Professor to Lose Job Over Alleged Terrorism Links
The president of the University of South Florida said Wednesday that she plans to fire a Palestinian-born professor with alleged ties to Mideast terrorists.
President Judy Lynn Genshaft sent a termination letter to Sami A. Al Arian, a tenured computer science professor who has been on paid leave since September because the university feared for his safety.
Al Arian, 43, who has 10 days to respond to the letter, said he could not comment until he talked with an attorney. A community activist who also runs an Islamic school and community center, Al Arian has denied he supports terrorism.
The letter was sent after the university’s Board of Trustees recommended Al Arian be fired for disrupting campus life.
“This has nothing to do with academic freedom,” said Richard Beard III, the board president. “It has to do with what he’s done to the university.”
Al Arian has never been detained or charged with a crime. But he founded the World and Islam Studies Enterprises, a now-defunct think tank that was headquartered at the university until the FBI raided it in 1995 and froze its assets.
The think tank and a related Palestinian charity were accused by the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service of being a fund-raising front for terrorists.
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