Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace

May 21, 2004
Dr. Al-Arian Spends 29th anniversary of Arrival to United States in Prison

On May 21, 1975, Dr. Sami Al-Arian immigrated to the United States from Egypt, where his family lived as Palestinian refugees. The commemoration of the anniversary of this event brings to memory the reasons immigrants throughout history came to America for safe haven from the tumultuous political and social environs in their native lands. It is disconcerting to witness that the many rights and freedoms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and historical legacy, currently find themselves set aside as the government continues its unjust prosecution of a select minority based on its ethnic and religious background.

At age 17, Sami Amin Al-Arian arrived to the United States and instantly embraced its cultural norms and values. His first civics class at Southern Illinois University included discussion of what the professor termed “the two D’s” of American democracy: due process and dissent, a lesson he would come to appreciate in the course of life in America. He fell in love with the political atmosphere, where one could not be punished for expressing his opinions, and where civic involvement was encouraged.

In 1979, Sami married Nahla Al-Najjar, another Palestinian refugee, who would become the source of love and support for her family as they faced the trials in later years. A year later, the couple had their first of five children. Nahla and the five children are American citizens.

Upon receiving his PhD from North Carolina State University in computer engineering, Dr. Al-Arian accepted a teaching position at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he would become a tenured professor. His academic accomplishments at USF were manifold.

He authored a number of articles in his field as well as chapters in textbooks. He also won a number of research grants for USF’s engineering department. He was given a number of accolades, including two prestigious teaching awards. In all of their evaluations, colleagues and students expressed their utmost respect and admiration for Dr. Al- Arian’s work in the classroom.

Aside from his professional career, Dr. Al-Arian also devoted much time and energy to the building of civic institutions to enhance the life of the growing American Muslim community. He has played an integral role in founding and expanding some of the largest national organizations, including the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA). Locally, he founded the Islamic Community of Tampa Bay at the Al-Qassam mosque, one of the largest in the Bay area.

Perhaps what he is most proud of, however, is establishing the Islamic Academy of Florida (IAF), a fulltime school that offered students the highest quality education while instilling them with a sense of moral duty to their community and country. Graduates of IAF have gone on to some of the top universities in America and most have received scholarships and acceptance to honor programs.

Dr. Al-Arian was also heavily involved in human rights work, especially with regard to his native Palestine in an effort to relieve the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli occupation. He was outspoken in opposition to Israeli policies and eager to inform the American public of the plight of Palestinians in order to effect positive change.

Among his many activities, Dr. Al-Arian actively worked to bridge the divide between East and West. He promoted interfaith dialogue individually and institutionally, in an effort to establish peace, tolerance, and understanding between faiths. Through this work, Dr. Al-Arian developed many important friendships which continue today.

He also became recognized as a moderate leader of the American Muslim community, receiving invitations to speak at numerous churches, synagogues, and even U.S. Central Command at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

By the mid-1990s, Dr. Al-Arian’s activities would come to entail the latest civil rights struggle in American history, and the emerging national effort to end the unjust detention of Arabs and Muslims for years without trials by the use of secret evidence. Through tremendous efforts, including coalition-building, grassroots mobilization, and congressional lobbying, Dr. Al-Arian would come to be recognized as “one of the country’s leading advocates” of the new civil rights movement, according to Newsweek magazine.

Having lived in the U.S. for over two decades, he was steeped in the American civil rights tradition and was a strong believer in fighting for change through the designated avenues. Furthermore, Dr. Al-Arian worked hard to empower and enfranchise the American Muslim community on the local and national levels, encouraging Muslims to vote and run for office.

Dr Al-Arian’s arrest on February 20, 2003, at the behest of Attorney General John Ashcroft (who credited the Patriot Act for making it all possible), was the height of injustices witnessed by Dr. Al-Arian in his nearly thirty years as a law-abiding resident who loved his country; a country where he lived nearly twice as long as he had anywhere else; a country that upheld his values and beliefs more than any other; a country where he raised his family to live, learn, work, and contribute to its betterment.

Since his detention fourteen months ago, Dr. Sami Al-Arian has witnessed firsthand the gravest of injustices, never thought imaginable, as he endures solitary confinement, unnecessary and humiliating strip searches, being shackled during the occasional phone call, and denied visits from friends or the right to even touch his loved ones. His treatment at the hands of prison officials at Coleman Penitentiary or the frequent transgressions by the magistrate judge have left many Americans wondering if justice is indeed possible under such a cloud of fear, hatred, suspicion, and paranoia.

Dr. Al-Arian, however, maintains his unshakeable faith that the system will ultimately live up to its time tested legacy of fairness, in spite of the current conditions. His love for the country that welcomed him as a teenager, and nurtured him as a young man has not yet been tarnished by its current loss of identity. Through him, it has lived up to its promise for three decades, and through him, it will restore it once again.