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University of South Florida Fires Palestinian Professor
TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, Dec. 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Palestinian computer science professor at the University of South Florida (USF) has been fired by the university's president, who said his presence affects campus safety and alumni donations, reported a U.S. daily newspaper.
USF President Judy Genshaft sent Sami Al-Arian a termination letter just hours after the Board of Trustees recommended the dismissal of the associate computer science professor. The trustees said he had allegedly disrupted the university long enough, reported the
Miami Herald.
Al-Arian has been the subject of continuous death threats because of his support for anti-Israeli interests.
He has been on paid leave since September after the university decided it was too dangerous for him to be on campus, said the
Herald.
Genshaft said campus police told her it was likely it would never be safe to allow him back on campus, and his continued employment has prompted some alumni and university donors to withdraw their financial support.
Genshaft's letter to the Palestinian professor notifies him of her intent to fire him and gives him 10 days to respond.
Al-Arian, a 43-year-old community activist, who also runs an Islamic school and community center, has condemned the deadly September 11 attacks. He would not comment on his pending termination.
The recommendation from the university's Board of Trustees Wednesday morning prompted immediate concerns from faculty union members that academic freedom was being threatened and from a local Muslim leader who said the university was caving in to threats.
"This has nothing to do with academic freedom," said Richard Beard III, chairman of the board of trustees. "It has to do with what he's done to the university.''
Al-Arian had spent two years on paid leave, from 1996 to 1998, when the FBI initially investigated alleged links to terrorists but found no reason to arrest him.
"It's not any knee-jerk reaction,'' Genshaft said. "This man has been on the campus ... for over 10 years and 15% of the time he had been paid for doing nothing.''
Al-Arian's brother-in-law, Mazen Al-Najjar, was jailed for three years on secret evidence as a threat to national security, but was released for lack of evidence. Last month, he was jailed again under a deportation order.
Coincidentally, Al-Najjar filed a motion in a Miami court Wednesday challenging his detention.
Trustee, and Howard University President J. Patrick Swygert, participating in the meeting by telephone, voted against al-Arian's termination recommendation without elaborating.
Former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, another board member, initially expressed hesitancy in voting for the firing, but joined the majority in a voice vote.
"I understand the situation for the university,'' said Pilar Saad, a local Muslim community activist who works with al-Arian at the Islamic academy. "But it's not a fair decision.''
Roy Weatherford, a USF philosophy professor who heads the local chapter of United Faculty of Florida, said al-Arian should be protected under academic freedom.
"The real harm to the university was not done by Professor al-Arian, but by the rightwing yahoos who threatened the professor's life,'' Weatherford said.
The professor, who is paid more than $67,000 a year, has the right to have an independent arbitrator review his dismissal. He has 10 days to respond to the letter, reported a U.S. radio station, KYW, on their website.
"Dr. Al-Arian is considering all the options available to him in order to insure that his rights are protected," his attorney, Robert Cannella, said in a statement.
The professor was criticized after he was videotaped at conferences a decade ago rallying the crowd with shouts of "death to Israel." He later explained he was making a political statement regarding the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Israeli oppression of Palestinians, not advocating deaths of people.
University officials also said they have a six-inch stack of e-mails about Al-Arian, the majority criticizing the university for employing him and some threatening to withdraw financial support, said KYW.
Al-Arian once headed an academic think tank on Islamic issues affiliated with USF that was later connected to fundraising for Palestinian resistance movements.
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