many speakers including Al-Arian after the Anti-Defamation League complained about the possibility of riots. The Middle East Studies Association of North America, the United States's largest association of Middle East scholars, approved a resolution that rebuked ADL for "creating an atmosphere of intimidation that resulted in the cancellation of an academic event". USF placed Al-Arian on paid administrative leave in May 1996 pending the outcome of a federal investigation which had an indefinite time frame. Students complained in August 1997 after a graduation requirement course taught by Al-Arian was cancelled. After consultation with authorities who brought no charges after a three-year federal investigation, USF decided to reinstate him in August 1998.
Citizenship
He applied for U.S. citizenship in January 1994. Although he was informed that he passed all of the requirements to obtain citizenship in September 1994, he was neither granted nor denied citizenship. Federal law requires notification within 120 days after the citizenship examination. In October 1995, he filed suit for a judge to award him citizenship directly. His petition for citizenship was denied in March 1996 for allegedly unlawfully voting in a 1994 Hillsborough County local election.Mazen Al-Najjar
Sami Al-Arian's brother-in-law Mazen Al-Najjar was jailed for nearly five years, accused of having links to Palestinian terrorists. In May 1997, Al-Najjar was incarcerated in Miami, Florida without charge and was held in jail indefinitely on the basis of secret evidence. Although Judge McHugh found Al-Najjar to be a respected member of a community, McHugh denied bail on the basis of secret evidence in May 1997. In May 2000, U.S. district judge John A. Leonard ordered a rehearing because Al-Najjar's right to due process had been violated when the government did not cede evidence in order for Al-Najjar to defend himself. During the first day of the rehearing in August 2000, the government called Al-Arian to testify. Several legal analysts and Al-Arian were convinced that Al-Arian, not Al-Najjar, was the focus of the Al-Najjar's court case. On the advice of his attorney, Al-Arian cited the 5th Amendment to 99 of 102 questions. Because Al-Najjar was a Palestinian born in Gaza during Egyptian control of the region, Al-Najjar essentially had no citizenship anywhere and the allegations that he was connected to terrorists had ruined attempts to find a country to take him, his wife, and three young daughters. Al-Najjar was released in December 2000 after a judge ruled the government had no evidence to continue holding him. He overstayed his US student visa, and was deported in August 2002.Political involvement
Inspired by Al-Najjar's predicament, Al-Arian co-founded the Tampa Bay Coalition for Peace and Justice, which focused on the use of secret evidence and other civil rights issues in Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 and Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. In 2000, Al-Arian co-founded and led the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom. Newsweek named him as a "premier civil rights activist" for his efforts to repeal the use of secret evidence in trials.Al-Arian visited the White House four times from 1997 to 2001.
During the 2000 presidential election, Al-Arian contacted Al Gore's campaign and Bush's campaign to address the use of secret evidence to detain U.S. citizens without charge. Al-Arian met Bush during a campaign stop at the Florida Strawberry Festival to demonstrate against the Clinton administration's use of secret evidence. After presidential debates in which Bush decried the use of secret evidence as a form of racial profiling against Arab-Americans, Al-Arian began campaigning for Bush as the candidate most likely to end discrimination. During the White House briefing that announced Bush as the winner of the election, Al-Arian received a spot in the front row for his voter outreach efforts in Florida. On June 20, 2001, Al-Arian joined 160 Muslim-American activists in a White House briefing with Bush senior adviser Karl Rove. But in a separate White House event on June 28, his son Abdullah – a congressional intern – made national headlines when he was escorted out by Secret Service without explanation. Twenty four Muslim community leaders walked out also to protest Abdullah's ejection. The Secret Service later apologized for the incident citing "confusion by one of its guards". President Bush personally apologized in a letter to Nahla and thanked the family for their charitable contributions to the Muslim communities around the world.
The Tampa Bay Muslim Alliance and Al-Arian had helped the resettlement of 50 families fleeing from the Bosnian War. Al-Arian and other leaders of TBMA condemned the September 11 attacks in the immediate aftermath. Al-Arian encouraged the nation to pursue those responsible but simultaneously discouraged acts of war that might impact innocent people. He discouraged radio talk show hosts from spreading hate-filled rhetoric and called for national unity. Al-Arian led the local Muslim community in organizing a blood drive in solidarity with the victims of September 11.
Al-Arian had opposed the War in Iraq and has spoken at a rally against the war. He has also been critical of neoconservatism and the Zionist movement.