Some say this case illustrates academic freedom burning at the stake.
The University of South Florida is accusing Sami Al-Arian of links to terrorism and has asked a Florida court if firing him would violate his constitutional rights. Others believe the university is firing him for comments he made on national television shortly after Sept. 11.
Al-Arian’s problems began last September when he made an appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” a cable news show on the Fox News Channel. Bill O’Reilly, host of the show, accused Al-Arian of ties to terrorists and quoted a speech he gave in Arabic saying “death to Israel.”
Al-Arian, a tenured professor of computer science for 16 years at USF, has never been convicted of a crime.
“This is an issue of the ability of a professor to speak his mind without being threatened because of his political views,” Al-Arian told the Associated Press. “It’s still a case of academic freedom.”
Union faculty at USF voted to fully support Al-Arian should he file a grievance against the university.
The union objects to USF president Judy Genshaft, who said the reason behind her decision to fire Al-Arian has nothing to do with the controversial comments he made. Instead, Genshaft said Al-Arian is being fired due to the disruption he has created and an elevated climate of fear on campus.
Ed Cray, a professor of journalism with the Annenberrg School for Communication at USC, said the situation at USF is “reprehensible.”
“I think the university has made a terrible decision,” Cray said. “Whatever happened to academic freedom? The right to be wrong. It’s what I like to call the Pop-Off factor. P dash OFF, the right to pop off on any subject you wish. I may or may not agree with the man’s opinions — frankly, I don’t agree with the man’s opinions — but you don’t take away people’s livelihoods because you don’t agree with their opinions. It’s reprehensible. It’s scoundrely.”
In a statement, Genshaft said Al-Arian is using academic freedom to hide illegal activities.
“After all I have seen and heard, 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,” Genshaft said.
While the incident at USF appears to be isolated, academia worry speech suppression at the university level will rub off on students as they enter the workforce. The worry is then that this censorship will appear in the workplace and branch out to society.
“I hope to hell there are fewer [situations like this],” Cray said. “I think people at this moment are apprehensive of the freedoms that the Bill of Rights grants us, which is what I said earlier, the right to be wrong.”