Palestinian Professor Faces Dismissal from University

"I believe that Dr. Al-Arian has abused his position at the university and is using academic freedom as a shield to cover improper activities," she said.

Dick Beard, a member of the university's board of trustees, said the university would seek a "declaratory release" from the court freeing it to fire Al-Arian, reports news agencies.

"The reality is, this guy's been associated with terrorists for the last 15 years," he said. "The university has been called Jihad U. It's time we take action and effectively cut this cancer out."

On Thursday, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, brother of U.S. President George W. Bush, said he agrees with the decision to fire al-Arian, adding his support to the university lawsuit.

"The guy has ties to people who want to undermine the United States of America," said Jeb. "The original basis for his departure from campus was the security issues and I don't necessarily think those have gone away."

Jeb was referring to a turnaround in reasons by USF officials concerning placing al-Arian on administrative leave. USF officials initially said he was put on leave for his own safety, due to death threats received after the Fox appearance, but have recently said his return would be disruptive to the campus.

A computer engineering instructor, Arian has been on paid leave since September 2001, when authorities launched an investigation against him after an appearance on Fox News Channel. He was quizzed about links to known terrorists, and asked about tapes from the late 1980s and early 1990s in which he said, "Death to Israel," in Arabic.

Saying his words were a statement against Israeli occupation, Al-Arian said he never advocated violence against others, and has consistently denied any connection to terrorists. An investigation in the 1980s exonerated him of any such affiliation.

"This is an issue of the ability of a professor to speak their mind without being threatened because of his political views," he said from his attorney’s office after the lawsuit was filed.

Al-Arian, who has lived in the U.S. since 1975, has never been charged with any crime, but the federal investigation is seeking to determine whether the USF-based World and Islamic Studies Enterprise (WISE) think-tank he founded, fueled funds to the PIJ.

The university also alleges that in 1995 Al-Arian wrote a letter, which it refuses to release saying it is part of the investigation and confidential, seeking funds so that resistance efforts could continue. Al-Arian said that letter was never sent, reports news agencies.

For his part, predicting the effort would fail, al-Arian said he was not surprised by the school's attempt to fire him.

"It's still a case of academic freedom," he said. "That hasn't changed. It's just an indication of how politicized the university has become."

Al-Arian will continue to be on paid leave while the issue is being settled.

In a related case, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Department has issued another former USF teacher, Mazen al-Najjar, who taught Arabic and ran WISE, travel papers to an undisclosed Middle Eastern country. He is expected to be deported by the end of the week.

Najjar, who is Arian's brother-in-law, was arrested in November 2001, after an appeals court upheld an immigration judge's previous ruling to deport Najjar. Najjar, who has not been formally charged with any crime, spent most of the past five years in jail on secret evidence the government said linked him to terrorism.

In June, USF officials revealed that the head of the PIJ, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, had taught at the university in the 1990s, using an assumed name.